MONTANA

US sued for pollution from retardant drops on wildfires

BILLINGS – An environmental group filed a lawsuit on Oct. 11 against U.S. Forest Service officials that alleges they polluted waterways during their campaigns against wildfires by inadvertently dropping large volumes of chemical flame retardant into streams.

Government data released earlier this year found aircraft operated or contracted by the Forest Service dropped more than 760,000 gallons of fire retardant directly onto streams and other waterways between 2012 and 2019.

The main ingredients in fire retardant are inorganic fertilizers and salts that can be harmful to some fish, frogs, crustaceans and other aquatic species.

The lawsuit alleges the continued use of retardant from aircraft violates the Clean Water Act.

It requests a judge to declare the pollution illegal, and was filed in U.S. District Court in Montana by Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics.

Forest Service officials in recent years have sought to avoid polluting streams during their fights against wildfires by imposing buffer zones around waterways where drops are restricted.

A government study accompanying the proposal determined that misapplied retardant landing n avoidance areas was likely to adversely affect dozens of imperiled species, including crawfish, spotted owls and fish such as shiners and suckers.

WYOMING

Increasing judges’ retirement age on the ballot

CHEYENNE – Among the many decisions state voters will make in the Nov. 8 general election, they will consider whether Wyoming Supreme Court justices and district court judges could retire five years later.

Amendment B was passed out of the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee during the 2021 interim session, and it was approved by both chambers during the 2022 budget session. It would increase the mandatory retirement age from 70 to 75.

Rep. Jared Olsen, R-Cheyenne, a co-chairman of the Joint Judiciary Committee, said it is becoming more common for district judges to have spent a significant amount of their careers as circuit judges or practicing lawyers. He said by the time they become a district judge or receive an appointment to the Supreme Court, he’s noticed they don’t have much time left on the bench.

Olsen pointed out that adjusting the age would help keep “some experience and continuity on the Supreme Court,” as well as provide ancillary benefits.

There is an estimated $5.5 million the Wyoming Judicial Branch could potentially save by not paying retirement to the 11 justices who will reach age 70 in the next 10 years.

Vote 411 from the League of Women Voters Education Fund noted that, over time, “the legal profession has increased its efforts to be more inclusive; thus, the current pool of lawyers from which judges are chosen may be more diverse and reflective of Wyoming’s current population if retirement age stays at 70.”

Arguments were made that health and acuity issues increase with age, and the risk of the incompetent judge may increase with the measure.

IDAHO

Radioactive waste shipments to New Mexico resumed

BOISE – Shipments of nuclear waste from the U.S. Department of Energy’s site in eastern Idaho to a nuclear waste repository in New Mexico have resumed following three episodes that caused New Mexico officials to suspend them.

An Energy Department official told Idaho officials on Oct. 12 that the New Mexico Environment Department last week gave the OK for shipments from the 890-square-mile site that includes the Idaho National Laboratory to resume to the department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad.

The New Mexico agency suspended the shipments Sept. 14 following problems with three shipments. Officials said a drum leaking liquid in April caused a partial evacuation at the plant, but no contamination was reported. That was followed in July by another drum with a corrosion-like substance that escaped from the bottom, and in August by a shipment that appeared to have droplets on top.

Connie Flohr, manager of the Idaho Cleanup Project for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, told Idaho officials during a Leadership in Nuclear Energy Commission meeting that additional steps are being taken to make sure the shipments don’t leak or rupture.

The lab, one of 17 Energy Department national labs, is the nation’s top advanced nuclear energy research lab and is one of the state’s largest employers, with about 5,000 workers.

But the lab has a legacy of nuclear waste that the Energy Department is cleaning up. That includes about 40,000 barrels of transuranic waste composed of work clothing, rags, machine parts and tools contaminated with plutonium and other radioactive elements. Some barrels contain Cold War weapons waste generated at the former Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado that produced nuclear weapons.

The waste was exhumed, compressed and put into barrels for shipment. Some of the barrels have been sitting for more than five years in a facility without heat or air conditioning, which Flohr said appears to have caused problems with the integrity of some of the barrels.

NEBRASKA

Bird flu case prompts Omaha zoo to close several exhibits

OMAHA – Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium has closed several exhibits and taken other precautions after one of its pelicans died from the bird flu.

The zoo said one of its pink-backed pelicans that died on Oct. 13 tested positive for the highly pathogenic avian influenza. A second pelican became ill the next day and was euthanized.

As a precaution, the zoo has closed its Lied Jungle, Desert Dome and Simmons Aviary exhibits to the public for at least 10 days.

The Omaha zoo was one of many across the country that closed down its aviaries and moved birds inside whenever possible to help protect them from avian influenza that is primarily spread by the droppings of wild birds.

More than 47 million chickens and turkeys have been slaughtered in 42 states to limit the spread of bird flu during this year’s outbreak. Officials order entire flocks to be killed when the virus is found on farms. More than 6 million chickens and turkeys were slaughtered last month to limit the spread of the disease.

The zoo said its pelicans live outside, so they do come into contact with wild birds. But the pelicans don’t come into contact with other zoo birds and no other birds in the zoo’s collection have shown symptoms of bird flu.

Unlike on farms, zoos are generally allowed to isolate and treat an infected bird as long as they take precautions to protect the other birds in their collections.

NEW MEXICO

Roswell’s recent UFO Festival brought over $2M in spending

ROSWELL – Roswell officials say the city’s UFO Festival had an economic impact of more than $2 million.

The Roswell Daily Record reports the Roswell City Council’s finance committee looked earlier this month at an economic report for the event.

It indicated more than 40,000 visitors came to the four-day festival, which ran June 30-July 3.

The cost for the city to mount it was more than $200,000. Officials applauded the results as a “10 to 1 return on your money.”

Staff who put together the report reviewed gross receipts taxes, occupancy or lodgers’ tax, ticket sales and other factors. They also analyzed data from trash collection to estimate the number of visitors.

This year’s festival marked the 75th anniversary of the alleged Roswell Incident. Something crashed at what was then the J.B. Foster ranch in 1947, with the U.S. Army announcing it had recovered a “flying disc” but later saying the debris was merely the remnants of a high-altitude weather balloon.

Speculation about extraterrestrials and government cover-ups has existed ever since, inspiring books, movies and TV shows.