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POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; BALLOT POSTAGE; Story & Commentary: European weapons manufacturers scramble to adapt to wartime demand; Harris Co. Dems call for federal election monitors after Paxton letter; Is crime up or down? In Houston, concerns are hard to allay; Earthquakes in Texas doubled in 2021. Scientists cite years of oil companies injecting sludgy water underground.; Backed-up pipes, stinky yards: Climate change is wrecking septic tanks; Forever Chemicals No More? PFAS Are Destroyed With New Technique; More.

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) on KPFT-HD2, Houston’s Community Station. You can also hear the show:

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Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig where we discuss local, state, national, and international stories. My co-host and show editor is Andrew Ferguson.

 

• An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy.
• You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.

1. Make sure you are registered to vote! VoteTexas.GOV – Texas Voter InformationTEXAS SoS VOTE-BY-MAIL BALLOT APPLICATION (ALL TEXAS COUNTIES) HarrisVotes.com­ – Countywide Voting Centers, (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965), Harris County Clerk
   1. Harris County “Vote-By-Mail’ Application for 2022
      1. Fort bend County Elections/Voter Registration Machine takes you to the proper link
      2. GalvestonVotes.org (Galveston County, TX)
      3. Liberty County Elections (Liberty County, TX)
      4. Montgomery County (TX) Elections
      5. Brazoria County (TX) Clerk Election Information
      6. Waller County (TX) Elections
      7. Chambers County (TX) Elections
      8. For personalized, nonpartisan voter guides and information, Consider visiting Vote.ORG.   Ballotpedia.com and Texas League of Women Voters are also good places to get election info.
      9. If you are denied your right to vote any place at any time at any polling place for any reason, ask for (or demand) a provisional ballot rather than lose your vote.
      10. HarrisVotes.com – Countywide Voting Centers, HARRIS COUNTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
          1. Fill out a declaration at the polls describing a reasonable impediment to obtaining it, and show a copy or original of one of the following supporting forms of ID:
          2. A government document that shows your name and an address, including your voter registration certificate
          3. Current utility bill
          4. Bank statement
          5. Government check
          6. Paycheck
          7. A certified domestic (from a U.S. state or territory) birth certificate or (b) a document confirming birth admissible in a court of law which establishes your identity (which may include a foreign birth document)
          8. You may vote early by-mail if:You are registered to vote and meet one of the following criteria:
             1. Away from the county of residence on Election Day and during the early voting period;
             2. Sick or disabled;
             3. 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
             4. Confined in jail, but eligible to vote.
             5. Make sure you are registered:
             6. Ann Harris Bennett, Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar
             7. CHECK REGISTRATION STATUS HERE
             8. CLICK How to register to vote in Texas
             9. Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
2. BE REGISTERED TO VOTE, and if eligible, REMEMBER TO FILL OUT AND MAIL YOUR MAIL-IN BALLOT APPLICATIONS FOR 2022
   1. You can track your Mail Ballot Activity from our website with direct link provided here https://www.harrisvotes.com/Tracking
   2. BE REGISTERED TO VOTE, and if eligible, REMEMBER TO FILL OUT AND MAIL YOUR MAIL-IN BALLOT APPLICATIONS FOR 2022
      1. GENERAL ELECTIONS SCHEDULE
      2. FYI: I received my mail-in ballot in the mail last week. I’ve already returned it, so if you haven’t gotten yours yet, keep your eyes peeled. If you haven’t received it by now, you might check your ballot’s status at your county election clerk.
         1. Oct 24-Nov 4: Early Vote
            Oct 28: Last day to apply for a ballot by mail
            Nov. 8: ELECTION DAY!!! 2022 November General Election – November 8, 2022
      3. You can track your Mail Ballot Activity from our website with direct link provided here — https://www.harrisvotes.com/Tracking
      4. Harris County Sample Ballots (Countywide)
3. PSA: BALLOT POSTAGE — There are instructions with the Harris County mail-in ballots that apply to necessary postage on the return envelope, but the text is small an, unfortunately, it’s right at the fold, so is easy to miss. If your ballot is 1-2 pages (remembering that 4 sides of a page is 2 pages), that a single 1^st Class Forever stamp. If your ballot is 3-4 pages (6-8 sides of a page), you need two 1^st class Forever stamps.
4. Story & Commentary: European weapons manufacturers scramble to adapt to wartime demand; By Benoit Van Overstraeten | REUTERS | October 11, 2022, 9:44 AM CDT, Last Updated 19 hours ago
   1. European arms manufacturers have urged the European Union to help coordinate weapons procurement as they scramble to boost production to meet soaring demand for the war in Ukraine.
   2. Meeting ahead of a NATO defence ministers gathering in Brussels, defence company executives said their industry had been geared up for EU states spending less on defence rather than more, after decades of peace in Europe.
   3. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance has started dialogue with industry and allies on how to boost production and replenish weapons stocks.
   4. He told a news conference that defence ministers would take decisions to increase stockpiles. Reducing stocks had been the right thing to do to support Ukraine, but production now needed to ramp up to ensure their allies’ own capabilities and to continue support for Ukraine “for the long haul”.
   5. The NATO chief said he expected ministers to decide on more ambitious targets that would provide industry with the long-term demand they required to invest in new capacity and look at joint purchases. …
   6. MIKE: Military industrial capacity is something Andrew and I have discussed several times over the past months. In our case, we’ve focused on HIMARS, Javelins and Stingers on the US side, but there’s all kinds of high-tech weaponry that just can’t be produced fast like turning on a faucet when you need them. There’s a saying with various attributions that “quantity has a quality all its own.” Soviet and Russian weapons aren’t as good as NATO weapons, but the Russians build a lot of them cheaply. As the Russo-Ukraine war drags on, that premise is being increasingly put to the test.
   7. ANDREW: This story underscores to me the importance of finding a peaceful end to the Ukrainian invasion as soon as possible. As you say, Mike, a lot of weapons can’t be produced right when they’re needed, and once started, production can’t be stopped easily. Prolonging this war by trying to humiliate Russia gives more chances for countries to spend billions in public funds on weapons that they may not end up needing. The US should start advocating to extend an olive branch to Russia so that they can save face, Ukraine can get its Russian-occupied non-separatist territory back, people can stop dying and being drafted and arrested for opposing the war, and public money can be put to better use than stockpiling weapons.
   8. MIKE: We have to be careful not to become appeasers to a fascistic invader. That didn’t work out so well the last time it was tried.
   9. ANDREW: Humiliating an imperialist enemy didn’t go so well last time either, as it created the conditions for the rise of fascism. I’m not saying we roll over, I’m saying we show restraint.
5. Harris Co. Dems call for federal election monitors after Paxton letter; The Texas AG is sending election monitors to Harris County. Local leaders want the feds to come too. By Michael Murney | CHRON.COM | Oct. 21, 2022
   1. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, along with Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, have requested that officials from the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice monitor Harris County’s election proceedings. — HarrisCoJudge Twitter
   2. The letter comes in response to an announcement from the office of Texas Secretary of State John B. Scott that both Paxton and Scott’s offices are sending inspectors to monitor election procedures in Harris County.     
   3. The letter from Hidalgo, Menefee and Turner asserts that sending inspectors is meant to “disrupt election processes.”
   4. “These actions appear designed to chill voters’ trust in the election process in Harris County, and to disrupt and intimidate local election workers as they execute their duties to ensure the 2022 election is ‘smooth and secure,'” the letter reads, referencing the then-Texas secretary of state’s description of the 2020 election. 
   5. Quorum Report’s Scott Braddock first reported that Scott and Paxton were sending officials to monitor Harris County election procedures. The announcement from Scott and Paxton comes amid an ongoing audit of Harris County and three other counties’ 2020 election results. 
   6. Chad Ennis, director of the Texas Secretary of State’s Forensic Audit Division, informed Harris County Elections Administrator Clifford Tatum of impending inspections from the secretary of state and AG’s office in a letter sent Tuesday. 
   7. Ennis wrote that his office will be sending “a contingent of inspectors to the county to observe Central Count during the November 2022 election to ensure that Harris County establishes appropriate procedures and follows them.”   
   8. Paxton’s office will also “dispatch a task force to Harris County that will be available at all times during the election period in order to immediately respond to any legal issues identified by Secretary of State, inspectors, poll watchers, or voters,” Ennis said in Tuesday’s letter.   
   9. These actions from the secretary of state and AG’s offices are a response to a list of alleged issues concerning Harris County’s management of “mobile ballot boxes” outlined by Ennis in the letter. Mobile ballot boxes are the electronic devices on which votes cast electronically are tallied.
   10. MIKE: Election monitoring is more realistic now that we have paper ballot trails.
   11. ANDREW: Obviously this is an attempt by a Republican official to suppress votes in an opposition stronghold. But if there’s no way to stop it legally before the election, then requesting federal presence to check the work of the state presence seems a solid counter. The article doesn’t mention, but the letter was sent directly to the feds, so hopefully that will reduce any ability the state has to resist federal presence.
6. Is crime up or down? In Houston, concerns are hard to allay; By Juan A. Lozano | ASSOCIATED PRESS via CLICK2HOUSTON.COM | Published: October 22, 2022 at 3:03 PM
   1. Political ads on the airwaves and social media in the nation’s fourth largest city paint a picture of Houston as a failed state where crime is out of control and violent criminals have free rein.
   2. The political discussion over crime even made its way to the pulpit, with popular megachurch Pastor Ed Young calling Houston “the most dangerous city in America” and telling parishioners that if the city, which is led by Democrats, “is to survive, we had better throw those bums out of office.”
   3. In reality, September statistics showed a 3% drop in homicides and a 10% drop in overall violent crime compared with the same month last year, as Houston Police Chief Troy Finner pointed out at a town hall last month, trying to reassure residents that things are getting better.
   4. But Finner, acknowledging concerns raised at the meeting, noted that crime is still “not where we want it to be.”
   5. The debate in the Houston area mirrors similar discussions around the country on public safety as violent crime rates appear to have stabilized somewhat but still sit above pre-pandemic levels. The topic has become an attack line ahead of the midterm elections, largely by Republican candidates labeling Democrats as soft on crime. …
   6. Criminal justice experts say understanding recent crime trends remains challenging, politicization should be avoided, and solutions aren’t simple.
   7. “You can’t hire enough officers to stop the problem that you have in a city. You have to take a holistic approach. You have to get the community involved,” said Howard Henderson, founder of the Center for Justice Research at Texas Southern University in Houston. …
   8. At a Texas legislative committee meeting in Austin this month, Kevin Lawrence, executive director of Texas Municipal Police Association, suggested — without offering evidence — that many Harris County misdemeanor defendants were part of major syndicates seeking to commit more crime.
   9. Ray Hunt, of the Houston Police Officers’ Union, warned at a recent meeting in Houston among officials in Harris County that if more deputies and prosecutors aren’t approved, “this county is going to be done.”
   10. The warning came as crime in Houston appears to be trending downward after more than two years of sharp increases during the pandemic and inflationary pressures.
   11. From 2019 to 2021, homicides in the county increased 59%, with most cases in Houston, according to state data. However, other crimes — burglary, robbery and larceny — were down the past two years.
   12. “Pretty much everywhere has seen an increase in murder since 2019,” said Jeff Asher, a crime analyst.
   13. Complicating things has been a county court system overwhelmed by a criminal case backlog that began after Houston was hit in 2017 by Hurricane Harvey and was exacerbated by the pandemic.
   14. Mayor Sylvester Turner has touted a holistic approach to crime reduction through the One Safe Houston initiative. The $53 million program has provided money for police overtime, mental health services, domestic violence response and gun buybacks. …
   15. Residents’ worries shouldn’t be dismissed, Henderson said, but the media and politicians should do a better job of giving the public a correct picture of what’s affecting public safety.
   16. Harris County’s bail reform efforts, part of a lawsuit settlement ensuring most misdemeanor defendants don’t remain jailed because they are poor, have also been blamed for crime increases.
   17. Brandon Garrett, a law professor at Duke University and one of the monitors of a consent decree that settled the lawsuit, defended Harris County’s bail efforts, saying, “You can both protect people’s rights and accomplish public safety at the same time. It’s not a tradeoff.”
   18. [Harris County Judge Lina] Hidalgo said the latest county budget is proposing $100 million in new law enforcement funding. But that budget’s approval is on hold, in part [due] to calls by two Republican commissioners for more officers.
   19. MIKE: Those two Republicans commissioners are Jack Cagle and Tom Ramsey, and they’ve been holding up this increase in law enforcement funding by boycotting the meetings of Commissioners Court.
   20. MIKE: Statistics say that murders and violent crimes are down from Pandemic highs. But on the NextDoor app, people’s doorbell cameras are constantly showing passive, casual crime such as packages being stolen from porches, tools being stolen from yards, and even doorknobs being tested in the middle of the night. That kind of crimes makes one angry and scared, and certainly makes it feel like crime is up, but is it new, or is it just easier to self-report without necessarily reporting it to police and including it in crime statistics?
   21. ANDREW: There are two excellent analyses by Adam Johnson I want to highlight: People “Feel Unsafe” Because Visible Poverty Is Everywhere and Murder Spike in Rural, Red Counties Exposes Media’s Anti-Reform Double Standard. The article about murder rates reinforces the claim that murder is up everywhere, and it’s not connected to how tough local officials are on crime. The article about feeling unsafe is, I think, exactly the reason why people think crime is up. The pandemic and the war in Ukraine are both causing economic upheaval, which is putting a lot more people into poverty than we’ve seen in certainly the past ten years, maybe rivalled by the 2008 recession. It’s impossible not to notice, and when you’re middle class and grew up believing that you should help the poor but not trust them with your wallet, seeing more poor people makes you nervous on at least some degree, even among people who know better (classism, like all prejudice, is hard to unlearn, but worth the effort). When you’re nervous, you’re paying more attention to crime stats, and to your neighbors’ crime stories, and the things that happen to you that you think are crimes (or ought to be). Combine that with the ability to post anything you want online, on several platforms that profit off your eyewitness accounts of real crime or just prejudiced paranoia to your neighbors, and people are driving themselves into a frenzy. Republicans and police (who overwhelmingly vote Republican) are taking advantage of this to claim that crime is out of control, and it’s all Democrats’ fault, and the only solution is voting Republican so they can increase police budgets. I’m sad to say a lot of Democrats are falling for it too, and pushing to increase police funding themselves. As the murder rates article I linked above explains, and common sense verifies, more cops won’t stop perceived crime, because it’s not actually there. A much better approach is spreading this information– most crime is not going up, and what is going up is caused by the tension in the world today spilling over into our interpersonal relationships. I say the best thing you personally can do to stop crime is keep yourself accurately informed and de-stressed.
7. Earthquakes in Texas doubled in 2021. Scientists cite years of oil companies injecting sludgy water underground.; The surge in seismic activity from increased underground pressure is shaking the West Texas ground and rattling longtime residents. By Erin Douglas | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Feb. 8, 2022, 23 hours ago
   1. MIDLAND — One local said it sounded like a pickup truck had rammed into the side of their house. Another said it sounded like the air conditioner fell off the roof. A third compared the experience to getting off of a rollercoaster, dizzy and a bit shaky. …
   2. More than 200 earthquakes of 3 magnitude and greater shook Texans in 2021, more than double the 98 recorded in 2020, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of state data maintained by the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin.
   3. The record-setting seismic activity is largely concentrated in West Texas’ Permian Basin, the most productive oil and gas region in the state. Scientific studies show that the spike in earthquakes is almost certainly a consequence of disposing huge quantities of contaminated, salty water deep underground — a common practice by oil companies at the end of the hydraulic fracturing process that can awaken dormant fault lines.
   4. During hydraulic fracking, oil companies shoot a mixture of fluids and sand through ancient shale formations, fracturing the rock to free the flow of oil. But oil isn’t the only thing that’s been trapped underground for millions of years: Between three and six barrels of salty, polluted water also come up to the surface with every barrel of oil.
   5. The cheapest, and most commonly used, way to dispose of this “produced water” is to drill another well and inject it into porous rock formations deep underground.
   6. For years, oil companies have loaded those formations with hundreds of millions of gallons of the black watery mixture — which contains a slurry of minerals, oil and chemicals used in fracking — every day, slowly increasing the pressure on ancient fault lines. An analysis by Rystad Energy provided to The Texas Tribune found that the amount of wastewater injected underground in the Permian Basin quadrupled in a decade, from 54 billion gallons in 2011 to 217 billion gallons last year.
   7. In a 2021 study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Texas found that the vast majority of seismicity since 2000 near Pecos — a city roughly 100 miles southwest of Midland — was likely triggered by increased wastewater disposal. State regulators, too, have found that an increase in seismic activity most likely occurs as a consequence of saltwater disposal.
   8. “The cumulative volumes [of water] increase the pressure, and that is the force that triggers the fault to slip,” said Alexandros Savvaidis, a research scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology at UT-Austin.
   9. The result is that communities like Gardendale, where Bock lives, as well as the bustling cities of Odessa and Midland — which many oilfield workers, engineers and service workers call home — are experiencing not only more frequent earthquakes, but stronger ones.
   10. Between 2018 and 2020, Texas recorded nine earthquakes above magnitude 4, almost all of them in the western half of the state. Last year, Texans were shaken by 15 earthquakes above magnitude 4 — including a 6 magnitude earthquake in late December that rattled homes from an epicenter about 30 miles northeast of Midland. …
   11. The huge jump in seismic activity compelled the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state’s oil and gas regulatory agency, to indefinitely suspend underground water injections late last year in a swath of land from Odessa north to Midland, and west to Andrews and Martin counties. The decision affected all 33 disposal wells in the targeted area. …
   12. It may take months after the injections halt for the area to stop shaking, scientists said, since the pressure needs time to ease. …
   13. Andrew Keese, spokesperson for the Railroad Commission, said in a statement that the agency hopes the industry can cooperate to reduce the magnitude and frequency of the quakes. If it fails, the agency is “prepared to implement actions of its own if needed,” he wrote. An industry plan to reduce seismicity in the Stanton region is due in mid-April [2022], Keese said.
   14. “Operators have already made adjustments in the volume of water injected,” Keese said. …
   15. Residents of the Permian Basin are used to the noise of drilling construction; the damaged roads from heavy trucks hauling sand, water and more; the trash snagged in mesquite branches blown from camps of the here-today-gone-tomorrow oilfield workers. Many say they have switched to bottled water or installed water softeners because their tap water turned cloudy with minerals and tastes metallic and salty since fracking took off in the area a decade ago.
   16. But the earthquakes are different, said Bock, the paralegal and mother of two in Gardendale. One contractor’s estimate to level her home’s foundation was $8,000, she said. At least for her family, the shaking was the last straw.
   17. Eli Hilbert, 20, a political science student at the University of Texas Permian Basin in Odessa, said many locals view the earthquakes as part of the natural environment — like the strong winds or tumbleweeds — despite science that shows the phenomena is almost certainly caused by humans. …
   18. [R]esidents of Midland, Odessa and surrounding areas echoed Hilbert’s sentiment that the near-daily shakes were beginning to crack the community’s long-hardened endurance to the nuisances and environmental consequences of living with the oil industry. …
   19. [T]he industry itself isn’t blind to the business risk the quakes pose: At an annual oil and gas industry luncheon hosted by the Midland Chamber of Commerce on Jan. 26, an executive with Chevron Corp. listed the increase in seismic activity as one of the industry’s biggest challenges in the Permian Basin.
   20. Ryder Booth, Chevron’s vice president of North America exploration and production, called on the roughly 300-person crowd of Midland oil and gas executives, workers and leaders to work together to reduce the earthquakes, pointing to the increase in seismic activity from water injections as one of the industry’s major challenges in the Permian.
   21. MIKE: This story does not touch upon the question of whether fracking exacerbates problems related to drought.
   22. ANDREW: Article more about informing what part of fracking is causing earthquakes rather than absolving all fracking. The wastewater disposal responsible for most quakes wouldn’t happen if fracking wasn’t happening. Not necessarily changing any minds, but good to have an accurate picture.
   23. REFERENCE: Does fracking cause earthquakes? — GOV
       1. Most induced earthquakes are not directly caused by hydraulic fracturing (fracking). The recent increase in earthquakes in the central United States is primarily caused by disposal of waste fluids that are a byproduct of oil production.
       2. Wastewater disposal wells typically operate for longer durations and inject much more fluid than is injected during the hydraulic fracturing process, making them more likely to induce earthquakes. In Oklahoma, which has the most induced earthquakes in the United States, 2% of earthquakes can be linked to hydraulic fracturing operations. Given the high rate of seismicity in Oklahoma, this means that there are still many earthquakes induced by hydraulic fracturing. The remaining earthquakes are induced by wastewater disposal. The largest earthquake known to be induced by hydraulic fracturing in the United States was a magnitude 4.0 earthquake that occurred in 2018 in Texas.
   24. REFERENCE: Fracking 101 — ORG
       1. … Water used for hydraulic fracturing is typically fresh water taken from groundwater and surface water resources. Although there are increasing efforts to use nonpotable water, some of these sources also supply drinking water. … (Apr 19, 2019)
8. IN FURTHER ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS:
9. Backed-up pipes, stinky yards: Climate change is wrecking septic tanks; By Jim Morrison | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | April 12, 2022 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
   1. … As climate change intensifies, septic [tank] failures are emerging as a vexing issue for local governments. … From Miami to Minnesota, septic systems are failing, posing threats to clean water, ecosystems and public health.
   2. About 20 percent of U.S. households rely on septic, according to the [EPA]. Many systems are clustered in coastal areas that are experiencing relative sea-level rise, including around Boston and New York. Nearly half of New England homes depend on them. Florida hosts 2.6 million systems. Of the 120,000 in Miami-Dade County, more than half of them fail to work properly at some point during the year, helping to fuel deadly algae blooms in Biscayne Bay, home to the nation’s only underwater national park. The cost to convert those systems into a central sewer plant would be more than $4 billion.
   3. The issue is complex, merging common climate themes. Solutions are expensive, beyond the ability of localities to fund them. Permitting standards that were created when rainfall and sea-level rise were relatively constant have become inadequate. Low-income and disadvantaged people who settled in areas with poor soils likely to compromise systems are disproportionately affected. Maintenance requirements are piecemeal nationwide. And while it’s clear that septic failures are increasing, the full scope of the problem remains elusive because data, particularly for the most vulnerable aging systems, are difficult to compile. …
   4. … Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy estimates that 24 percent of the state’s 1.37 million septic systems are failing and contaminating groundwater. A project funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is examining the potential longer-term impacts of climate change on septic systems in the Carolinas. …
   5. The plan is to expand sewer to the 9,000 most vulnerable properties within five to 10 years, if funding can be secured.
   6. … Connecting [to central sewage] will cost between $5,000 and $20,000 [per property]. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the county is looking for funds to help low- and moderate-income property owners. “What’s at stake?” she asked. “I’m sitting on my 29th-floor office looking out the window at the beautiful bay. This is our lifeblood. Without a clean bay, we don’t have tourism. We don’t have health. We don’t have a marine industry. It is the lifeline, the economic driver.” …
   7. Wastewater regulations for septic systems haven’t been overhauled in decades in states. Virginia updated requirements 20 years ago, said Lance Gregory, director of the Department of Health’s Water and Wastewater Services division. A bill passed last year directs the State Board of Health to create regulations making Virginia the first state to include the impacts of climate change on septic. The goal, Gregory said, is to not issue a permit for a system that 10 or 15 years from now will be an environmental and public health problem — and a costly repair for an owner. …
   8. The problem percolating underground so concerned William “Skip” Stiles of the nonprofit Virginia advocacy group Wetlands Watch that he created an ad hoc group of policymakers and researchers from Georgia to Maine to share knowledge and discuss solutions.
   9. He hopes the group’s “noodling” on the issues, as he calls it, will inform new regulations. In the end, the answer to the septic problem may not be to improve the regulations and the technology, but to leave threatened areas.
   10. “The septic system is the canary in the coal mine,” Stiles said. “If you’ve got a house and the septic is starting to flood, it won’t be long before the house goes. We ought to be using septic failures as an early warning system for those areas we’re going to have to take people out of.”
10. Forever Chemicals No More? PFAS Are Destroyed With New Technique; The harmful molecules are everywhere, but chemists have made progress in developing a method to break them down. By Carl Zimmer | NYTIMES.COM | Aug. 18, 2022
    1. A team of scientists has found a cheap, effective way to destroy so-called forever chemicals …
    2. The chemicals — known as PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are found in a spectrum of products and contaminate water and soil around the world. [They remain] dangerous for generations.
    3. … In a study, published Thursday [8/19] in the journal Science, a team of researchers rendered PFAS molecules harmless by mixing them with two inexpensive compounds at a low boil [MIKE: from elsewhere in the article, “between about 175 degrees to 250 degrees Fahrenheit”]. In a matter of hours, the PFAS molecules fell apart. …
    4. The new technique might provide a way to destroy PFAS chemicals once they’ve been pulled out of contaminated water or soil. But William Dichtel, a chemist at Northwestern University and a co-author of the study, said that a lot of effort lay ahead to make it work outside the confines of a lab. …
    5. A common method to get rid of this concentrated PFAS is to burn it. But some studies indicate that incineration fails to destroy all of the chemicals and lofts the surviving pollution into the air. …
    6. MIKE: This is an advance, for sure, but in the absence of a way to pull PFAS from the environment, it would rely on boiling water and soil in a chemical mix in order to “disassemble” PFAS into less noxious compounds. (The article doesn’t specify what these compounds are.)
    7. MIKE: So this is certainly an important step forward, but a way needs to be found to break down PFAS outside the lab. Perhaps this will be a small step in that direction.
    8. ANDREW: Reflects an important part of actions against environmental damage like pollution and climate change: fixing the damage that’s already happened. Stopping things getting worse definitely important, but not alone enough to dig us out. Any progress on environmental restoration is good news.

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