GE Vernova, the maker of a massive wind turbine blade that broke apart off Nantucket Island and washed up on beaches for months, has agreed to a $10.5 million settlement to pay local businesses for their economic losses, officials said Friday.Fiberglass fragments of the blade began washing ashore last summer during the peak of tourist season after pieces of the wind turbine at the Vineyard Wind project began falling into the Atlantic Ocean in July 2024. Crews in boats and on beaches, along with volunteers, collected truckloads of debris. The company said the debris was nontoxic fiberglass fragments and that the pieces were one square foot or smaller.GE Vernova, which agreed to the settlement, blamed a manufacturing problem at one of its factories in Canada and said there was no indication of a design flaw. It reinspected all blades made at the factory and removed other blades made there from the Vineyard Wind location.The settlement calls for establishing a fund along with a process to evaluate claims from businesses and distribute payments, Nantucket officials said.Vineyard is involved in offshore wind development off the coast of Humboldt County. Earlier this year, the company laid off workers both in the United States and internationally. Read More
On April 30, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released a “Request for Information” for new oil and gas lease sales in U.S. waters to inform the 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. This announcement includes federal waters that were permanently withdrawn by the Biden Administration in January, including all Pacific and Atlantic Coasts, the eastern Gulf Coast, and parts of Alaska’s Bering Sea from offshore oil and gas development. The Trump Administration is considering reversing that decision, although it would require an act of Congress.
Read more …
Recent sampling efforts undertaken by Humboldt Waterkeeper and the California Coastkeeper Alliance have found “high concentrations” of pollutants that kill coho salmon in runoff from area parking lots. The organizations are sponsoring AB 1313 to establish statewide commercial, industrial and institutional stormwater permitting standards.
Read more …
A few years ago, scientists started identifying a potentially major culprit in the dramatic decline of the coho salmon fishery — a chemical known as “6PPD-quinone,” a byproduct of a chemical used in automotive tires.Throughout the course of their life, tires deposit the precursor of this chemical everywhere they travel. This precursor degrades into 6PPD-q and enters the water system, killing coho in particular — a protected species under the Endangered Species Act — with great efficiency.
Read more …
In 2020, a stormwater contaminant called 6PPD was linked to "urban runoff mortality syndrome" in Coho salmon in the Puget Sound, Washington. 6PPD is an anti-wear chemical added to tires and other rubber-based products to increase the life of the tire and prevent degradation. When our tires wear down from friction with the road, they leave behind tiny particles, which can be washed from roads into aquatic ecosystems by rain. Photo: This bioswale was installed on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus along LK Wood Blvd. to intercept stormwater runoff from the Library Circle parking lot.
Read more …
On April 30, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released a “Request for Information” for new oil and gas lease sales in U.S. waters to inform the 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. This announcement includes federal waters that were permanently withdrawn by the Biden Administration in January, including all Pacific and Atlantic Coasts, the eastern Gulf Coast, and parts of Alaska’s Bering Sea from offshore oil and gas development. The Trump Administration is considering reversing that decision, although it would require an act of Congress. 
Recent sampling efforts undertaken by Humboldt Waterkeeper and the California Coastkeeper Alliance have found “high concentrations” of pollutants that kill coho salmon in runoff from area parking lots. The organizations are sponsoring AB 1313 to establish statewide commercial, industrial and institutional stormwater permitting standards. 
In 2020, a stormwater contaminant called 6PPD was linked to "urban runoff mortality syndrome" in Coho salmon in the Puget Sound, Washington. 6PPD is an anti-wear chemical added to tires and other rubber-based products to increase the life of the tire and prevent degradation. When our tires wear down from friction with the road, they leave behind tiny particles, which can be washed from roads into aquatic ecosystems by rain. Photo: This bioswale was installed on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus along LK Wood Blvd. to intercept stormwater runoff from the Library Circle parking lot. 
