Staff Reporter

Quincy School Board approves $2.9 million bid from Jackson company for HVAC and indoor air quality upgrades | WTVB | 1590 AM · 95.5 FM

February 22, 2022 by Staff Reporter

Quincy School Board approves $2.9 million bid from Jackson company for HVAC and indoor air quality upgrades | WTVB | 1590 AM · 95.5 FM | The Voice of Branch County

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State Senate candidates square off | Archives

February 22, 2022 by Staff Reporter

ELLICOTTVILLE ã Chautauqua County Legislator Nancy Bargar (D)
and Assemblywoman Catharine Young (R) squared off Wednesday in
their only scheduled debate before the May 10 special election to
fill the vacancy in the 57th State Senate District.

The seat was made vacant by the death of Sen. Patricia McGee
earlier this month.

The two candidates fielded questions from members of the
Cattaraugus County Farm Bureau, which hosted the event at the
Ellicottville American Legion. Both women told of growing up on
family farms and discussed the impact of state taxes on farming
operations.

Bargar, who twice sought the Senate seat in the early 1990s,
placed the blame New YorkÞs high property taxes on ßthe most
dysfunctional state legislature in the country,à led by a
Republican majority in the State Senate.

Specifically, she criticized a system that created legislation
giving the Seneca-Allegany CasinoÞs host municipalities 15 percent
of slot machine revenues, while Niagara Falls receives 25 percent
from the Seneca Niagara Casino.

ßThis happened at 3 oÞclock in the morning ã this happened on my
opponentÞs watch, with no objection. These things are still
happening,à said Bargar.

Young responded that she has been working very hard to get the
local share increased and revealed that share will be closer to $45
million, rather than the original projection of $1.8 million.

Bargar said, ßFor the last 50 of the last 50 years, with
Republicans in the State Senate, every property tax increase has
been approved by the majority party.à

Young countered by saying a large number of fee increases
occurred during the administration of former Democratic Gov. Mario
Cuomo, adding she supported legislation eliminating sales tax on
farm equipment and advocates continuation of the STAR program and
Medicaid reform.

While farmers with large parcels of land are affected by
property taxes, liability insurance is a major expense as well. The
candidates were asked if they support tort reform, in an effort to
limit lawsuit settlements and slow rising insurance premiums.

Both said they support reforms.

ßI do favor some reform. You have to be pro-business. This has
been on the table for some time. I certainly would support some
middle ground,à said Bargar.

Young said, ßWe have to look out for the ability of business to
grow in New York State. At the same time, the state has to protect
workers so that if they get hurt on the job they can get it taken
care of.à

The candidates were questioned on whether they feel the Healthy
NY program, which small businesses and agribusinesses rely on to
provide coverage.

Bargar said health care is a major part of her platform.

ßWe canÞt have any businesses if we are not healthy and have
healthy employees,à said Bargar, adding she advocates more
preventative care and is concerned that coverage of elective
procedures such as plastic surgery and gastric bypass drive up
health care costs. ßI do support the Healthy NY program ã thereÞs
no evidence itÞs not working.à

She praised the EPIC program, which helps the elderly pay for
prescription drugs and said she supports KendraÞs Law . which
allows courts to order certain individuals with brain disorders to
comply with treatment while living in the community.

Bargar said she supported a smoking ban in her county and
criticized Young for voting against the Clean Indoor Air Act in her
county.

Young said she voted against the measure, not because she is in
favor of indoor smoking, but because she thought the law would be
detrimental to businesses and that a compromise could have been
reached.

The assemblywoman said she would support expanding the Healthy
NY program and also advocates preserving rural hospitals.

ßThere is a push to close rural hospitals. We need our rural
facilities so people can get to the hospital on time. ItÞs a matter
of life and death,à said Young.

Both candidates also expressed agreement in support for research
creating biotech-derived crop varieties, but held different views
on proposed legislation which would decrease the maximum size of
wetland areas subject to state regulation.

Bargar, who called herself an environmentalist, said in her
county, she doesnÞt support programs that increase developed land
around Chautauqua Lake. Young said she believes it is important to
protect landowners, whose farming efforts could be restricted.

Questioned about economic development and how they would attract
more business to the area, Bargar and Young talked about programs
they have championed.

Bargar said the Farmland Protection Plans being adopted by
counties are very much a part of economic development.

ßThe state can help by identifying markets for our products,à
she said.

Young decried placement of imported milk on New York City
shelves as a ßtravesty,à adding New York milk should be on those
shelves.

ßWe have wonderful crops. We should be able to get into an
outlet,à she said.

The assemblywoman said she has supported Empire Zones, as well
as efforts to reform them, while Bargar praised the efforts of the
state comptroller to make sure businesses in the zones are creating
the number of jobs theyÞve promised.

Young called for an end to unfunded mandates and said she
advocates tax cuts as a means of stimulating the economy.

Bargar said her strength is being an ambassador for the area,
promoting its tourist attractions and natural beauty.

ßThere are no magic bullets for bringing business and industry
here. There are all kinds of initiatives and none of them seem to
be working,à she said.

Young disagreed, saying upgrading transportation and
communication could bring jobs to the area, specifically improving
Interstate 86 and finishing Route 219. She added that she has
supported funding for the Southern Tier Extension Railroad.

Bargar pointed out she was an original member of the Southern
Tier Rail Authority, which revived the east-west rail line from
Hornell to Corry, Pa.

The candidates were questioned about their views on repealing
the Rockefeller Drug Laws and tightening penalties for sex
offenders.

Bargar said the lawsÞ tougher sentencing guidelines have boosted
the need for more prison cells at taxpayersÞ expense, while Young
said the laws have been ßa tool for law enforcement.à She drew
parallels to PennyÞs Law, named after Salamanca mother Penny Brown,
who was killed by a 15-year-old neighbor too young to be sentenced
as an adult. The law now provides for younger offenders to serve
longer sentences.

Young and Bargar were in agreement that tighter restrictions on
sex offenders are needed.

In closing, Young said ßWe lost Pat McGee mid-term. Because IÞve
been dealing with the same issues, thereÞs not going to be any
on-the-job training for me.à

Bargar told the crowd of about 100 people, ßI want to be a fresh
face and part of a fresh team.à She joked. ßIÞve run for Senate
twice before and now IÞm giving you one more chance to send me to
Albany.à

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Originally Appeared Here

OPINION: Prescribed Burning a Second-Class Option

February 22, 2022 by Staff Reporter

Peak wildfire season is now just a few months away. And if the truth was being told, our government agencies and public land managers have no better plan for preventing wildfires than before… Their solution? Prescribed burning is a polluting, dangerous and cost-ineffective workaround for addressing the annually renewed key grass and brush fuels…

1) Prescribed burning puts even more toxic smoke, carbon compounds and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and robs us of clean air.

2) Prescribed burning addresses a tiny percentage of the total landscape — tens of millions of acres — that need to have grass and brush maintained year round. Herbivores can do that work daily, all-year-round.

3) Prescribed burns are not necessarily timely: Many times, areas that are over-grown with grass and brush catch fire before any prescribed burn is used… and again, we have tens of millions of acres of area filled with annual grass and brush fuels!

4) Prescribed burns have a way of becoming Wildfires! We have seen many accounts of so-called prescribed burns turning into deadly wildfires… with the loss of life, homes by the hundreds and devastation of the landscape and wildlife.

5) Prescribed burns removes native cover crops and exposes soils to catastrophic erosion, which in turn adversely impacts watersheds and the aquifer (instead of infiltrating the soils, water quickly runs off naked ground. Furthermore, the spawning beds in streams and rivers used by trout and salmon are also silted-in by the erosion caused by loss of ground cover due to prescribed burns and wildfires.

Harvesting ‘biomass’ may sound like a good solution. However, when we put a critical eye on that paradigm, we quickly find that it sounds better than it actually is.

Much of the western landscape terrain that would allow any such expensive techniques and required equipment is extremely limited in area. The intense soils disruption caused by the heavy equipment used for biomass recovery, which includes logging-off burned trees, adds insult to injury on lands that have suffered wildfires.

Access to tens of millions of acres in Oregon and California is extremely difficult due to rugged terrain. These are areas where in many cases, smoke-jumpers must parachute-in to attempt to fight wildfire, at grave risk to such personnel.

Moreover, in ‘designated wilderness’ areas, using any motorized vehicles and equipment are prohibited by law. This means there is about 110-million acres of ‘designated wilderness’ in the western U.S. where cost-ineffective biomass methods are prohibited by law, and virtually impractical due to remote, steep and rocky terrain.

So the idea of using large gas and diesel powered machines to harvest biomass and trucks to transport it all, is limited to a tiny fraction of the landscape due to remote, rocky and steep terrain.

Reestablishing the Herbivory

Native species grazing (deer and wild horses) is the only ecologically and cost-effective method for reducing and maintaining grass and brush wildfire fuels in remote wilderness areas year-round.

Our now-depleted native herbivores (deer, wild horses, bison) had been maintaining grass and brush fuels to nominal levels in prior decades. California alone is down about 2 million deer over the past five decades, and those now-missing deer had been reducing wildfire fuels (grass and brush) across the landscape at the rate of nearly 3-million tons per year.

A Metaphor:

Imagine being the captain and crew of a large passenger carrying ship that has a hole in the hull of the ship… a hole in the boat.

And so, if in this metaphor we used the same strategy and policies as we are hearing from some of our so-called leaders and ‘experts’, we would be arguing about how many and what kind of bilge pumps we should be deploying in the boat.

When in reality, the discussion should be about repairing the hole in our boat….

What we are seeing in the debate on wildfires is simple: Money creating narratives… instead of logic that protects public health, safety and welfare of Americans and their natural resources.

Is logic no longer important in regard to public land and wildfire management?

Is flawed institutional dogma now overshadowing genuine science and what is in highest and best interests of Americans and their public lands, forests, wildlife and water resources?

FACT: Where there is no fuel, there cannot be fire; regardless of planetary temperatures, and that is an immutable fact of science.

FACT: Where fuels are reduced by native herbivore grazing, the heat (intensity) of wildfire is also reduced. Less fuel equals, less heat, and that results in less damage to the landscape and fire-evolved conifers.

FACT: According to wildfire forensics reported for hundreds of wildfires at InciWeb, the predominant fuel in a majority of western wildfires is grass and brush, which is now overgrown virtually everywhere in western states due to the collapse of the populations of our native species herbivore-grazers, a problem made much worse by people positing so-called solutions that dance-around the root cause of catastrophic wildfires without addressing that root cause.

Root Causation of Catastrophic Wildfire

Science proves that the key grass and brush fuels are no longer controlled and maintained by the native species herbivores in the western U.S. because their populations have collapsed due to mismanagement.

Money creates narratives, including influencing opinions among scientists and land managers, that are contraindicated to the health, safety and welfare of American citizens, and which are also increasing tax burdens on American taxpayers. Money driven narratives that drive policy also tend to compromise what’s best for the environment and wilderness ecosystems. This must end.

Many designated wilderness areas are manifestly unsuited for wildfire grazing by invasive species cattle and sheep because of their ruminant digestive systems, which digest all the seeds of native north American plants and grasses that they eat, ending any re-seeding.

Ultimately, this kills off native vegetation providing opportunities thereafter for invasive species plants and increases erosion that damages fisheries. This also causes great ecological damage to wilderness landscapes, especially wilderness areas with threatened and endangered flora that have co-evolved dependent fauna (birds, mammals, insects, etc.) that require certain species of plants and grasses for their survival.

Interestingly, native species American wild horses don’t digest most of the seeds they eat, and most seeds of native plants and grasses are re-deposited back onto the ground in their scat. Horse scat is also rich in humus and microbiome that gives the seeds that are incorporated therein a huge advantage for survival over seeds scattered by birds, small mammals or the wind.

Using expensive, polluting and risky prescribed burning at any level to attempt to accomplish what Nature does so eloquently and so cost-effectively with native species herbivores, showcases flawed thinking behind adding more fire to the landscape and toxic smoke to our atmosphere, and totally fails to address the root cause of catastrophic wildfire.

William E Simpson II

William E. Simpson II is a naturalist, author, and conservationist living in the Soda Mountain wilderness area among the wild horses that he studies.

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Originally Appeared Here

Flushing Heavy Metals from Water with Novel Adsorbent

February 22, 2022 by Staff Reporter

In an article published in the journal Chemosphere, a detailed method to develop adsorbents to remove heavy trace metal pollutants from contaminated water was presented.

Study: Synthesis of green nano sorbents for simultaneous preconcentration and recovery of heavy metals from water. Image Credit: Peter Bocklandt/Shutterstock.com

Water and Metals – A Toxic Love Story

The presence of trace heavy metals, such as Nickel, Cadmium, Mercury, Lead and Arsenic, can pose considerable health hazards to all forms of life that depend on water sources even in low concentrations. Heavy metals are those with an atomic number greater than 20

Such metals are generally considered to be compounds found in nature but have been released in vast quantities into many terrestrial ecosystems as a consequence of anthropogenic actions.

As a result, the ecosystem is negatively impacted, putting the health of many organisms in danger. The two sources of pollutants are point sources, where all pollutants are linked to a single source, and nonpoint sources, with pollutants coming from sources that are difficult to identify.

Not many incidents have been recorded where point sources, occurring due to processes such as weathering of ores and tiny metal particulates in the soils, water and air surrounding the workshop from coal-consuming power stations through exhaust fumes.

For a race that survives mainly on water consumption, there is a strong necessity to develop effective water purification techniques.

Proposed Remedies for a Sinking Future

Adsorption is widely acknowledged as the most efficient and effective way of removing contaminants from water.

For the reason that it is inexpensive, readily available, and environment friendly, the adsorption procedure is generally employed to eliminate heavy metals from water. These heavy metals are removed from water using either biological or commercial adsorbents, both having a high removal capability.

Silica gel is an amorphous and permeable variant of silicon dioxide that is commonly employed as an adsorbent that absorbs fluids containing traces of the heavy metal ions of interest.

In this paper, the suggested operation is based on the target ions’ retention and desorption in buffered model solutions on the gel-filled columns enhanced by vanadium oxide sorbent.

Virtue of Vanadium

The authors of the paper developed a way to combine vanadium oxide with silica gel as the effective adsorbent to purify water.

Vanadium oxide (V2O5) is one of the most significant compounds of vanadium, and it is frequently employed in the creation of different catalysts in many technical processes when combined with silica gel (SiO2).

The characteristics of silica gel – vanadium oxide (SiO2/V2O5) as catalysts have been thoroughly researched by experts in the field.

V2O5 alteration of silica gel is commonly accomplished using one of two methods:

Impregnation: the absorption of a certain quantity of vanadium solution into the aperture of an inorganic oxide.
Grafting: a method of eliminating vanadium derivatives through a solution by grafting hydroxyl group on an inorganic substrate’s top layer.

The researchers found the latter technique to be more useful in creating an adsorbent that is more selective and less active.

Proof of Concepts

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), as well as Fourier Transmission IR (FTIR) spectroscopy, were used to characterize the adsorbent’s morphology and interfacial physicochemical properties.

The authors investigated the concurrent investigation of eight metallic ion concentrations by taking water samples from nearby river samples and verified that the proposed preconcentration technique worked well.

For verifying the practicality and feasibility, the investigators obtained findings under ideal conditions, making it an indispensable tool for determining the low grade of analytes.

According to the FTIR measurements, vanadium oxide can form viable bonds with silica gel, which improves the adsorption process for heavy metals.

On the SiO2 surface, SEM reveals a considerable amount of matter and aggregation of vanadium oxide particles, indicating that the surface has been changed.

This demonstrates that the synthesized vanadium oxide in amalgamation with silica gel can potentially be used as an economical and efficient adsorbent for removing metallic ions from liquid solutions.

Problems Flushed Away?

The proposed amalgamation of silica gel and vanadium oxide is an inexpensive adsorbent for removing heavy metals from water.

While we can be optimistic about the future with the development of such methods, we also need to be mindful of wasting vital resources such as water.

Reference

Sulejmanović, J., Memić, M., et al. (2022). Synthesis of green nano sorbents for simultaneous preconcentration and recovery of heavy metals from water. Chemosphere. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653522004647?via%3Dihub

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.

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Originally Appeared Here