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Wahlarena mit Schulz: "Ihr Schicksal ist mir nicht egal"

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Knapp eine Woche vor der Wahl gibt Martin Schulz noch einmal alles: In der ARD-Wahlarena inszeniert er sich als Kümmerer – und scheint für jedes Problem eine Lösung parat zu haben. Das wird mitunter etwas peinlich. Von Sandra Stalinski.
Knapp eine Woche vor der Wahl gibt Martin Schulz noch einmal alles: In der ARD-Wahlarena inszeniert er sich als Kümmerer – und scheint für jedes Problem eine Lösung parat zu haben. Das wird mitunter etwas peinlich.
Diese 75 Minuten dürften ganz nach dem Geschmack von Martin Schulz gewesen sein: Noch vor zwei Wochen im TV-Duell mit der Kanzlerin kam sein Thema soziale Gerechtigkeit kaum zur Sprache. In der ARD-Wahlarena hat er dieses Problem nicht. Im Gegenteil: Weite Strecken der Sendung kann er nutzen, um seine Programmpunkte anzubringen.
Die zumeist zahmen Fragen der 150 repräsentativ für die deutsche Bevölkerung ausgewählten Bürger bieten Schulz zahlreiche Steilvorlagen. Doch auch dort, wo er nicht danach gefragt wurde, bringt er seine Themen unter: Was die SPD tue, um die langen Arbeitszeiten von Eltern zu verringern, die sich in der Folge oft gar nicht mehr um ihre Kinder kümmern könnten? Dafür wolle die SPD eine Familienarbeitszeit beziehungsweise ein Familiengeld einführen. Das viel größere Problem seien aber eine Million fehlende Ganztagsschulplätze, Kitagebühren, sachgrundlose Befristungen und das Hangeln von einem Praktikum zum nächsten. All diese Baustellen will er angehen. Eine Frage – fünf Verbesserungsvorschläge.
Für jedes beschriebene Problem scheint Schulz in der Wahlarena eine Lösung parat zu haben. Seine „Nationale Bildungsallianz“ mit zwölf Milliarden Euro Mehrausgaben soll die Lücke zu den skandinavischen Ländern schließen. Ein Neustart in der Pflege soll mehr Personal, mehr Pflegeplätze und 30 Prozent mehr Gehalt für Pflegekräfte bringen. Qualifizierung von Arbeitslosen soll Fachkräftemangel beheben.
Er inszeniert sich als Kümmerer – „ich nehme das mal als Anregung mit“ -, als Mann, der die Sorgen der kleinen Leute kennt – „ich war, wie Sie wissen, Bürgermeister in Würselen“ – und vor allem als einer, dem die Menschen dieses Landes am Herzen liegen – „ihr Schicksal ist mir nicht egal“.
Peinlich wird dies, wo er es mit der emotionalen Anteilnahme übertreibt: Eine Mutter von sechs Kindern beklagt sich über ihren niedrigen Rentenbescheid und will wissen, wie er dieses Problem lösen will. Da verfällt Schulz in ein langes andächtiges Schweigen. So lange, dass die Fragestellerin schon irritiert fragt, ob er sie verstanden habe. Er habe eine Moment innegehalten, weil er sich an seine Mutter erinnert fühlte, die fünf Kinder hatte. Was Schulz in diesem Moment nicht wissen kann: Die Kamera zeigt ihn nur von hinten, so dass sein Schweigen wirkt, als stünde er auf dem Schlauch.
Durch sein Bemühen, knapp eine Woche vor der Wahl nochmal alle SPD-Themen aufzuzählen, wirken Schulz‘ Antworten manchmal sprunghaft. Doch er kann an vielen Stellen punkten: Ob er genau wie Merkel gerade auch mit schwierigen internationalen Partnern auf Augenhöhe sprechen könne? Durch seine frühere Funktion als Präsident des Europäischen Parlaments kenne er die internationalen Staats- und Regierungschefs sehr gut. Doch er werde gegenüber Trump und Erdogan nicht so zurückhaltend sein wie Angela Merkel.
Wie er die Waffenexporte in Krisengebiete beenden wolle? Ein Reduzieren deutscher Waffenexporte allein werde nicht reichen, antwortet Schulz – er will auch die Rüstung begrenzen. Und kritisiert Merkel: Die brauche – indem sie das Zwei-Prozent-Ziel der Nato akzeptiere – pro Jahr 25 bis 30 Milliarden mehr für die Rüstung. Sie wolle dieses Geld aus dem Bundeshaushalt nehmen. „Ich auch, aber für Kitagebührenfreiheit, die Investitionen in die Pflege, die Verkehrswende.“
Der Herausforderer lässt keine Gelegenheit aus, um die Unterschiede zur Bundeskanzlerin und zur Union zu betonen. Auch das ist womöglich eine Lehre aus dem TV-Duell, wo die beiden Konkurrenten als sehr harmonisch wahrgenommen wurden.
Angesprochen auf die dramatische Entwicklung der Miet- und Immobilienpreise – eine junge Akademikerfamilie mit zwei Einkommen könne sich ein Haus in Darmstadt nicht mehr leisten – wirbt er für die Mietpreisbremse: „Ich wollte sie mit meiner Partei verschärfen, Merkel hat das abgelehnt“. Schulz nutzt die Gelegenheit, um gleich nochmal für kostenlose Kitagebühren zu werben. Denn auch das würde die finanzielle Belastung der Fragestellerin schließlich senken.
„Oh ja, es gibt Unterschiede und über die kann am 24. September abgestimmt werden“, resümiert Schulz bei einem seiner Lieblingsthemen – der Musterfeststellungsklage gegen VW. „Ich bin der Einzige in Deutschland, der massiv auf diesem Thema beharrt“, sagt er. Die Musterklage, verfasst von SPD-Justizminister Heiko Maas, der sich dann viele Betroffene anschließen könnten, liege vor. „Und wissen Sie, wo sie liegt? Im Kanzleramt!“ Er habe die Kanzlerin x-mal danach gefragt., doch das Gesetz sei ihr nicht präzise genug. „Ja, dann schreiben Sie doch rein, was Sie präzisiert haben wollen.“
Wie sehr Schulz bei der Tuchfühlung mit den Bürgern in seinem Element ist, wird ganz am Ende der Wahlarena noch einmal deutlich, als er sich gegen den Protest der Moderatoren noch einen Schlussatz vorbehält: „So etwas wie das hier müssten Bundeskanzler einmal im Monat machen, irgendwo hingehen und sich das anhören.“

© Source: http://www.tagesschau.de/inland/btw17/schulz-wahlarena-103.html
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Equifax reportedly suffered a hack earlier than disclosed

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Credit-reporting firm says „incident“ in March was unrelated to massive hack revealed earlier this month.
Equifax confirmed it suffered an „incident“ in March that led to its hiring cybersecurity firm Mandiant, a specialist in resolving data breaches
Equifax may have suffered a data breach several months before the date it disclosed earlier this month for the massive hack that exposed the personal financial information for roughly half the US population.
Equifax detected a major breach of its computer network in March, Bloomberg reported Monday. That hack would have come nearly five months before a months-long hack exposed a treasure trove of financial data from as many as 143 million people in the US, including names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and addresses of customers.
Equifax has said it learned about that breach on July 29, but the hack wasn’t publicly revealed for more than a month.
On Monday, Equifax confirmed it suffered an „incident“ in March that led to its hiring cybersecurity firm Mandiant, a specialist in resolving data breaches. But it denied the March incident was related to the massive hack revealed earlier this month.
„Equifax complied fully with all consumer notification requirements related to the March incident,“ an Equifax spokesperson said in a statement. „The two events are not related.“
The company has been under intense scrutiny since the hack was revealed on Sept. 7. A pair of influential US senators have sent a letter to Equifax CEO Rick Smith demanding details about the hack, including information about when authorities and board members were informed of the hack.
They specifically want to know details of nearly $1.8 million in stock sales made by Equifax executives, including the company’s chief financial officer, three days after the breach was discovered and several weeks before it was made public.
The US Justice Department has reportedly opened a criminal investigation into the stock sales.

© Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/equifax-reportedly-suffered-a-hack-earlier-than-disclosed/
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Nächster Hurrikan rollt heran: "Maria" ist Sturm der höchsten Stufe

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Vor gerade einmal zwei Wochen verwüstete Hurrikan „Irma“ zahlreiche Karibikinseln und ganze Landstriche in den USA. Nun rollt bereits der nächste Mega-Sturm auf die Region zu.
Vor gerade einmal zwei Wochen verwüstete Hurrikan „Irma“ zahlreiche Karibikinseln und ganze Landstriche in den USA. Nun rollt bereits der nächste Mega-Sturm auf die Region zu.
Der in der Karibik wütende Sturm „Maria“ ist zu einem Hurrikan der höchsten Kategorie fünf heraufgestuft worden. Damit handele es sich um einen „potentiell katastrophalen“ Wirbelsturm, erklärte das Nationale Hurrikan-Zentrum der USA (NHC) in Miami. „Maria“ erreiche Windgeschwindigkeiten von bis zu 257 Stundenkilometern.
Der Sturm war laut NHC noch rund 24 Kilometer von der Insel Dominica entfernt. Wegen des Hurrikans gelten bereits auf mehreren Karibik-Inseln Unwetterwarnungen, auf der französischen Insel Guadeloupe wurden Evakuierungen eingeleitet. Dort drohten Überflutungen und Erdrutsche, hieß es zur Begründung. Die Bewohner der französischen Insel Martinique wurden angewiesen, wegen des gefährlichen Sturms drinnen zu bleiben.
Vor gerade einmal zwei Wochen war „Irma“, ein Hurrikan der höchsten Kategorie fünf, über die Karibik hinweggefegt und hatte dort schwere Zerstörungen angerichtet und mindestens 40 Menschen getötet. Anschließend wütete „Irma“ im US-Bundesstaat Florida.
Nach neuen Angaben vom Montag starben dort mindestens 50 Menschen infolge des Hurrikans. Auf dem Festland von Florida seien 34 Menschen durch „Irma“ ums Leben gekommen, teilten die Behörden mit. Bei dieser vorläufigen Bilanz wurden allerdings nicht die Opfer auf den Keys mitgezählt; auf der Inselkette vor Florida starben nach Angaben der zuständigen Bezirksverwaltung mindestens acht Menschen. Auch die acht Menschen, die in einem Altersheim bei Miami wegen Stromausfalls infolge des Sturms starben, wurden in der vorläufigen Bilanz noch nicht mitgezählt.
Quelle: n-tv.de

© Source: http://www.n-tv.de/panorama/Maria-ist-Sturm-der-hoechsten-Stufe-article20039989.html
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Red Sox may have used a Fitbit, not an Apple Watch, to snag Yankees signs

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In a major upset for Apple’s smartwatch brand, it appears that it was a Fitbit, not an Apple Watch, that the Red Sox used as a medium for their sign-stealing..
In a major upset for Apple’s smartwatch brand, it appears that it was a Fitbit, not an Apple Watch, that the Red Sox used as a medium for their sign-stealing in a recent ball game. The news comes from “a major league source” speaking to Boston Globe sports reporter Nick Cafardo. It’s unclear at this time whether the source himself or herself is major league or if they are MLB related.
While this may seem unimportant… well, let’s be honest. It is. But it’s the kind of unimportant that’s still worth noting. This is the kind of petty infamy that will be referenced for years, at least if smartwatches are around for that long.
If it’s good enough for the Red Sox to deploy against their natural enemy, it’s good enough for a lot of fans. It was probably a Blaze. We asked the MLB for details but they declined to comment.
Fitbit shares rose 0.15 percent on the news.

© Source: https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/18/red-sox-may-have-used-a-fitbit-not-an-apple-watch-to-snag-yankees-signs/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29
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国連改革でハイレベル会合開催 トランプ氏、官僚主義批判

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【ニューヨーク共同】 国連の 組織改革について各国の 指導者らが議論するハイレベル会合が18日、 ニューヨークの 国連本部で開かれた。 組織運営の 効率化や合理的な予算の 在り方、 透明性の 向上などを目指してトランプ米大統領がグテレス国連事務総長と連携して開催を主導した。 トラン…
【ニューヨーク共同】国連の組織改革について各国の指導者らが議論するハイレベル会合が18日、ニューヨークの国連本部で開かれた。組織運営の効率化や合理的な予算の在り方、透明性の向上などを目指してトランプ米大統領がグテレス国連事務総長と連携して開催を主導した。 トランプ氏は会合で、国連は官僚主義や古い体質が原因で「潜在的な能力を発揮できていない」と批判し、真の改革の必要性を強調。グテレス氏の改革に向けた取り組みを支持すると表明した。どの加盟国も不公平な負担を負うべきではないと述べ、米国が世界最大の拠出金を出している国連予算の在り方の見直しを訴えた。

© Source: http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/s/article/2017091801001824.html
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You better get a screen protector, iPhone repair costs are going up

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Careful with your iPhone. If you don’t have AppleCare+, getting the screen fixed will cost more for certain models.
Prone to cracking your iPhone screen? Bad news: it just got more expensive to get the displays on certain iPhone models repaired.
Eagle-eyed Reddit users discovered the change this weekend, noticing US screen repair prices have gone up $20 for the iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Screen repair prices for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will match the 6S/7 and 6S Plus/7 Plus, respectively.
So, instead of an iPhone 6S/7/8 screen repair costing $129, it now costs $149. And instead of an iPhone 6S Plus/7 Plus/8 Plus repair costing $149, it now costs $169. The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus go on sale Friday, September 22.
The price increases appear to be in effect across regions. Screen repairs in the UK are £156.44 for the iPhone 6S/7/8, and repairs for the Plus models are £176.44. In Australia, prices are AU$228.95 and AU$268.95, respectively.
The above fix-it prices are for iPhones that aren’t covered by AppleCare+. If you purchase Apple’s two-year extended warranty for your phone, then screen repairs cost $29 / £25 / AU$45 each (up to two).
Not that AppleCare+ was left out of Apple’s recent round of price increases. Last week, the tech giant upped the price of AppleCare+ for the iPhone 6S Plus/7 Plus/8 Plus to $149, a $20 increase in the US. AppleCare+ can be purchased for the phones‘ smaller counterparts for $129 / £129 / AU$189.
What’s more, AppleCare+ for the ultra-expensive iPhone X will cost $199 / £199 / AU$299. Considering the 10th anniversary iPhone X costs $999 / £999 / AU$1,579, it’s probably wise to get some insurance, but you’ll be paying a hefty price. iPhone X pre-orders begin October 27, and the phone goes on sale November 3.
Via The Verge

© Source: http://www.techradar.com/news/you-better-get-a-screen-protector-iphone-repair-costs-are-going-up
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“I would’ve never stood for it”: Hillary Clinton “won’t rule out” contesting Trump’s election

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Clinton pointed to recently overturned Kenyan election to suggest Russian election interference is now expanding
Topics:
Hillary Clinton, Politics News, Elections News, Media News, News
On Monday, as part of her post-election tour for her new book “What Happened,” Hillary Clinton appeared on a radio interview with host Terry Gross on WHYY’s “Fresh Air,” in which she found herself in a peculiar role-reversal with her former rival Donald Trump. In her most incendiary comments since the election, Clinton admitted that she would not rule out questioning the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s victory if the investigation into election meddling reveals that Russia’s “interference in the election is even deeper than we know now.”
“No, I wouldn’t rule it out,” Clinton responded when pressed by Gross.
Clinton’s former campaign chairman, John Podesta, appeared on Monday before one of the Senate committees leading an investigation on Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 election. Today, the former secretary of state expressly left open the possibility of a formal challenge of the results:
Clinton quickly made clear that such a challenge would create an extremely uncertain situation and is wholly unlikely. After noting that there have been “scholars” and “academics” who argue challenging the results would be possible, Clinton dismissed the idea: “I just don’t think we have a mechanism. ”
Clinton, of course, won the popular vote in November by nearly 3 million votes, but fell short in the Electoral College vote count. Clinton argued during the campaign that questioning the integrity of the presidential election outcome constituted a “direct threat” to U. S. democracy, while Trump repeatedly insisted the system was “rigged” against him.

© Source: http://www.salon.com/2017/09/18/i-wouldve-never-stood-for-it-hillary-clinton-wont-rule-out-contesting-trumps-election/
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In New York talks in advance of U. N. General Assembly, Netanyahu sought to keep spotlight on mistrust of Iran

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump, meeting in New York on Monday, discussed the two leaders’ shared aim of…
North Korea, Iran and the mass flight of minority Muslims from Myanmar are a few of the bigger challenges that await more than 100 heads of state government as the annual United Nations General Assembly gears up in New York.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump, meeting in New York on Monday, discussed the two leaders’ shared aim of “countering Iran’s malign influence in the region,” the White House said.
Trump and Netanyahu have previously bonded over mistrust toward Iran. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump denounced the landmark 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers as a terrible deal. Netanyahu had lobbied vehemently against the agreement, irritating the then-Obama administration by using a speech to both houses of Congress to make his case.
But Trump has softened his stance somewhat since taking office. Over the summer, his administration grudgingly declared that Tehran was in technical compliance with the accord, but that determination must be made every three months, and is next due in mid-October.
Netanyahu took an upbeat tone in a post-meeting tweet. “Was great meeting with you today,” he told Trump on Twitter. “Together we are bringing the US-Israel alliance to even greater heights.”
The White House said the two sides „discussed their continued cooperation across a range of issues and stressed their goals of countering Iran’s malign influence in the region and resolving the Syria crisis in a manner consistent with American and Israeli security interests.“
Without giving details, the statement said the two „also discussed their continuing efforts to achieve an enduring Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, the optimism in the region about peace, and expanding economic opportunities to improve conditions for peace.“
Those hopes for a regional buy-in for the peace process are in line with the U. S. position when Trump traveled to Israel in May and met with Netanyahu, but Israel’s Arab neighbors are very unlikely to sign on to a renewed peace effort that does not include concrete steps such as a halt to Jewish settlement-building.
Little pressure toward that end appears forthcoming from Washington. The White House statement said the president had promised Netanyahu to shield Israel against “unfair treatment” at the United Nations, which has repeatedly denounced settlement expansion.
As president-elect, Trump had expressed outrage last December when the outgoing Obama administration declined to exercise its veto power to block a U. N. Security Council resolution calling for a halt to Israel’s settlement activity on Palestinian lands.
Later in the week, Trump is to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The two had a less-than-cordial encounter during Trump’s visit to the region in May.

© Source: http://www.latimes.com/world/la-un-general-assembly-live-updates-white-house-says-trump-netanyahu-agree-1505773654-htmlstory.html
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Ohio man charged after scaring daughter with killer clown mask

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The young girl was apparently so frightened by the mask that she fled to a nearby car and jumped inside.
YOUNGSTOWN, OH — An Ohio man who says he was trying to punish his daughter without spanking her is now being charged with inducing panic after he scared her using a killer clown mask.
Police say 25-year-old Vernon Barrett Jr. put on the clown mask and began chasing his 6-year-old daughter Saturday night, according to the Washington Post. Barrett Jr. allegedly began chasing the girl outside of their apartment shortly before 10 p.m.
The young girl was apparently so frightened by the mask that she fled to a nearby car and jumped inside where she told a woman in the car she was being chased by a clown. Barrett arrived at the car and removed the girl from inside, while still wearing the mask.
The woman in the car called police, but before they arrived, the girl ran away from her dad again and to a neighbor’s apartment. That neighbor, Dion Santiago, said the girl was frightened and that he observed Barrett outside of the apartment still wearing the clown mask.
Satiago allegedly grabber his gun and fired a shot but it was not clear whether or not he shot at Barrett directly.
When police arrived, they found the two men arguing with one another as Barrett was still wearing the mask and the girl would not come outside. Police eventually determined what happened before arresting and charging Barrett with charged with child endangerment and inducing panic.
Santiago was charged with using weapons while intoxicated.
The girl was placed in the custody of Barrett’s girlfriend.
Coincidentially, the girl’s mother is currently in prison for child endangerment after she was convicted of stepping on the girl and breaking her ribs. Because of the past physical abuse issues, it appears Barrett was trying to find a different way to punish his child aside from physical punishment.
„Barrett said due to this he cannot discipline his daughter and reported they have been having behavior problems with J. B. at school and home,“ read a portion of the police report. „Barrett said that he decided to use the clown mask into scaring her to behave“ but that the ‚prank‘ got out of hand.“

© Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/us-world/index.ssf/2017/09/ohio_man_charged_after_scaring.html
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AP Exclusive: Evidence of spills at toxic site during floods

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The U. S. government received reports of three spills at one of Houston’s dirtiest Superfund toxic waste sites in the days after the drenching rains from Hurricane Harvey finally stopped.
PASADENA, Texas (AP) — The U. S. government received reports of three spills at one of Houston’s dirtiest Superfund toxic waste sites in the days after the drenching rains from Hurricane Harvey finally stopped. Aerial photos reviewed by The Associated Press show dark-colored water surrounding the site as the floods receded, flowing through Vince Bayou and into the city’s ship channel.
The reported spills, which have been not publicly detailed, occurred at U. S. Oil Recovery, a former petroleum industry waste processing plant contaminated with a dangerous brew of cancer-causing chemicals. On Aug. 29, the day Harvey’s remnants cleared out, a county pollution control team sent photos to the Environmental Protection Agency of three large concrete tanks flooded with water. That led PRP Group, the company overseeing the ongoing cleanup, to call a federal emergency hotline to report a spill affecting nearby Vince Bayou.
Over the next several days, the company reported two more spills of potentially contaminated storm water from U. S. Oil Recovery, according to reports and call logs obtained by the AP from the U. S. Coast Guard, which operates the National Response Center hotline. The EPA requires that spills of oil or hazardous substances in quantities that may be harmful to public health or the environment be immediately reported to the 24-hour hotline when public waterways are threatened.
The EPA has not publicly acknowledged the three spills that PRP Group reported to the Coast Guard. The agency said an on-scene coordinator was at the site last Wednesday and found no evidence that material had washed off the site. The EPA says it is still assessing the scene.
The AP reported in the days after Harvey that at least seven Superfund sites in and around Houston were underwater during the record-shattering storm. Journalists surveyed the sites by boat, vehicle and on foot. U. S. Oil Recovery was not one of the sites visited by AP. EPA said at the time that its personnel had been unable to reach the sites, though they surveyed the locations using aerial photos.
Following AP’s report, EPA has been highlighting the federal agency’s response to the flooding at Superfund sites. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt reiterated that safeguarding the intensely-polluted sites is among his top priorities during a visit Friday to the San Jacinto River Waste Pits, one of the sites AP reported about two weeks ago.
Pruitt then boarded a Coast Guard aircraft for an aerial tour of other nearby Superfund sites flooded by Harvey, including U. S. Oil Recovery.
Photos taken Aug. 31 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows dark-colored water surrounding the site two days after the first spill was reported to the government hotline. While the photos do not prove contaminated materials leaked from U. S. Oil Recovery, they do show that as the murky floodwaters receded, they flowed through Vince Bayou and emptied into the ship channel leading to the San Jacinto River. The hotline caller identified Vince Bayou as the waterway affected by a spill of unknown material in unknown amounts.
Thomas Voltaggio, a retired EPA official who oversaw Superfund cleanups and emergency responses for more than two decades, reviewed the aerial photos, hotline reports and other documents obtained by AP.
“It is intuitively obvious that the rains and floods of the magnitude that occurred during Hurricane Harvey would have resulted in some level of contamination having been released to the environment,” said Voltaggio, who is now a private consultant. “Any contamination in those tanks would likely have entered Vince Bayou and potentially the Houston Ship Channel.”
He said the amount of contaminants spread from the site during the storm will likely never be known, making the environmental impact difficult to measure. The Houston Ship Channel was already a polluted waterway, with Texas state health officials warning that women of childbearing age and children should not eat fish or crabs caught there because of contamination from dioxins and PCBs.
PRP Group, the corporation formed to oversee the cleanup at U. S. Oil Recovery, said it reported the spills as legally required but said subsequent testing of storm water remaining in the affected tanks showed it met federal drinking water standards. The company declined to provide AP copies of those lab reports or a list of specific chemicals for which it tested, saying the EPA was expected to release that information soon.
U. S. Oil Recovery was shut down in 2010 after regulators determined operations there posed an environmental threat to Vince Bayou, which flows through the property in Pasadena. Pollution at the former hazardous waste treatment plant is so bad that Texas prosecutors charged the company’s owner, Klaus Genssler, with five criminal felonies. The German native fled the United States and is considered a fugitive. Genssler did not respond to efforts to contact him last week through his social media accounts or an email account linked to his website address.
More than 100 companies that sent hazardous materials and oily waste to U. S. Oil Recovery for processing are now paying for the multimillion-dollar cleanup there through a court-monitored settlement, including Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations Inc., U. S. Steel Corp. and Dow Chemical Co.
Past sampling of materials at the site revealed high concentrations of hazardous chemicals linked to cancer, such as benzene, ethylbenzene and trichloroethylene. The site also potentially contains toxic heavy metals, including mercury and arsenic.
A 2012 EPA study of the more than 500 Superfund sites across the United States located in flood zones specifically noted the risk that floodwaters might carry away and spread toxic materials over a wider area.
Over the past six years, remediation efforts at U. S. Oil Recovery have focused on the northern half of the site, including demolishing contaminated structures, removing an estimated 500 tons of sludge and hauling away more than 1,000 abandoned containers of waste.
PRP Group said the southern portion of the site, including the three waste tanks that flooded during Harvey, has not yet been fully cleaned. Over the years workers have removed more than 1.5 million gallons of liquid waste — enough to fill nearly three Olympic-sized swimming pools.
AP began asking the EPA whether contaminated material might have again leaked from U. S. Oil Recovery last week, after reviewing the aerial photos taken Aug. 31. The EPA said it visited the site on Sept. 4, nearly a week after site operators reported an initial spill, and again the following week. The EPA said that its staff saw no evidence that toxins had washed away from the scene during either visit.
“Yesterday, an EPA On-scene coordinator conducted an inspection of Vince Bayou to follow up on a rumor that material was offsite and did not find any evidence of a black oily discharge or material from the U. S. Oil Recovery site,” an EPA media release said on Thursday.
PRP Group said the spills occurred at the toxic waste site on Aug. 29, Sept. 6 and Sept. 7. One of the EPA’s media releases on Sept. 9, more than 11 days after the first call was made to the hotline, made reference to overflowing water at the scene, but did not describe it as a spill.
The company said it reported the first spill after Harvey’s floodwaters swamped the three tanks, filling them. The resulting pressure that built up in the tanks dislodged plugs blocking a series of interconnecting pipes, causing the second and third spills reported to the hotline the following week.
The company does not know how much material leaked from the tanks, soaking into the soil or flowing into nearby Vince Bayou. As part of its post-storm cleanup workers have vacuumed 63 truckloads holding about 315,000 gallons from the tanks.
The Superfund site is located just a few hundred yards from the Pollution Control Services offices for Harris County, which includes Houston. Its director, Bob Allen, says his team took pictures of the flooding on Aug. 29, when the area that includes the three big tanks was still underwater. The AP requested those photos as public records, but they have not yet been released.
Allen said his staff did not note any black water or oily sheen on the surface at the time, and did not collect water samples for testing. He said the EPA later sampled the area to determine whether there was contamination.
“We knew that the water probably got into the plant, probably washed out some of the stuff that was in the clarifier,” Allen said, referring to one of the old concrete tanks once used to store toxic waste. “Once they get done with the assessment of that site and the other Superfund Harris County sites, then they’ll probably let us know, let the public know, what’s been going on.
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Biesecker reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Reese Dunklin in Dallas and Jeff Horwitz in Washington contributed to this reporting.
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