Environmental Chemistry

This page will be contented in a timeline order, though not absolute. This page currently mentions London, Florida, California, and Texas, for case studies.

Coal.

Coal can be converted to gaseous, liquid, or low-sulfur, low-ash solid fuels such as coal char (coke) or solvent-refined coal (SRC). Coal conversion is an old idea. For example, a house belonging to William Murdock at Redruth, Cornwall, England, was illuminated with coal gas in 1792. The first municipal coal gas system was employed to light Pall Mall in London in 1807. The coal gas industry in the U.S. began in 1816. The early coal gas plants used coal pyrolysis (heating in the absence of air) to produce a hydrocarbon-rich product particularly useful for illumination. Later in the 1800s, the water gas process was developed, in which steam was impinged upon hot coal coke to produce a mixture consisting primarily of a (deadly) mixture of H₂ and CO. It was necessary to add volatile hydrocarbons to this “carbureted” water gas to bring its illuminating power up to that of gas prepared by coal pyrolysis. The U.S. had 11,000 coal gasifiers operating in the 1920s. At the peak of its use in 1947, the water gas method accounted for 57% of U.S. manufactured gas.

2 types of smog:

-London smog: the burning of coal for heat creates this. It's a mixture of sulfuric acid, sulfur dioxide, and soot/ash. This killed more than 8,000 people in London in Dec. 1952. That led to the U.K.'s Clean Air Act of 1956.

-Photochemical smog: when sunlight breaks certain chemicals down, such as breaking NO₂, to NO and O. O can further react to produce ozone, as well as with hydrocarbons and NO₂ to form peroxyacetylnitrates (PANs).

Smog is particularly harmful to plants. The 3 major oxidants involved in smog are ozone, PAN, and nitrogen oxides, in which PAN has the highest toxicity to plants. Exposure for several hours of PAN at levels of .02 to .05 ppm will damage vegetation. PAN damages the sulfhydryl group of proteins. However, PAN is usually in much lower levels than ozone, making ozone an issue. Brief exposure to approximately .06 ppm of ozone can temporarily cut photosynthesis rates in some plants by half.

In California, crop damages from ozone and smog is estimated to cost millions of dollars each year. Ponderosa and Jeffrey pines have been exposed to ozone and smog in California's San Bernardino Mountains, which led to chlorotic mottle and premature needle death. Ozone has also damaged soybean crops in the upper Midwest region.

Automobile exhaust.

Prior to catalytic converters, cars emitted 10 to 15 g / mile of unburned hydrocarbons. In 1975, the U.S. standard was changed to 1.5 g/mile (.9 g/mile for California), then .41 g/mile in 1980. In 1995, changed to .25 g/mile, then to .075 g/mile in 2004 (but for California, .05 g/mile).

Carbon dioxide.

CO₂ in the atmosphere increased about 318 ppm in 1960 to 372 ppm in 1998.

There are applications of CO₂ trapping IR. It is global warming. N₂ and O₂ gas do not trap IR but water vapor and CO₂ do. Water vapor in the atmosphere has stayed mostly the same since the year 1000, as with CO₂ up until the year 1750. But since then, CO₂ in the atmosphere has increased by more than 28%, and even more for CH₄ (methane). Human activities are the primary reason for the rise in CO₂ and CH₄.

Chemists have been monitoring atmospheric CO₂ concentrations since 1958. Data before 1958 came from analyses of air trapped in bubbles of glacial ice, and ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland, which can go as far back as 160,000 years.

Nitrous oxide.

A single N₂O molecule has almost 300x the global warming potential of a CO₂ molecule, making it a powerful GHG which contributes about 6% to global climate change. Nitrous oxide also reacts with ozone in the stratosphere causing depletion of stratospheric ozone which subsequently increases the risk of harmful UV radiation reaching the earth. It is released during the terminal step of bacterial denitrification (about 70%), as well as modern agricultural practices, livestock waste management, and the use of nitrogen-rich fertilizers.

In 2020, the U.S. nitrous oxide emissions were 74% from agricultural soil management, 6% wastewater treatment, 5% stationary combustion, 5% chemical production, 5% manure management, 4% transportation, and 1% other.

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The U.S. EPA was proposed by President Nixon on July 9, 1970. It began operation on Dec. 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order.

In 1970, the U.S. passed the Clean Air Act (albeit on Dec. 31, 1970). Prior to that, cars emitted unburned hydrocarbons and oxides of both sulfur and nitrogen. Gasoline such as tetraethyllead, contained lead. In the early 1920s, scientists found that adding a little bit of tetraethyllead to gasoline (1 mL per L of gasoline) increased the octane rating by 10 to 15 points. So, the Clean Air Act mandated cars now have catalytic converters (1975), and the ban of lead in any gasoline. Recycling also started.

In 1974, the U.S. Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act. This law requires EPA to determine the level of contaminants in drinking water at which no adverse health effects are likely to occur with an adequate margin of safety. These non-enforceable health goals, based solely on possible health risks are called maximum contaminant level goals (MCLG).

In 1980, came the CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act), known as the Superfund law, which gave the U.S. EPA the authority to clean up hazardous waste and seek compensation from the responsible parties. This was due to the Love Canal incident in New York, 1978. In the 1940s and '50s, Hooker Chemical buried around 21,000 tons of chemical waste (including dioxins) in a landfill which was later sold for residential development, which led to residents noticing health problems in the 1970s.

The Clean Air Act of 1990 required power plants to reduce their sulfur emissions by 80%. This will help acid rain become less acidic. Uncontaminated rain is still slightly acidic, at pH of 5.6 (west coast of the U.S.), but acid rain has a pH of 4.4 (Pennsylvania area). The Chicagoland area has a rain pH of around 4.9.

The EPA initially set regulations for lead in drinking water in 1991 under the Lead and Copper Rule. This rule established a maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG) of 0 for lead in drinking water. EPA has set this level based on the best available science which shows there is no safe level of exposure to lead. The fact that there is no safe level of exposure underscores the fact that any action to reduce exposures can have impacts on lives and livelihoods.

In 2001, the EPA set a new standard for arsenic in drinking water, changing from 50 ppb to 10 ppb.

Some U.S. standards as of Jan. 2006.

Arsenic .010 mg/L (10 ppb)
Cyanide .20 mg/L (200 ppb)
Fluoride 4.0 mg/L (4000 ppb)
Lead    .015 mg/L (15 ppb)
Mercury .002 mg/L (2 ppb)

It is safe to shower in lead and arsenic. Human skin does not absorb lead in water. State of Massachusetts says showering in arsenic is safe if below 500 ppb.

In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. Officials lowered their recommendation for drinking water fluoride levels in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, that can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids. In Aug. 2024, a federal agency determined "with moderate confidence" that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.

Gasoline and lead.

The phasing out of leaded gasoline caused lead emissions to drop about 94% between 1983 and 2002. The number of children with elevated lead levels in their blood fell from an estimated 3-4 million in the late 1970s to 434,000 in the 1990s, according to the EPA. Lead can still exist in old paint and contaminated dust and soil.

Gas stations.

According to National Petroleum News, there were 168,000 gas stations in the U.S. in 2004, down from about 200,000 in 1994, mainly due to stricter environmental regulations, heavy competition, and lower profit margins.

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Chlorofluorocarbons.

In 1991, DuPont started producing refrigerants that weren't harmful to the ozone layer. In 1996, the U.S. along with 140 other countries, stopped producing CFCs altogether.

This is how CFCs deplete the ozone layer: CF₂Cl₂ + UV light -> CF₂ + Cl. Cl + O₃ -> O₂ + ClO.

Global warming.

In 1992, representatives of 172 countries met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development, which was a conference that became known as the Earth Summit. Then in Dec. 1997, representatives of 130 countries met in Kyoto, Japan, to discuss the impact of human activies on global warming. Out of that meeting came an initiative to work toward a global treaty that would, among other things, spell out actions to be taken to reduce emissions of gases that cause global warming. In July 2001, in Bonn, Germany, 178 nations signed a treaty based on the Kyoto protocols (but the U.S. did not sign).

Petroleum.

Estimated of crude oil resources around the world have increased since 2000 with new discoveries. The high Arctic regions across the northern parts of Alaska, Canada, Norway, and Russia, are believed to contain very large petroleum resources. The largest oil find in 2011, was an estimated 250 million barrels of premium sweet crude oil beneath the Barents Sea located north of Norway and Russia.

The top-ranking countries for oil production before 2018 was Russia at 9.9 million barrels per day, then Saudi Arabia at 9.7 million barrels per day, then the U.S. at 9.1 million barrels per day. (In 2018, the U.S. became #1.). The top U.S. states for oil production is Texas at around 1.1 million barrels per day, then California at around 567,000 barrels per day, then North Dakota at approaching 400,000 barrel per day.

An annual production of 85 million barrels per day provides an estimated 40-year supply of these hydrocarbons.

Canada and Mexico are major oil suppliers to the U.S., with Canada alone accounting for nearly 4.6 million barrels per day in Oct. 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Pricing of petroleum.

Oil flush: happened 3 times in past 15 years, in 2014, Saudi, from $110/barrel down to $50/barrel, and again in Feb. 2016, at $43/barrel (West Texas Intermediate) or $27 (Brent Crude Oil). And then Covid flush, where in April 2020, as low as $22 (BCO) or $17 (WTI).

West Texas Intermediate was the earlier common benchmark in oil-pricing, but when U.S. oil production declined (due to pre-fracking) and North Sea oil production increased, it was supplemented by North Sea Brent. Brent crude oil are produced in the North Sea, between the Shetland Island and Norway. West Texas Intermediate oil is generally considered to be higher quality oil, with less sulfur and a higher density, than Brent crude oil.

Removal of CO₂ from atmosphere.

The average palm tree in southern California only removes about 5 lbs of CO₂ a year. In Oct. 2020, Miami Beach, FL, released a plan to reduce palm trees to no more than 25% of all trees by 2050, where currently it made up 57% of all trees (Arecaceae).

Besides having plants remove CO₂, another method is to have microalgae remove them. Microalgae fix CO₂ up to 10x faster than trees, and utilize sunlight much more efficiently than the land-based energy crops (such as corn, rapeseed, jatropha, and soybeans). From 1978 till 1996, a coordinated research program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy took place with the goal of finding an economical way to use microalgae to produce oil. But due to persistent low oil prices through the mid-1990s which made the algae process non-competitive, the project was eventually phased out. But in recent years, research and demonstration projects are back. Examples are the Cyanotech Corporation facility in Kona, Hawaii, sponsored by the National Energy Technology Laboratory, for an open-pond system, and GreenFuel Technologies in Arlington, Arizona. In July 2009, ExxonMobil announced that in conjunction with its partner, Synthetic Genomics, they would invest $600 million in a research and development project to produce biodiesel from algae.

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Lightning.

As of 2009, there are an estimated 25 million cloud-to-ground lightning bolts in the U.S. each year, killing about 45 people in 2007, or an average of 62 from 1978-2007. That number is small compared to number of fire deaths a year (about 3,000) and motor vehicle accidents (about 40,000). Tornadoes average killing 54 a year, while hurricanes average killing 49. Lightning is a result of ice in storm clouds.

Soil.

50-80% of the phosphorus in soils are organic phosphates, and 20-50% of those organic phosphates are inositol hexaphosphates (phytic acid). Phytic acid is the principal storage form of P in plant seeds.

Isoprene and Criegee intermediates.

The forests of the world emit about 500 teragrams (500 billion kg) of isoprene a year, in the U.S. mostly from the Blue Ridge Mountains, and in Australia, mostly from the Blue Mountains. Isoprene largely contributes to the light blue haze. It is the 2nd most abundant volatile organic compound in the atmosphere, behind methane. As an alkene, it is highly reactive and can affect ozone and methane formation. Alkene ozonolysis dominates the night contributing to 99% of atmospheric reactions, with only about 29% in the day time. Alkene ozonolysis reactions are highly exothermic (~50 kcal/mole or 210 kJ/mole) that produces Criegee intermediates with large excess internal energy. Criegee intermediates were 1st hypothesized in 1950, but weren't discovered until 2012 (as intermediates). They react with gases such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, as well as leading to the formation of aerosols, which are an important factor in controlling global climate. In the atmosphere, aerosols range up to 100 nm.

O₂ and O in the atmosphere.

Dioxygen absorbs much of the dangerous, high-energy radiation from the sun's spectrum, before it reaches the lower atmosphere. Dioxygen is broken into single oxygen. At 400 km, about 1% of the oxygen are O₂. At 130 km, the oxygen are at 50/50, so the atmosphere below 130 km have more O₂ than O. Between 90 and 30 km, singlet oxygen reacts with dioxygen to form ozone. Ozone is formed the most from this reaction at about 50 km above surface. Overall, about 90% of ozone is found in the stratosphere.

NO removal.

NO can be removed from implementing SCRs (selective catalytic reduction) with ammonia (NH₃-SCR), with TiO₂-supported vanadia as the most common catalysts, as they offer high sulfur resistance in the temperature range of 300 to 400 C. However, the challenge is finding catalysts that can perform under 250 C, as environmental regulations become more stringent. Unfortunately, the vanadium-based catalysts do not have high sulfur resistance below 250 C, due to the formation of ammonium bisulfate, which can physically block the pores in the catalyst, deteriorating the catalytic performance.

The standard selective catalytic reduction formula is 4NH₃ + 4NO + O₂ -> 4N₂ + 6H₂O.

The process of NO removal are boiler -> air heater -> electrostatic preciptator -> flue gas desulphurisation.

Worldwide energy consumption.

->12% of energy consumed globally in 2021 came from renewable sources, according to the IEA (International Energy Agency), up from ~7% in 2000.
-Yearly electricity generation by hydropower: 4.5 million GWh in 2022, up from 3.8 million in 2012. That's 55.9% hydropower, 26.5% wind, 16.2% photovoltaic, 1.2% geothermal, and .2% other.
-Fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas), made around 65% of total energy consumed worldwide in 2022.

Environment facts of the USA.

Washington leads the U.S. in electricity generation from hydroelectric power, California in electricity from geothermal resources, while Illinois in electricity from nuclear energy than any other state. As of 2021, Illinois has about 15% of the nation's economically recoverable coal reserves, 2nd only to Montana, and it is the nation's 4th-largest coal producer after Wyoming, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

Texas is the 2nd-largest lignite producer in the U.S., after North Dakota, and the 7th-largest coal producer overall.

Florida is the 2nd-largest producer of electricity in the U.S., after Texas, but almost half as much as Texas. In 2022, California had the 2nd-highest average price of electricity, after Hawaii, while Washington was among the 6 states with the lowest average electricity prices.

In Jan. 2019, Illinois also has the 11th highest gasoline tax by state, at 37.5 cents per gallon. Florida was 10th, at 41.4. The federal government levies an 18.4 cent tax on every gallon of gasoline sold in the U.S.

Illinois's gasoline tax, set to rise to 48.3 cents per gallon on 7/1/2025, was 19 cents before Gov. J. B. Pritzker doubled it in 2019. State lawmakers also agreed the tax would automatically rise with inflation each July 1, shielding them from responsibility for the increases. It now takes an extra $143 annually from each Illinois driver.

In Feb. 2025, it was announced that Chicago is in a phase of replacing old, rusted natural gas pipes, with yellow polythylene tubing, and hoping to replace more than 1,000 miles of pipes by 2035.

Trivia:

36% of Arizona's water comes from the Colorado River, as of 2021, from 226 miles of man-made canals.

Case-study: the largest water plant.

The James W. Jardine plant, the world's largest water plant at the time it launched in 1964, can treat 1 million gallons of water a minute, as of 2010. Water from the lake flows through 3 basins: 1st with chlorine, 2nd with fluoride, and 3rd with aluminum sulfate (alum) that mixes with a polymer, which makes the surface of microscopy solids sticky (the sticky buildup is called floc). Then it goes through some selectivity sand screen for filtration. The water is ready to drink after 8 hours.

For a more detailed process: liquefied chlorine comes in 8 1-ton cylinders, then runs through a heat exchanger. The pressure coming out of pumping stations is 45 psi, but cannot go below 28 psi. The only 2 protozoan parasite levels monitored are Cryptosporidium and Giardia, whom have strong resistance to chlorine. What are currently called filtration engineers in 2023, were called chemical engineers in the 1990s. They monitor the system 24/7, where on the large display screen they monitor, red means recording turbidity and green means not recording turbidity, and black means being repaired. 1 million gallons a minute equates to 1.44 billion gallons/day, and Chicago's smaller South side water plant can treat 720 million gallons/day.

Case studies: damages from hurricanes and related.

Florida.

Currently, Florida is worried about Hurricane Milton and it's potential damages to plants that have phosphogypsum stacks. Phosphogypsum is a byproduct of phosphate fertilizer production and contains radium, which decays into radon gas (both are radioactive and pose cancer risks). Phosphogypsum stacks also contain toxic heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and mercury.

Florida is home to over 1 billion tons of this waste, stored in massive stacks concentrated near phosphate mines in the state’s central region. Many of these waste stacks are now directly in the path of Hurricane Milton. Florida and North Carolina are responsible for mining 80% of the U.S. supply of phosphorous, which is crucial for agriculture and munitions production.

Piney Point wastewater reservoir near Tampa Bay, has a history of leaks. A 2021 breach released 215 million gallons of polluted water (along with nitrogen, phosphorus, ammonia, and phosphogypsum, which contains small amounts of uranium, radium, and thorium), causing widespread environmental damage (though this was not caused by a hurricane).

In 2004, Hurricane Frances caused 65 million gallons of acidic wastewater from phosphate stacks to spill into waterways, killing fish and damaging ecosystems.

A former pesticide production site, Stauffer Chemical Co., in Tarpon Spring, which closed in 1981, has had leaks that polluted the Anclote River, groundwater, and soil.

Texas.

2019 tornado: in the Dallas area, a tornado hit the KMCO chemical plant in Garland, Texas, which resulted in the release of hazardous materials into the surrounding environment, such as ethylene oxide and isobutylene.

Hurricane Harvey (2017): a Category 4 hurricane caused significant flooding across, which led to multiple chemical spills. One of the most serious incidents occurred at the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas. Flooding knocked out power to the plant, which caused the refrigeration systems to fail, resulting in fires, such as organic peroxides, but the fires released toxic fumes.

Hurricane Ike (2008): caused substantial damage to refineries (such as Texas City Refinery) and chemical plants (such as BASF plant in Freeport, and LyondellBasell in Houston) along the Gulf Coast. The damage resulted in chemical spills of oil (such as benzene, toluene, and xylene) into Galveston Bay and surrounding areas.

Damages from lightning.

-On April 27, 1968, lightning struck a storage tank on Philips Petroleum Company in Kansas City, which caused a fire and released petrochemical, which resulted in water contamination.

-On Dec. 19, 2007, a lightning strike caused an explosion in the T2 Laboratories in Jacksonville, FL, a company that specializes in producing chemicals for gasoline additives and solvents, releasing methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (MCMT). MCMT is used to improve octane levels. 4 workers died, and 14 were injured. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board concluded that the explosion was caused by insufficient cooling during the chemical reaction, which led to a runaway reaction that could not be controlled in time.

-On July 28, 2008, lightning struck a storage tank in ExxonMobil Refinery, in Baytown, TX, causing a fire and releasing petrochemical products. The fire did not spread, and only released air pollution.

News.

3M lawsuit of forever chemicals, released 6/22/2023:
The chemical and manufacturing giant 3M reached a $10.3 billion settlement on Thursday with U.S. cities and towns over their claims that the company contaminated drinking water with so-called forever chemicals used in everything from firefighting foam to nonstick coatings. Under the sweeping settlement, 3M said it would pay out the money over 13 years to any cities, counties and others across the country to test for and clean up perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, in public water supplies. 3M, which is facing about 4,000 lawsuits by states and municipalities for PFAS contamination, did not admit any liability. The company said the settlement covered remediation to water suppliers that detected the chemical “at any level or may do so in the future.” In a statement, the chairman and chief executive of 3M, Mike Roman, called the agreement “an important step forward for 3M” and said it built on “our announcement that we will exit all PFAS manufacturing by the end of 2025.” The settlement, which requires court approval, would put an end to legal claims including a test case brought by the city of Stuart, Florida, that had been scheduled for a trial before a federal judge on June 5. Mike Mortell, the city manager of Stuart, said the community was “grateful” that the settlement had been reached. The deal followed a similar agreement with Chemours, DuPont and Corteva, which agreed on June 2 to pay $1.19 billion into a fund that will be used to remove PFAS from public drinking water systems.

PFAS have been linked to liver damage, developmental issues, reduced immune function and cancer, and are referred to as forever chemicals because of how persistently they remain in the human body and the environment. They have also been detected in hundreds of wild animal species around the world. The synthetic chemicals are so ubiquitous that nearly all Americans, including newborns, carry PFAS in their bloodstream, and as many as 200 million Americans are exposed to PFAS through their tap water, according to a peer-reviewed 2020 study. Hundreds of communities across the country have sued 3M and other PFAS manufacturers, claiming that their soil and water were contaminated by the chemicals, which are also used in food packaging and a wide variety of other products to make them resistant to heat, water, oil and corrosion. In 1 of those suits, the city of Stuart sued 3M and several other companies in federal court, claiming that its water supply had been contaminated by firefighting foam containing PFAS — used for decades in training exercises by the city’s Fire Department. But as 3M and the plaintiffs closed in on a settlement, they asked a federal judge in South Carolina to delay the trial so they could try to reach a deal instead. The judge gave the parties up to 21 days to reach a deal. While the settlement will go far in helping cities and towns address PFAS water contamination, local taxpayers will still be left footing much of the bills for cleanup, Mortell, who was previously Stuart’s city attorney, said in an earlier interview. He noted that in 2016, Stuart closed and replaced wells that were contaminating the local water supply but was still incurring cleanup costs. The city had estimated the damages and cleanup costs for Stuart alone at $100 million to $120 million, he said. “I don’t think we’ll ever get close to that much net to the city, so I think there is no making us whole,” Mortell said. Brunswick County, North Carolina, spent nearly $1 billion after extensive PFAS contamination was found in the Cape Fear watershed, and was still incurring about $2.9 million annually in expenses, a 2021 study found. Orange County, California, has also estimated that infrastructure needed to lower the levels of PFAS in its drinking water could cost $1 billion. In addition to approval by the federal judge in South Carolina, who is overseeing the so-called multidistrict litigation, the settlement needs the plaintiffs to sign on. The judge must also approve the reasonableness of any fee request from the dozens of law firms representing plaintiffs in the litigation. It is not uncommon for plaintiffs’ lawyers to take home as much as 30% of any settlement. 3M said in a statement that it would continue to address other PFAS litigation “by defending itself in court or through negotiated resolutions, all as appropriate.” Researchers have sought to put a dollar value on the health harms from PFAS in the U.S: a 2022 study found the costs of treating diseases attributable to PFAS exposure to be as much as $62.6 billion. And when the country proposed a rule last year to strengthen drinking water standards for PFAS, the EPA calculated an annual benefit of $533 million in improved cardiovascular health, $300 million in reduced renal cell carcinoma and $178 million from the reduction of low birth-weight births across the United States. Analysts at Morningstar (a research firm), estimate that 3M’s total liabilities related to PFAS could grow to as much as $30 billion as state, foreign and personal injury claims are factored in. PFAS cleanup efforts have taken on more urgency since the EPA said the government would for the 1st time propose regulation to require near-0 levels of the chemicals in drinking water, after determining that almost no amount of exposure is safe. Some industry groups said the Biden administration had created an impossible standard that would cost manufacturers and municipal water agencies billions of dollars. Industries would have to stop discharging the chemicals into waterways, and water utilities would have to test for the PFAS chemicals and remove them. Communities with limited resources will be hardest hit by the new rule, they warned.

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What can be done about forever chemicals?

Porous cross-linked β-cyclodextrin polymers are promising adsorbents with demonstrated removal of per- and polyfluroalkyl substances from contaminated water sources.

How much PFAS are in our waterways and rainwater?

In 2024, the EPA set tentative limits of PFAS at 4.0 ng/L (.004 ppt or .000004 ppb) for PFOA and PFOS, and 10 ng/L for PFHxS, PFNA, and HFPO-DA, for drinking water. But for aquatic life (rivers that won't be used for drinking water) at .1 mg/L for PFOA, and .00025 mg/L for PFOS, and without specifying limits of the rest.

According to a professor from Loyola University that sampled Lake Michigan and parts of the Chicago River from summer 2024 to spring 2025, there were 40 types of PFAS in 9 categories found. The 2 types detected the most, are PFCAs (carboxylic acid) and PFSAs (sulfonic acid). PFOAs dominate PFCAs while PFOS dominate PFSAs.

Rainwater matched Lake Michigan levels of 7.5 ng/L. The Chicago River varied from 1 to 5 ng/L, with a lot around 1.5 ng/L. The highest levels are near northwest Indiana that enter the Calumet River, at 50 ng/L.

In North Carolina, Cape Fear River had elevated PFAS (from Chemours) at some samples showing over 1000 ppt. A 2020 study found the Ohio River at 70 ppt.

History of recycling.

USA.

In 1968, only 2 American cities collected recyclables at the curbside, Madison and San Francisco.. And they only collected newspapers. 8 years later, more than 100 curbside programs were operating. Modern MRF's began shortly after 1976, when Peter Karter established Resource Recovery Systems, Inc. in Branford, Connecticut, the 1st materials recovery facility (MRF) in the US.

UK.

There were a series of recycling (then called "salvage") campaigns in Britain during the Second World War, perhaps the best known being the collection of aluminium pots and pans, which housewives were assured would be turned into Spitfires. Another less productive effort was the collection of Victorian iron railings which adorned the front gardens of many urban houses, churches, and businesses; the iron recovered was of such poor quality that heaps of railings remained at steel works until the 1970s, others were used as ballast in ships or allegedly just dumped in the sea.

Charities used to collect old newspapers for recycling in the 1970s and 1980s. The reward was about £20 per Imperial ton, which was pretty much a roomful. In the 1990s aluminium drinks cans were also collected, which required less space (but more wasps). Both income streams were lost when local councils began recycling.

Canada.

In Toronto, 1983, garbage was collected twice a week. Then in 1988 every household was given a blue box to be used to recycle glass and plastic bottles; they changed 1 of the garbage collections to a blue-box collection. Recycling of other materials followed over the next few years and has continued to expand, now using wheeled-bins instead of open boxes.

Netherlands.

By the late 1980s you could throw glass in 3 containers (white, green, or brown) near a local store. Plastic recycling from household waste started in the mid-2000s, with drinking cartons being added in the early 2010s.

History of smoking regulations in the U.S.

In the 1st decade of the 1900s, Americans smoked 4.2 billion cigarettes annually, and in the 1910s, fueled by the stress of a global conflict, that number rose to 24.3 billion. In the 1920s, when the cigarette became a symbol of women’s struggle for enfranchisement and equality, cigarette sales exploded to 80 billion units per year. Between 1896 and 1917, more than a dozen states enacted anticigarette laws banning the manufacture, sale, and use of cigarettes. By 1927, those statutes had been repealed. World War II and the ubiquity of smoking in Hollywood movies sustained the cigarette’s growth throughout the 1940s. In 1950, 50% of the U.S. adult population smoked cigarettes, compared with 1% in 1900. With smoking so prevalent, social norms favored a smoker’s “right” to smoke: “Smokers naturally stopped asking permission to smoke and started smoking whenever and wherever they wanted. As a result, tradition and custom dictated that a cigarette could be smoked virtually at any time and at any place.”

The federal government began to regulate tobacco companies in the 1960s, prompted by an explosion of reports attributing the rise in cases of lung cancer to cigarette smoking. The 1964 Surgeon General’s report, the landmark report of that era, concluded that “cigarette smoking is a health hazard of sufficient importance in the U.S. to warrant appropriate remedial action. Cigarette smoking is causally related to lung cancer in men; the magnitude of the effect of cigarette smoking far outweighs all other factors. The data for women, though less extensive, point in the same direction.” In 1965, Congress enacted the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act, requiring that all cigarette packaging carry a warning that “cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health.” In light of the overwhelming and unequivocal evidence about the dangers of smoking that had emerged by then, Congress’s response was mild and, for the most part, ineffective. Yet, the Act represented a victory for health groups and other smoking-regulation activists: the federal government had recognized the harmful effects of smoking and had taken steps against the tobacco industry.

The federal regulators enacted the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1969, which prohibited the advertising of cigarettes on television and radio. But the real action was taking place at the state and local levels. During the 1970s, the smoking debate expanded to include the potential harm to nonsmokers.

Arizona is generally credited with enacting the 1st modern smoking ban. In 1973, the Arizona legislature passed a law prohibiting smoking in elevators, indoor theaters, libraries, museums, concert halls, and buses that were used by or open to the public. 2 years later, Minnesota passed the Clean Indoor Air Act, which banned smoking in certain public places and in workplaces. Smoking-regulation groups twice tried to push through similar laws in California—Proposition 5 in 1978 and Proposition 10 in 1980—but were defeated both times. They were more successful at the local level. In 1977, they persuaded the Berkeley City Council to enact an ordinance mandating separate sections for smokers and nonsmokers in restaurants and curbing smoking in other public places. 6 years later, the voters of San Francisco ratified a city ordinance requiring smoke-free areas for nonsmokers in office workplaces. These victories “encouraged people throughout the country to work for legislation to protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke and literally opened the door to the passage of hundreds of local laws regulating public smoking.” By the end of the 1970s, 28 states had passed laws restricting public smoking.

When the 1980s began, there were fewer than 100 local smoking bans; by the decade’s end, there were more than 500. California was at the forefront of the smoking-regulation movement, boasting three-quarters of the counties and cities with workplace smoking restrictions. In 1994, California also enacted one of the nation’s toughest statewide smoking bans, restricting smoking in most “enclosed places of employment” and prohibiting smoking in bars after Jan. 1, 1998.

Since 1989, the nationwide trend has been toward weaker tobacco controls at the state level but a tremendous expansion in the number and strength of local ordinances. As of July 2006, there were 3000 municipal antismoking laws, 440 of which mandated 100% smoke-free workplaces, restaurants, and/or bars. More than 40% of the U.S. population lived in communities that were covered by state and/or local laws regulating 2nd-hand smoke. The general pattern in the battle for smoking restrictions is 1st to target elevators and public transportation, later moving on to schools, workplaces, restaurants, and, finally, bars. Some cities, such as El Paso, Texas, prohibit smoking in all public gathering places, such as bars, restaurants, and sports arenas. Other cities, such as Del Mar, California, have included beaches, parks, and other outdoor areas in their ordinances. As of 2007, no state, county, or city, except Calabasas, has enacted a general prohibition on outdoor smoking. The tobacco industry and smokers’ rights groups have had little success in fighting local smoking ordinances. For example, in 1993, they managed to defeat only 26 of 214 proposed local antismoking laws; the rest passed. At the federal level, by contrast, these groups quashed 144 of 145 antitobacco measures during the 100th congressional session alone. Consequently, the basic rule that has emerged from the tobacco-control battles is this: “The closer the issues are to the voters themselves, the more tobacco loses; and the more issues are handled out of sight and in [congressional] committees, the more tobacco wins.”

Municipal regulations.

In 2014, the Chicago City Council passed the Energy Benchmarking Ordinance, which requires buildings larger than 50,000 square feet to report their annual energy. Analysts discovered that the building built in the 1880s were the most energy-efficient, with the least energy-efficient being built in the 1950s. But the newer buildings are almost as efficient as the ones built in the 1880s. These are measured in EUIs (energy use intensity) where the smaller the number, the better. They're KBTU/sf/year (kilo British thermal units per square foot per year).

Green and blue hydrogen and ammonia plants.

Green = from water molecules.
Blue = from natural gas.

The 1st green hydrogen plant in the U.S. is H2B2’s SoHyCal facility in California (near Fresno), going live in November 2023. Plug Power is 2nd, in Jan. 2024, but at 5x more (15 tons/day from 3 tons/day).

The 1st blue hydrogen plant in the U.S. is widely recognized as the Air Products hydrogen production facility in Port Arthur, Texas, which began operating in 2013. It uses steam methane reforming of natural gas with carbon capture and storage. It captures over 1 million tons of CO₂ per year, injected underground for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in the Gulf Coast region. This project was developed with support from the U.S. Department of Energy, and it was the 1st large-scale U.S. project to combine hydrogen production with carbon-capture and storage, which defines blue hydrogen (hydrogen from fossil fuels with CO₂ capture).

The 1st green ammonia plant in the U.S., was on March 7, 2018, Greenfield Nitrogen unveiled plans for its green ammonia plant in Garner, Iowa. It uses electrolysis powered by renewable electricity (wind/solar) to produce hydrogen, then synthesizes it with nitrogen into ammonia using the Haber-Bosch process. However, as of mid-2025, it still has not begun operation.

The 1st blue ammonia plant in the U.S., meaning a plant that captures CO₂ emissions instead of emitting them, appears to be the project initiated by OCI Global in Beaumont, Texas. Construction began in Dec. 2022, and designed to produce 1.1 million metric tons of blue ammonia per year, supplied by hydrogen from Linde’s clean-energy system. In Aug. 2024, OCI agreed to sell the entire project to Woodside Energy for approximately $2.35 billion in cash. Woodside now leads the project, renamed "Beaumont New Ammonia." The project remains on track to begin ammonia production in the 2nd half of 2025, producing carbon-intensive ammonia initially, with low-carbon (blue) output set for late  2026, once the Linde hydrogen and Exxon Mobil CCS infrastructure are enabled.

Hydrogen plants.

Air Products are investing $4.5 billion to build the world's largest blue hydrogen facility in Louisiana. The company also canceled 3 other projects in early 2025, including its Massena green hydrogen project, due to regulatory and market changes. The Air Products Louisiana project has been on shaky ground ever since their board of directors sat through an investor led takeover with Norges bank and others telling Air Products to cut back on their hydrogen ambitions.

BP is also planning to build H2Teesside, 1 of the largest blue hydrogen facilities in the U.K.

BP partnered with Iberdrola to build a 25-megawatt green hydrogen project at its Castellon refinery, which it expects to be operational in the 2nd half of 2026.

BP also selected Cummins to supply a 100-megawatt proton exchange membrane electrolyzer for its largest project (Lingen) in Germany, which could produce as much as 11,000 tons of green hydrogen annually once commissioned in 2027.

Ammonia plants.

In 2023, Linde agreed to invest $1.8 billion to supply clean energy to a large-scale blue ammonia plant in Texas.

First Ammonia (in partnership with Uniper), are planning a modular green ammonia plant in Victoria, Texas. It plans to use solid oxide electrolyzers (SOECs), which is about 30% more efficient than standard methods, and use 100  MW module (~100,000  MTPA) expected to start in 2026.

Avina Clean Hydrogen is building the Nueces Green Ammonia project near Corpus Christi, Texas. At phase 1, they're expecting 100,000  MTPA green ammonia, with a goal to scale to 800,000  MTPA with 100% renewable energy. Phase  1 expected online in 2025, with expansion through 2027.

CF Industries are commissioning North America’s 1st commercial-scale green ammonia plant at Donaldsonville, Louisiana (~20,000 tons/year). This is being paired with blue ammonia expansion in joint ventures.

Maire Tecnimont / NextChem / Stamicarbon, are awarded a contract to build a 450  TPD green ammonia plant in the U.S., powered by renewables under their Stami Green Ammonia technology, with expected completion in 2026.

Case study, and news:

Cocaine usage and other illegal drugs found in sewers.

8/29/2025.

The sewage in Massachusett's exclusive Nantucket, a tourist island and retreat is full of cocaine, according to local authorities, who this summer began testing it to monitor potential drug use in a popular summer getaway for the rich and powerful. The population of the island increases to around 80,000 during the summer months (up from 14,000), and the average sale price for a single-family home was $2.3 million in the 1st quarter of 2018.