U.S. Supreme Court hands L.A. County a victory in water lawsuit

Los Angeles County got a reprieve in an ongoing dispute over who is responsible for pollution from storm water when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a ruling won by environmentalists.

However, the court's 9-0 decision Tuesday did not deal with the larger question of how to regulate storm water and urban runoff flowing into the region's waterways.

Gary Hildebrand, assistant deputy director of the county's Department of Public Works, said the court's decision "validates the approach the flood control district has been taking to deal with water management."

The ruling allows the district to move forward with updated storm water regulations that the regional water board put in place in November, he said.

The Natural Resources Defense Council and Santa Monica Baykeeper — now Los Angeles Waterkeeper — sued the flood control district in 2008 alleging that it had violated its storm water permit. The lawsuit cited high pollution readings at monitoring stations in the county's rivers.

Last year, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the county was liable for pollution in the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers, and referred to the water flowing from the "concrete channels" into the natural part of the lower river as discharges of pollutants.

The Supreme Court said the 9th Circuit's opinion rested on a mistaken premise and reversed it. The water flowing from one "concrete" section of the river to another section cannot be deemed a "discharge" of pollutants, the court said. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said "no pollutants are 'added' to a water body when water is merely transferred between different portions of that body."

Steve Fleischli, water program director and senior attorney with the National Resources Defense Council, said the question that the court decided was never in dispute between the parties. He called the ruling a "temporary setback" in efforts to hold the county accountable.

"It doesn't close the door on our enforcement efforts against the county, and it doesn't limit the county's obligation to comply with the Clean Water Act," he said.

County officials have also argued that the flood control district is not primarily to blame for the pollution in the rivers, because there are dozens of cities discharging polluted runoff upstream from the monitoring sites. With only one monitoring station in each river, it is difficult to find the original source of the pollution.

The Supreme Court did not weigh in on that point, but when the case was argued last month, the justices commented that the county needs a better means of monitoring storm water runoff.

In her opinion, Ginsburg noted that the renewed storm water permit put in place by the Los Angeles regional water board will include monitoring the water quality at "discharge points" where storm drains flow into the rivers, which will provide more localized data.

Hildebrand said the ruling will not have an impact on a parcel fee the county is pursuing to raise about $290 million a year for projects that would help clean up storm water pollution. A hearing on that proposal is set for Jan. 15, and the Board of Supervisors may vote then to place the proposed fee on the ballot.

abby.sewell@latimes.com

david.savage@latimes.com

Sewell reported from Los Angeles and Savage from Washington, D.C.

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AP Exclusive: Richardson pressing NKorean test ban

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Wednesday that his delegation is pressing North Korea to put a moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests and to allow more cell phones and an open Internet for its citizens.

Richardson told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview in Pyongyang that the group is also asking for fair and humane treatment for an American citizen detained in North Korea.

“The citizens of the DPRK (North Korea) will be better off with more cell phones and an active Internet. Those are the three messages we’ve given to a variety of foreign policy officials, scientists” and government officials, Richardson said.

He is accompanied by Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and Google Ideas think tank Director Jared Cohen on what Richardson has called a private, humanitarian trip. Schmidt, who is the highest-profile U.S. business executive to visit North Korea since leader Kim Jong Un took power a year ago, has not spoken publicly about the reasons behind the journey to North Korea.

The high-profile visit comes just weeks after North Korea launched a long-range rocket to send a satellite into space. Washington has condemned the launch as a banned test of missile technology.

Schmidt, who oversaw Google‘s expansion into a global Internet giant, speaks frequently about the importance of providing people around the world with Internet access and technology. Google now has offices in more than 40 countries, including all three of North Korea’s neighbors: Russia, South Korea and China, another country criticized for systematic Internet censorship.

He and Cohen have collaborated on a book about the Internet’s role in shaping society called “The New Digital Age” that comes out in April.

Using science and technology to build North Korea’s beleaguered economy was the highlight of a New Year’s Day speech by leader Kim Jong Un.

New red banners promoting slogans drawn from Kim’s speech line Pyongyang’s snowy streets, and North Koreans are still cramming to study the lengthy speech. It was the first time in 19 years for North Koreans to hear their leader give a New Year’s Day speech. During the rule of late leader Kim Jong Il, state policy was distributed through North Korea’s three main newspapers.

___

Follow AP’s bureau chief for Pyongyang and Seoul at www.twitter.com/newsjean.

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Ned Wertimer, doorman on 'Jeffersons,' dies at 89

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ned Wertimer, who played Ralph the Doorman on all 11 seasons of the CBS sitcom "The Jeffersons," has died.

Wertimer's manager Brad Lemack said Tuesday that the 89-year-old actor died at a Los Angeles-area nursing home on Jan. 2, following a November fall at his home in Burbank.

A native of Buffalo, N.Y., and a Navy pilot during World War II, Wertimer had one-off roles on dozens of TV shows from the early 1960s through the late 1980s, including "Car 54 Where Are You?" and "Mary Tyler Moore."

But he was best known by far as Ralph Hart, the uniformed, mustachioed doorman at the luxury apartment building on "The Jeffersons," the "All In the Family" spinoff that ran from 1975 to 1985.

The show's star, Sherman Hemsley, died July 24.

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Gaps Seen in Therapy for Suicidal Teenagers

Most adolescents who plan or attempt suicide have already received at least some mental health treatment, raising questions about the effectiveness of current approaches to helping troubled youths, according to the largest in-depth analysis to date of suicidal behaviors in American teenagers.

The study, in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, found that 55 percent of suicidal teenagers had received some therapy before they thought about suicide, planned it or tried to kill themselves, contradicting the widely held belief that suicide is due in part to a lack of access to treatment.

The findings, based on interviews with a nationwide sample of more than 6,000 teenagers and at least one parent of each, linked suicidal behavior to complex combinations of mood disorders like depression and behavior problems like attention-deficit and eating disorders, as well as alcohol and drug abuse.

The study found that about one in eight teenagers had persistent suicidal thoughts at some point, and that about a third of those who had suicidal thoughts had made an attempt, usually within a year of having the idea.

Previous studies have had similar findings, based on smaller, regional samples. But the new study is the first to suggest, in a large nationwide sample, that access to treatment does not make a big difference.

The study suggests that effective treatment for severely suicidal teenagers must address not just mood disorders, but also behavior problems that can lead to impulsive acts, experts said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,386 people between the ages of 13 and 18 committed suicide in 2010, the latest year for which numbers are available.

“I think one of the take-aways here is that treatment for depression may be necessary but not sufficient to prevent kids from attempting suicide,” said Dr. David Brent, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, who was not involved in the study. “We simply do not have empirically validated treatments for recurrent suicidal behavior.”

The report said nothing about whether the therapies given were state of the art or carefully done, said Matt Nock, a professor of psychology at Harvard and the lead author, and it is possible that some of the treatments prevented suicide attempts. “But it’s telling us we’ve got a long way to go to do this right,” Dr. Nock said. His co-authors included Ronald C. Kessler of Harvard and researchers from Boston University and Children’s Hospital Boston.

Margaret McConnell, a consultant in Alexandria, Va., said her daughter Alice, who killed herself in 2006 at the age of 17, was getting treatment at the time. “I think there might have been some carelessness in the way the treatment was done,” Ms. McConnell said, “and I was trusting a 17-year-old to manage her own medication. We found out after we lost her that she wasn’t taking it regularly.”

In the study, researchers surveyed 6,483 adolescents from the ages of 13 to 18 and found that 9 percent of male teenagers and 15 percent of female teenagers experienced some stretch of having persistent suicidal thoughts. Among girls, 5 percent made suicide plans and 6 percent made at least one attempt (some were unplanned).

Among boys, 3 percent made plans and 2 percent carried out attempts, which tended to be more lethal than girls’ attempts.

(Suicidal thinking or behavior was virtually unheard-of before age 10.)

Over all, about one-third of teenagers with persistent suicidal thoughts went on to make an attempt to take their own lives.

Almost all of the suicidal adolescents in the study qualified for some psychiatric diagnosis, whether depression, phobias or generalized anxiety disorder. Those with an added behavior problem — attention-deficit disorder, substance abuse, explosive anger — were more likely to act on thoughts of self-harm, the study found.

Doctors have tested a range of therapies to prevent or reduce recurrent suicidal behaviors, with mixed success. Medications can ease depression, but in some cases they can increase suicidal thinking. Talk therapy can contain some behavior problems, but not all.

One approach, called dialectical behavior therapy, has proved effective in reducing hospitalizations and suicide attempts in, among others, people with borderline personality disorder, who are highly prone to self-harm.

But suicidal teenagers who have a mixture of mood and behavior issues are difficult to reach. In one 2011 study, researchers at George Mason University reduced suicide attempts, hospitalizations, drinking and drug use among suicidal adolescent substance abusers. The study found that a combination of intensive treatments — talk therapy for mood problems, family-based therapy for behavior issues and patient-led reduction in drug use — was more effective than regular therapies.

“But that’s just one study, and it’s small,” said Dr. Brent of the University of Pittsburgh. “We can treat components of the overall problem, but that’s about all.”

Ms. McConnell said that her daughter’s depression had seemed mild and that there was no warning that she would take her life. “I think therapy does help a lot of people, if it’s handled right,” she said.

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Short sales in California surpass sales of foreclosed homes

When housing prices first went off the cliff, most mortgage lenders refused to cut deals with homeowners, choosing instead to repossess homes on a grand scale.

Five years and billions of dollars in losses later, many banks can't cut those deals fast enough, writing off large chunks of mortgage debt and even paying homeowners to move out.

In recent months, short sales — in which banks allow homeowners to sell for less than they owe — have surpassed sales of foreclosed homes in California for the first time since the start of the housing crash in 2007, according to real estate research firm DataQuick. The transactions now represent about a quarter of the market, a surge driven by rising home prices, government crackdowns on foreclosures and banks' increasing capacity to process the deals.

Lenders have revamped short sale departments, streamlining paperwork, creating new software systems and enlisting newly formed companies as liaisons with borrowers. Some institutions are even paying homeowners sizable sums to move, similar to "cash for keys" arrangements used as an alternative to eviction in foreclosures. Bank of America pays up to $30,000 in relocation assistance for certain successful short sales. JPMorgan Chase will pay up to $35,000. Wells Fargo offers similar aid, though it declined to specify an amount.

When William Morrison asked Bank of America to approve a short sale on his Seal Beach condo, the lender obliged in October — letting him sell for about $192,000 and forgiving an additional $98,000 he owed on his mortgage, according to public records. The bank threw in enough relocation assistance to cover one month's rent and the deposit on a new place.

"They gave me $3,000," Morrison said. "And that is exactly what it cost me to secure a little studio apartment in Seal Beach, pretty close to the old place."

The surge in short sales stems in part from last year's national mortgage settlement with the nation's five largest banks. To avoid going to court over foreclosure improprieties, the banks agreed to certain levels of debt forgiveness for underwater homeowners. Short sales count toward those commitments.

But the trend also marks a triumph of economic common sense. Short sales have long been less costly to banks than foreclosures. Homeowners often remain in a property until a new buyer is found, which helps banks avoid maintenance costs and keeps out squatters and vandals. Moreover, many buyers of foreclosures expect a discount, whereas banks aim to get market value for short sales.

"In general, short sales produce less of a loss than if the property goes through foreclosure," Wells Fargo spokesman Gary Kishner said. "In addition, the property is usually conveyed in better condition, which ultimately benefits the neighborhood."

On hold for months

At the height of the housing crisis, short sales seemed like a misnomer: neither short nor resulting in a sale. Homeowners waited months for a bank response to a short sale offer — often a rejection — even as banks deployed robo-signing factories to rubber-stamp foreclosures by the thousands. Properties with multiple loans proved particularly difficult to short-sell because each lender had to agree to take write-downs. Frustrated buyers moved on.

But banks now embrace the transactions, if only as a necessary evil. Ben Salem, a real estate agent for Rodeo Realty who specializes in distressed properties, has seen much of his business shift to short sales this year.

"You are seeing a lot of people from the foreclosure departments going over to short sale departments," Salem said. "What is happening is a good thing."

Since the crisis, major investors, including banks and government-sponsored mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have eased their rules to make short sales easier. New government programs offer more incentives to borrowers and banks, prompting lenders to work with buyers to market properties instead of waiting for offers to arrive.

Kimberly Dawson, a short sale specialist with Bank of America, said banks have simply become more adept at the transactions, which were rare before the housing bust. When a homeowner agrees to one of the bank's proactive short sales, the bank typically makes a decision on an offer in five to 10 days, she said. And with home prices rising and inventory tight, banks can more easily approve a sale.

"What we are looking for is market value. It is obviously the best thing for our investors and the community," Dawson said.

Forgiving debt, repairing credit

The incentives for short sales are more than just economic. Banks face a slew of new regulations after revelations of improper foreclosures based on forged or faulty paperwork. Avoiding foreclosure also means avoiding the legal hassle and expense of home repossessions.

"If you go through a short sale and a homeowner signs off on it, there is no downstream worry of litigation," said Sean O'Toole, founder of ForeclosureRadar.

Short sales have also become more beneficial for consumers. Banks now typically approve short sales that include deficiency waivers, meaning debt is forgiven. These kinds of short sales are less harmful to credit scores, according to Fair Isaac Corp., which developed the nation's most widely used credit-scoring formula.

For homeowners with hardships, such as job loss or illness, agreeing to a short sale means a waiting period of two years before the possibility of getting a new home loan backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, compared with three years for a foreclosure. A homeowner without such circumstances can also get a new loan two years after a short sale with a 20% down payment, compared with seven years for a foreclosure.

Leonard Roth hopes to use those two years to repair his finances so he can buy another house. He's working with his bank to short-sell his home in Redlands because he can no longer handle the monthly payment, which doubled to $2,800 after five years because of a variable rate.

"Two years," he said, "should give me enough time to save."

alejandro.lazo@latimes.com

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A Grand Central Market makeover? It could work

At 9 a.m. sharp, the man in the blue blazer swung a brass bell over his head, a rite that dates back to the Grand Central Market's opening day in 1917. A minute later, nearly every swivel chair at the China Cafe counter was filled, mostly by older men hunched over bowls of wonton soup.

"It's not a fancy place," said Concepcion Orellano, 57. "People come here because they are poor."

Owner Rinco Cheung, an experienced restaurateur and Hong Kong native, confided he didn't know what chop suey was until he took over China Cafe from his wife's cousin last year.

"It's very old-style," Cheung said, pointing out the menu boards overhead, which list several "egg fo yeung" dishes the owner also didn't recognize. "They love it like that," he added.

Which is precisely the problem. I too love the Grand Central Market: its Beaux Arts touches, the flowing script of the neon signs at each stall, the weird store names — "Jones Grain Mill" — the exposed pipes and pendant light fixtures.

And I'm a fan of the back-in-the-day comfort food and retro prices in the cavernous food hall between Broadway and Hill streets. On Friday, (small) avocados were on sale at one of the produce stands seven for $1, and Jose's Ice Cream Corner had cones for $1.50. The market, with its mix of Mexican, Chinese, Japanese and Middle Eastern food, is one of the last holdouts of the $5-or-less lunch plate in downtown Los Angeles.

But landmarks cannot live on nostalgia alone. And even the most militant preservationist has to see it's time to shake up the venerable food emporium. Downtown's population has exploded, but the Grand Central Market clearly is failing to bring in many of its new, upscale urbanistas. Last week, I saw more vacant space than I can remember at any point in the last decade.

Alarms went off after The Times reported on the planned makeover by Adele Yellin, president of the development company started by her late husband, Ira. The news bounced around the blogosphere, drawing complaints about a loss of authenticity. Times staff writer Joseph Serna denounced the gentrification of the "people's market."

The minds behind the chichi Ferry Building, a foodie mecca in San Francisco, are involved; a consultant told Times reporter Betty Hallock his "fantasy" is a pocket cafe or sushi bar under the stairs.

The consternation seems somewhat misplaced. The basement's tenants now are a passport photo place and one of those ubiquitous 99-cent-style discount stores; I doubt they'll be missed much.

But our history of slash-and-burn urban renewal does not give comfort. It brings to mind the Vietnam War tag line: We had to destroy the village to save it.

Bunker Hill was flattened. Nothing was preserved of the magnificent Ambassador Hotel when Los Angeles Unified converted it to a public school. Instead, the district built kitschy facsimiles of the hotel's Paul R. Williams-designed coffee shop and Cocoanut Grove nightclub. The once-glamorous Brown Derby icon sits atop a strip mall in Koreatown, robbed of any history or meaning.

I talked to Yellin and her developer, Rick Moses, and I believe they are sincere about maintaining the character of the market. After all, her late husband kept his promise not to make the place "Westside cute" during an earlier overhaul in the 1990s. The changes thus far are modest: the sawdust was removed, and the floors, pipes and ceiling are being scrubbed and polished.

"Yes, we want to clean it up, but we don't want to change the feel of it," Moses told me.

But how about also committing to structuring rents so that at least some portion of the market's offerings remain affordable?

It's only fair. The public has a sizable stake in the Grand Central Market. Local agencies financed $44 million in bonds for Ira Yellin's renovation of the historic market and the Homer Laughlin Building above it. The market today still owes the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the now-defunct L.A. Community Redevelopment Agency $32 million, Moses said.

People come downtown not simply for its historic charm, but because it's a beautiful mess — a hodgepodge of what came before, what's hot now, grit, glitz and authenticity.

Retired computer systems engineer Daniel Kerr took the train in from San Clemente to visit the China Cafe on Friday for the wonton soup but also to take in the action.

"I like city life," he said. "There's so much to see and to do. it's just interesting." Being on a fixed income, he'll probably have to cut back on the China Cafe if a meal there goes up to $10 or more, he said.

"I think it's so cool here," said Adrian Aguilar, 25, an El Monte native who recently moved into a loft downtown. "I love sushi, but this is just like straight from the streets of L.A."

Aguilar, tattooed and dressed head to toe in black, said he had musician friends coming in from New York and was "all excited to bring them to places like this."

Moses and Yellin say there is no intention to purge existing tenants, just to fill the holes. As a sign of good faith, they recently signed Las Morelianas, of pig snout taco fame, to a new lease.

Cheung kept the old menu and employees when he took over the China Cafe. This, along with his beer license, the only one in the market, undoubtedly helped him hang on to old customers. He has high hopes the new style can blend with the old. "Why not mix it all together?" he said.

What a concept: a real mixed-used project.

gale.holland@latimes.com

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Intel bets big on thin PCs and phones at Las Vegas show

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Top chipmaker Intel Corp on Monday announced shipments of a new low-power chip and showed off next-generation ultra thin laptops and convertible tablets in its latest bid to prove that the struggling PC industry still has a bright future.

At the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas , Intel said new energy-efficient processors for tablets and laptops are available now, and it outlined features like voice recognition and drastically improved battery life on future PCs.

“Absolutely all-day battery life where you just don’t have to bring your power brick at all anymore,” Kirk Skaugen, corporate vice president and general manager of Intel’s PC Client Group, said of laptops built with the company’s upcoming Haswell processor.

While macroeconomic troubles have weighed on sales for several quarters, the growing popularity of tablets and smartphones is seen as an existential threat to the PC industry.

Anxious to breathe new life into PCs and prove a recent slump in sales is not permanent, Intel and PC manufactures in Las Vegas this week will display a range of ultra thin laptops, dubbed Ultrabooks, and hybrid devices that convert into tablets.

On a stage flanked by dozens of tablets and laptops with rotatable and detachable screens, Skaugen said Intel’s newly available chip based on its current Ivy Bridge architecture sips just 7 watts of energy, more efficient than a previously planned 10 watts of power.

NO-EXCUSES PHONE

The Santa Clara, California-based company has long been king of the PC chip market, particularly through its historic “Wintel” alliance with Microsoft Corp, which led to breathtakingly high profit margins and an 80 percent market share.

But it has struggled to adapt its powerful PC processors for battery-powered smartphones and tablets, a fast-growing market led by Qualcomm Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, ARM Holdings Plc and others.

Mike Bell, who co-heads Intel’s mobile and wireless business, introduced a new processor platform, code named Lexington, targeted at low-priced smartphones in emerging markets like Latin America and Asia.

“It’s designed to be a no-excuses multimedia phone,” he said.

Acer, Safaricom and Lava have already agreed to use the new chips in future phones, Bell said.

A handful of manufacturers and telecom carriers in Europe and Asia have already launched smartphones using Intel’s Medfield processors this year. Google’s Motorola Mobility in September launched the Razr i in Europe and Latin America as the first handset of a multi-device agreement between the two groups.

But Intel is fighting an uphill battle in a market where chips made using technology from ARM Holdings have become ubiquitous. Intel also has yet to release a chip for 4G telephone networks, keeping it out of the running for major smartphone design wins in the United States.

Sales of smartphone processors soared 58 percent in the third quarter, but Intel had just 0.2 percent of that market, according to a recent report from Strategy Analytics.

By comparison, worldwide PC shipments fell 8.6 percent in the third quarter, according to IDC.

Intel said 3D cameras would be integrated in future Ultrabooks to allow consumers to use gestures and facial recognition to control their devices. Upcoming Ultrabooks will also include voice interaction, Skaugen said.

“We’re basically going to give the PC the same human senses we’ve all had,” he said.

Intel and other tech companies are increasingly looking for ways to let PCs and other devices use cameras, GPS chips, microphones and other kinds of sensors to predict their users’ needs.

“It’s this combination of computer devices doing things before you ask them to do it, in that they’re smart enough to know based on their sensors,” said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

(Reporting By Noel Randewich; Editing by Dan Grebler)

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'Mary Poppins' to close on Broadway in the spring

NEW YORK (AP) — "Mary Poppins" is closing up its big umbrella on Broadway.

An official close to the show's producers said Monday that the 6-year-old musical will end performances in March at the New Amsterdam Theatre and eventually be replaced by a musical adapted from the film "Aladdin."

The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak before the official announcement. The New York Post first reported the news, citing an anonymous source. A Disney representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Mary Poppins," co-produced by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh, is based both on the children's books by P.L. Travers and the 1964 movie starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. It tells the story of the world's most practically perfect nanny in Edwardian London.

With a big cast, lavish sets and stunts that include Mary flying with her umbrella and Bert the chimney sweep tap dancing upside-down, the show was a hit after opening in 2006, two years after debuting in London.

The show is part of Disney Theatrical Productions' five big Broadway hits from seven attempts since 1994 — a profitable list that includes "The Lion King" and the more recent "Newsies." That's way above the 3-in-10 average recoupment of most Broadway shows. "Mary Poppins" routinely grosses over $1 million every week despite the presence of touring versions.

When it closes, it will have been performed 2,619 times and have been seen by more than 4 million people. It recouped its initial Broadway investment within a year, and has gone on to be among the top 10 grossing shows for the past six years and top five for attendance. It will rank as the 22nd longest-running show in Broadway history.

Its soon-to-be vacant home at the New Amsterdam Theatre will be taken by the musical "Aladdin," which has melodies by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice — the same team who created the animated film version that starred Robin Williams. The musical, with a book by Chad Beguelin, had its premiere in Seattle in summer 2011.

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Oil Sand Industry in Canada Tied to Higher Carcinogen Level

Todd Korol/Reuters

An oil sands mine Fort McMurray, Alberta.

OTTAWA — The development of Alberta’s oil sands has increased levels of cancer-causing compounds in surrounding lakes well beyond natural levels, Canadian researchers reported in a study released on Monday. And they said the contamination covered a wider area than had previously been believed.

For the study, financed by the Canadian government, the researchers set out to develop a historical record of the contamination, analyzing sediment dating back about 50 years from six small and shallow lakes north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, the center of the oil sands industry. Layers of the sediment were tested for deposits of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, groups of chemicals associated with oil that in many cases have been found to cause cancer in humans after long-term exposure.

“One of the biggest challenges is that we lacked long-term data,” said John P. Smol, the paper’s lead author and a professor of biology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. “So some in industry have been saying that the pollution in the tar sands is natural, it’s always been there.”

The researchers found that to the contrary, the levels of those deposits have been steadily rising since large-scale oil sands production began in 1978.

Samples from one test site, the paper said, now show 2.5 to 23 times more PAHs in current sediment than in layers dating back to around 1960.

“We’re not saying these are poisonous ponds,” Professor Smol said. “But it’s going to get worse. It’s not too late but the trend is not looking good.” He said that the wilderness lakes studied by the group were now contaminated as much as lakes in urban centers.

The study is likely to provide further ammunition to critics of the industry, who already contend that oil extracted from Canada’s oil sands poses environmental hazards like toxic sludge ponds, greenhouse gas emissions and the destruction of boreal forests.

Battles are also under way over the proposed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would move the oil down through the western United States and down to refineries along the Gulf Coast, or an alternative pipeline that would transport the oil from landlocked Alberta to British Columbia for export to Asia.

The researchers, who included scientists at Environment Canada’s aquatic contaminants research division, chose to test for PAHs because they had been the subject of earlier studies, including one published in 2009 that analyzed the distribution of the chemicals in snowfall north of Fort McMurray. That research drew criticism from the government of Alberta and others for failing to provide a historical baseline.

“Now we have the smoking gun,” Professor Smol said.

He said he was not surprised that the analysis found a rise in PAH deposits after the industrial development of the oil sands, “but we needed the data.” He said he had not entirely expected, however, to observe the effect at the most remote test site, a lake that is about 50 miles to the north.

Asked about the study, Adam Sweet, a spokesman for Peter Kent, Canada’s environment minister, emphasized in an e-mail that with the exception of one lake very close to the oil sands, the levels of contaminants measured by the researchers “did not exceed Canadian guidelines and were low compared to urban areas.”

He added that an environmental monitoring program for the region announced last February 2012 was put into effect “to address the very concerns raised by such studies” and to “provide an improved understanding of the long-term cumulative effects of oil sands development.”

Earlier research has suggested several different ways that the chemicals could spread. Most oil sand production involve large-scale open-bit mining. The chemicals may become wind-borne when giant excavators dig them up and then deposit them into 400-ton dump trucks.

Upgraders at some oil sands projects that separate the oil bitumen from its surrounding sand are believed to emit PAHs. And some scientists believe that vast ponds holding wastewater from that upgrading and from other oil sand processes may be leaking PAHs and other chemicals into downstream bodies of water.

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Fire discovered on Boeing Dreamliner minutes after flight lands

A Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner passenger jet was found to be on fire 15 minutes after arriving at Boston's Logan International Airport from Tokyo, adding to the list of complications for the 17-month-old jet.

The fire found smoldering Monday in the plane's underbelly after passengers had deplaned prompted the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board to look into the incident.

The Dreamliner program has had numerous problems over the years.

The first large-passenger Dreamliner was delivered in September 2011, more than three years late because of design problems and supplier issues. Recently, the plane has run into turbulence over concerns about its safety.

In December, the FAA ordered inspections of fuel line connectors because of risks of leaks and possible fires.

On the same day, a United Airlines Dreamliner flight from Houston to Newark, N.J., was diverted to New Orleans after an electrical problem popped up mid-flight. After accepting delivery of the aircraft just a month earlier, Qatar Air later said it had grounded a Dreamliner for the same problem that United experienced.

Scott Hamilton, an aviation industry consultant and managing director of Leeham Co. in Issaquah, Wash., said there wasn't much known yet about Monday's incident to draw conclusions.

The NTSB "is investigating to see if there is a nexus between the problems," Hamilton said. "But it's way too soon to draw conclusions about what this means for the airplane."

Monday's fire was reported at 10:37 a.m. EST after cleaners boarded the plane belonging to Japan Airlines Co. and smelled smoke in the cabin. All 173 passengers and a crew of 11 had already exited the plane at the gate, said Matthew Brelis, spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which owns and operates the airport.

"The cause and source of the fire are under investigation," Brelis said. "There were no injuries and no damage to the airport."

Firefighters used infrared equipment to determine the source of the smoke and found a strong heat signature in the rear of the aircraft, he said.

The fire was fought for about 20 minutes by about 40 emergency responders belonging to the Massport Fire Rescue Department, Boston Emergency Medical Services and Boston Fire Department. The job involved about 15 vehicles, Brelis said.

Airport spokesman Richard Walsh said that a second fire erupted after a battery exploded, though that wasn't confirmed by the Massachusetts Port Authority.

A firefighter was treated for skin irritation likely caused by the battery explosion, Walsh said.

The extent of damage to the aircraft was unknown.

NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said an investigator had been sent to the scene.

"At this time, we're sending somebody to take a look at the airplane and gather information," Weiss said. "We should know more tomorrow."

Boeing spokeswoman Loretta Gunter said in a statement: "We are aware of the event and working with our customer. That's all we can offer at this time."

The Dreamliner, a twin-aisle aircraft that seats 210 to 290 passengers, is the first large passenger jet with more than half its structure made of composite materials (carbon fibers meshed together with epoxy) instead of aluminum sheets.

Major parts for the plane are assembled at various locations worldwide and then shipped to Boeing's facilities in Everett, Wash., where they are "snapped together" in three days once production hits full speed, compared with a month the conventional way.

william.hennigan@latimes.com

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