PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Department for Children and Families Commissioner To Head Vermont School Boards Association

The Vermont School Boards Association (VSBA) has appointed Stephen Dale of Montpelier to become Executive Director of the Association on January 1, 2011, when the VSBA’s current Executive Director, John Nelson, retires. Dale has been the Commissioner of the Vermont Department for Children and Families since 2005, and has worked as a leader and manager in the human services field for 37 years

In a statement announcing Dale’s appointment, VSBA President Kalee Roberts of Hyde Park noted Dale’s previous experience as a school board member and teacher, as well as his demonstrated ability to bring human services and education professionals together through the Baird Center for Children and Families in Burlington, where he served as Director from 1995 to 2004.

Dale explained his interest in working with school boards in Vermont by saying, “I am passionate about education and its ability to influence the future of children and families and the health of our communities and our state. I am committed to helping our schools and educational system find a way through this very challenging time. Our system of school governance requires that local school boards guide the way, district by district, and it is critical that they receive the very best support in that endeavor.”

Dale will join VSBA Associate Director Winton Goodrich and Operations Manager Kerri Lamb in delivering information and services to school boards throughout Vermont. Dale resides in Montpelier with his wife Wendy. His three grown children all attended Vermont public schools.

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Approval allows Fairfax and Fletcher to begin merger study

Fairfax, VT / November 16, 2010: In a 5-0 vote held at its November 16th meeting, the Vermont State Board of Education granted a waiver to the towns of Fairfax and Fletcher, allowing them to proceed with the merger process. Both towns will now begin a formal merger study pursuant with Act 153, to consider forming a Regional Education District (R.E.D.). This is the first waiver granted by the State Board.

A study committee will be established in December, comprised of 8 Fairfax residents and 2 Fletcher residents. This committee considers both town school districts and makes recommendations about the potential educational and fiscal advantages of the proposed merger. If the committee finds the merger to be beneficial, the process then advances to the Fletcher and Fairfax voters, who would need to determine whether the two districts will be merged in a special vote this spring. A positive vote by both communities is needed for a new Regional Education District to be formed.

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The most immediate challenge facing Vermont’s new Governor is the projected $112 million FY12 General Fund shortfall. Last year the legislature faced a budget gap of $154 million. Thanks to the final year of federal stimulus funding and hopeful projections for Challenge for Change savings, legislators went home believing that they had delivered a balanced budget.

If that begins to appear doubtful, the new legislature will have a chance to make mid-year corrections early in the new session. If despite those corrections the FY11 budget actually ends up well in the red, that will increase the gap not only for FY12, but also for the following three years.

In the past two years the legislature harvested the low-hanging budget fruit. Future savings will be increasingly harder to come by. The vaunted Challenge for Change process, adopted in 2010, promises to achieve $38 million in FY11 savings by improving the efficiency of government operations – without diminishing services.

The October CfC progress report illustrates how difficult this is. Each department is given a series of sweeping outcome statements, such as “produce outcomes for Vermonters that are the same as or better than outcomes delivered prior to redesign” and “increase employees’ engagement in their work.” The department must then select appropriate metrics, and show that they are moving positively. This is no easy task.

Corrections selected as a metric “the number of people returned to prison for technical violation of probation and parole, while ensuring public safety, shall decrease.” It can improve this metric simply by having its probation officers overlook violations, “while ensuring public safety”.

Another metric selected is “percent of students who report they feel that they help decide what goes on in their school.” To get the data, the students are given a questionnaire. This will produce savings?

The CfC authorizing legislation explicitly rules out practically anything that would actually produce significant savings. Programs must be maintained “without reducing government benefits, limiting benefit eligibility, or reducing personnel”. There can be no competition with the designated agency monopolies. Savings must be “reinvested” in program expansion.

Finance and Management Commissioner Jim Reardon reported that all but $3.1 million of the required savings have been “allocated”. But, he is quick to point out, “allocations” may or may not translate to dollar savings. If the CfC changes don’t turn up by next spring, the $112 million general fund deficit grows accordingly.

And that’s not all. Shumlin has promised to initiate single payer health care, universal preschools, and the extension of broadband services to every “last mile” in the state. He is eager to shut down Vermont Yankee in 2012, thus foregoing the millions of dollars in tax revenues it generates along with the state’s cheapest electricity. He has told the state employees union that there won’t be any more layoffs.

Will raising tax rates be his answer? During his recent campaign, Shumlin repeatedly boasted that he had been a key figure in three income tax rate reductions. (All three produced tax cuts for the wealthy, but that didn’t stop Shumlin from condemning his Republican opponent for favoring “tax cuts for the wealthy”.)

Ever since he was first elected to the House, Shumlin has been a determined opponent of sales tax increases. It would seem unlikely that he would succumb to the temptation to levy sales taxes on services. This is especially so because such service taxes are enormously unpopular with the service providers (accountants, lawyers, doctors, taxi drivers, barbers, beauticians, auto mechanics, plumbers, etc.). It would create a highly motivated constituency for “anybody but Shumlin” in 2012.

Shumlin also blasted his Republican opponent during the campaign for supporting a Douglas proposal that would have increased residential property tax rates (by shifting teachers retirement contributions onto the Education Fund.) Doing a 180° on this issue would also invite serious adverse political consequences.

One would think that Shumlin would thus rule out jacking income tax rates back up, or expanding the sales tax, or increasing the educational property tax burden. He is, however, justly renowned for his flexibility.

The crux of the problem is this: there is little prospect of further curbing state expenditures without making disruptive changes in services offered, client eligibility, employee compensation, provider payments, and protected monopolies. To get (narrowly) elected, the new Governor proposed sweeping new programs, and denounced every proposal for increasing taxes.

There was once a justly celebrated man who fed a multitude of thousands with a few loaves and fishes. Unfortunately Peter Shumlin is not likely to exhibit the requisite ability.

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Gov.-elect Peter Shumlin, right, announces that Jeb Spaulding, left, will be his Secretary of Administration

Gov.-elect Peter Shumlin announced five appointments to his administration on Monday. Shumlin has tapped state Treasurer Jeb Spaulding for the position of secretary of administration – the top job in state government.

Spaulding was just elected to his fifth term on Nov. 2.

“There’s no one I can think of who shares my view of a fiscally conservative and carefully managed state budget … that has the skills to do that, like Jeb,” Shumlin said.

Spaulding said when the governor-elect first asked him to serve as secretary, “My first reaction was, no, you’re joking, what’s the next question? But you know, I was persuaded by the fact that my experience does match pretty well with the job.”

Spaulding, the founder of Montpelier radio station WNCS, represented Washington County in the state Senate from 1985 to 2001. He served on the administrative rules, joint fiscal and appropriations committees. In 2002, he was elected treasurer and took office in 2003. Over the course of his tenure, the state’s bond rating has remained the best in New England. In 2009, he mulled a run for governor, then backed out of the race.

“If you’re somebody who loves public service … you have confidence in the governor, and you think you can contribute; it’s hard to say no,” Spaulding said.

Shumlin said he will name Spaulding’s successor in the state treasurer’s office in the coming weeks.

Spaulding’s appointment was something of a surprise because Sen. Susan Bartlett, one of Shumlin’s four rivals in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, was widely expected to be named the secretary of administration.

Instead, Bartlett, who was the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, will serve as a special assistant to the governor.

Shumlin said Bartlett will be the point person for expanding broadband, “making Vermont government more efficient,” reforming the health care system, curbing inmate recidivism rates and launching the pre-kindergarten initiative.

“Her skill is to take big ideas and make them happen,” Shumlin said.

Bartlett and Spaulding each have a reputation for financial conservatism.

Beth Robinson, left, will be special counsel, and Bill Lofy, right, will be chief of staff in the Shumlin admininstration

When asked if he was trying to send a message, Shumlin said: “I am a very fiscally cautious governor. I do not believe Vermont’s biggest problem is (that) our taxes are not high enough. I do believe we are spending beyond our ability to pay our bills, which is why we’re in the third year of having to dig deep into the cuts. So we have a lot of challenges. One is to bring what I call business skills to state government. I’m going to run state government like a business. You can’t achieve your dreams if you can’t balance your books.”

Shumlin said he would not be increasing taxes, but that he would likely support major changes to the state’s tax policies suggested by Vermont’s Blue Ribbon Tax Commission.

“I do believe Vermont’s current tax structure is discouraging growth, and taxes do matter among many other infrastructure changes that government can make to help grow jobs. I am so bullish on Vermont’s job creation, I think we have an extraordinary future, but it’s going to require making the right infrastructure judgments … tax policy’s a part of this.”

Bill Lofy, a resident of Jericho, Vt., who managed the transition for Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., and worked on Gaye Symington’s unsuccessful bid for governor in 2008, will be the governor’s chief of staff. Lofy will be responsible for hiring and firing staff. He told reporters the governor-elect has about 60 positions to fill before January. Douglas administration officials must submit their resignations within 30 days in order to be considered by Shumlin’s transition team. Lofy and two transition team members – Liz Bankowski and former Gov. Howard Dean – will help to vet the large number of resumes that find their way to transition team headquarters, a Victorian house on 128 State St.

“I find you get the best results when you have really bright people helping to make tough decisions,” Shumlin said.

Lofy said they will appoint agency secretaries first. He said he didn’t know if the transition team would attempt, as it looks to fill positions, to consolidate departments or change the structure of state agencies.

“The opportunity,” Shumlin said, “is for all of us to forget about party, forget about partisan politics, and to use the energy that comes with a new administration with new ideas and new vision to help Vermonters get back to work.”

Beth Robinson, an attorney for Langrock, Sperry and Wool, who is renowned for her role in helping to pass the state’s historic gay marriage legislation, will serve as special counsel for the new administration.

In an interview, Robinson said she will help Shumlin develop specific plans to fulfill his promise to operate a “transparent” administration.

Alex MacLean, Shumlin’s campaign manager, will be the administration’s communications specialist and head of civil and military affairs. It’s a post that was previously held by Jason Gibbs under the Douglas admininstration. When asked whether her appointment would appear partisan, Shumlin replied that MacLean earned her chops when she helped him run the Vermont Senate. Shumlin said he hadn’t decided whether he will hire a press secretary as well.

Shumlin, Bartlett and Spaulding said very little about the budget sessions now under way with Jim Reardon, commissioner of the Department of Finance and Management, and Neale Lunderville, secretary of administration for Gov. Jim Douglas. Bartlett predicted they wouldn’t have “anything new or interesting” to report until December.

The lobbyists and others in attendance included: Sen. John Campbell, Mike O’Neil of the Vermont Troopers Association; Heather Shouldice, an associate at William Shouldice, LLC; Lucie Garand, of Downs Rachlin Martin; and Adam Necrason, of Sirotkin and Necrason.

CORRECTION: Spaulding took office in 2002, not 2001 as was previously reported.

VTDigger

Corry Bliss, Dubie's campaign manager. Photo by Terry J. Allen

In Vermont’s just-concluded election for governor, “most ethically challenged” became a campaign mantra for Republican candidate Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie’s effort to paint ultimate winner, Democratic state Sen. Peter Shumlin, as untrustworthy. Compiled by VTdigger.org, via Internet search-engine Google, here is a representative sample of the war of words that coursed through Vermont’s political bloodstream from early-March to the Nov. 2 election, in print, press releases, the Internet and over the airwaves.

March 8, 2010. Fox Business Channel airs an interview with Democratic candidate for governor Peter Shumlin in which he mistakenly asserts Germany gets 30 percent of its electricity from solar power.
http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4087852/lawmaker-on-closing-nuclear-plant/?playlist_id=87053

March 12. “Yes Vermont Yankee,” a Web site advocating relicensing of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, posts a critical commentary and video of Shumlin’s Fox Business interview. Other critics soon begin to characterize Shumlin’s solar-power gaffe as a “lie.”
http://yesvy.blogspot.com/2010/03/shumlin-overstates-himself.html

March 13. VermontTiger.com, a self-described “free-market” blog, takes Shumlin to task for the error.
http://www.vermonttiger.com/content/2010/03/bad-infomation.html

March 15. The “energy collective,” a pro-business and pro-nuclear Web blog, reports Shumlin’s Fox Business appearance under the headline: “Vermont Senate President Peter Shumlin Caught Lying to the American People on Fox News.” (In fact, Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie is the Senate president; Shumlin is Senate President Pro-Tem.

March 17. Bob Audette, of the Brattleboro Reformer, reports Shumlin’s lengthy explanation of his Fox Business Channel comments after he gets a cascade of criticism for it.

March 17. A 7Days news story by reporter Andy Bromage reports the outcome of the weekly newspaper’s survey of Vermont legislators, lobbyists, and statehouse staffers and reporters, noting the lawmaker to get the most votes as “most ethically challenged” was Senate President Pro-tem Peter Shumlin. (The surveys sent out were returned by only 30 of the 400-person sample. A total of 12 of those 30 respondents checked off the “most ethically challenged” box for Shumlin.)
http://www.7dvt.com/2010legislative-survey

March 19, In a second article, after the first of many anti-Shumlin attack-ads appears based on the survey, reporter Andy Bromage defends 7Day’s decision to publish the survey. In the comments box following this story, 7Days co-publisher Paula Routly also defends publication, despite the low response rate.
http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2010/03/national-governors-association-fires-on-shumlin-using-7d-survey.html

March 22. Burlington Free Press Statehouse reporter Terri Hallenbeck reports in vt.Buzz, the Free Press blog, Shumlin’s error about Germany’s solar power usage and his explanation for his misstatements.
http://bfp-poltics.blogspot.com/2010/03/shumlin-out-foxed.html

June 23. 7Days publishes a lengthy Shumlin profile entitled “Peter Principled?” in which they leave out the context that the survey had a paltry response rate, leaving the reader to link back to an earlier story containing that context, or, for those who did not link back, with the impression the survey could be one of several indicators of Shumlin’s poor ethical character.
http://www.7dvt.com/2010peter-principled

Sept. 20. Kate Duffy of Brian Dubie’s campaign issues a press release and video using the 7Days survey as a basis for a sweeping “Shumlin-most-ethically-challenged” attack-ad theme that will continue
throughout the campaign.
http://vtdigger.org/2010/10/20/dubie-releases-new-shumlin-ethically-challenged-ad/shumlin-using-7d-survey.html

Sept. 29. Republican Governors Association TV ad also uses 7Days survey as basis for “most-ethically-challenged” label
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_S_ix34rrc

Oct. 6. Vermont Public Radio’s Mitch Wertlieb interviews Paula Routly of 7Days and St. Michael’s College journalism professor David Mindich on the “most-ethically-challenged” controversy. Routly staunchly defends publication of the survey. Mindich calls it “a fun, lighthearted survey…not scientific” but “definitely with room for manipulation…which 7Days acknowledged.”
http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/88943/

Oct. 6. Front-page blogger Jack McCullough at Green Mountain Daily.com, a staunchly pro-Democrat/progressive Web site, blisters Routly on the basis of that interview.
http://greenmountaindaily.com/diary/6892/paula-routly-cant-be-that-stupid

Oct. 7. Front-page Green Mountain Daily blogger Julie Waters points to contextual and statistical lapses in 7Days’ followup coverage of the survey controversy.
http://greenmountaindaily.com/diary/6894/basic-statistical-literacy-or-lack-thereof

Oct. 11. Blogger Jon Margolis, Vermont News Guy, provides some context for the subject of ethically challenged politicians and the Shumlin controversy. http://www.vermontnewsguy.com/ethical-quandary

Oct. 21. Shumlin campaign launches strong counter attack on the “most-ethically-challenged” allegations.
http://vtdigger.org/2010/10/21/shumlin-dubie-has-launched-most-negative-campaign-vermont-has-ever-seen/

Oct. 22. In Vermont Public Radio interview, state Sen. Dick Mazza, a moderate Democrat, tells reporter John Dillon some legislators he knew who filled out the 7Days survey treated it as a “joke.”
http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/89081/

Oct. 23. Norwich, Vt. direct mail copywriter Josh Manheimer, posts the video “When Pigs Fly” on his youtube channel, anyonebutdubie, ridiculing Dubie’s most-ethically-challenged claims against Shumlin and questioning Dubie’s temperament.
http://www.youtube.com/user/AnyoneButDubie

Oct. 23. Burlington Free Press reporter Nancy Remsen reports on Shumlin and Dubie’s last televised debate on WCAX, during which Dubie stands by his “ethically-challenged” charge and again cites the 7Days survey as proof.
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010101023021

Oct. 23. Controversy goes national with David Gram’s AP report of the WCAX debate.
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=213&sid=2070990

Oct. 25. VTdigger.org’s Anne Galloway posts her investigative roundup of all the most questionable campaign tactics both campaigns have employed, including the widely circulated link to the Dubie campaign’s Web list of “Peter Shumlin’s Top Ethical lapses,” which includes the 7Days survey findings.

Oct. 27. In a Mark Johnson WDEV radio interview, columnist and reporter Shay Totten of 7Days defends publication of the survey, repeating co-publisher Routly’s argument that its coverage contained adequate context for readers, and newspapers can’t be held responsible for how politicians use news stories for their own ends.
http://blog.markjohnsonshow.net/2010/10/28/102710-totten-pt-2.aspx

Oct. 29. Jerry Skapof of Manchester Center, in a strongly-worded letter to the editor of the Bennington Banner, deplores Dubie’s most-ethically-challenged attack on Shumlin, saying it has tarnished Dubie’s “nice-guy” image.

Oct. 29. Dave Gram’s AP account of a libel suit filed by a Vermont businessman against the Dubie campaign and its manager, Corry Bliss, (involving a different matter) lands on Bloomberg’s Businesweek Web site and others. The article also mentions the Dubie campaign’s list of Shumlin’s 11 “most ethical lapses.”
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9J5K29O0.htm

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Editor’s note: Potok grew up in Plainfield.

Montpelier ~ Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, will discuss the prevalence of hate groups in America in a talk at Montpelier’s Kellogg-Hubbard Library on Tuesday, November 23. His talk, “The State of Hate in America,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays lecture series and takes place at 7:00 p.m. (Note that this talk takes place on a Tuesday.)

Potok will consider what accounts for the dramatic growth of hate and other extremist groups and organized hatred in general, and how it might be stemmed.

Potok is director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project and editor of its award-winning Intelligence Report magazine. He leads the premier operation monitoring the extreme right in the world today. The Southern Poverty Law Center is a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society. Founded by civil rights lawyers Morris Dees and Joseph Levin Jr. in 1971, the SPLC is internationally known for tracking and exposing the activities of hate groups.

The Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays series is held on the first Wednesday of every month from October through May, featuring speakers of national and regional renown. Talks in Montpelier are held at Kellogg-Hubbard Library unless otherwise noted.

First Wednesdays is also presented in eight other communities statewide: Brattleboro (at Brooks Memorial Library); Burlington (at Fletcher Free Library); Manchester (at First Congregational Church, hosted by Mark Skinner Library); Middlebury (at Ilsley Public Library); Newport (at Goodrich Memorial Library); Norwich (at Norwich Congregational Church, hosted by Norwich Public Library and Norwich Historical Society); Rutland (at Rutland Free Library); and at St. Johnsbury Athenaeum. The program is free, accessible to people with disabilities and open to the public.

Upcoming Montpelier talks include “100 Years since Triangle: The Fire That Seared a Nation’s Conscience” with Dartmouth professor Annelise Orleck on January 5; “Civility in a Fractured Society” with National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman Jim Leach on February 2 (to be held at the Vermont State House at 7:30 p.m.); and “The Soul Selects Her Own Society: The Life and Work of Emily Dickinson” with Dartmouth professor Colleen Boggs on March 2.

The Vermont Department of Libraries is the statewide underwriter of First Wednesdays. The Montpelier First Wednesdays series is sponsored by National Life of Vermont. Kellogg-Hubbard Library is sponsored in honor of Mathew Rubin.

“The State of Hate in America” is sponsored by East Haven Windfarm and is a National Endowment for the Humanities We the People project: Sharing the lessons of history with all Americans.

The Vermont Humanities Council is a private nonprofit working to bring the power and the pleasure of the humanities to all Vermonters—of every background and in every community. The Council strives to make Vermont a state in which every individual reads, participates in public affairs, and continues to learn throughout life.

# # #

VTDigger

November 11, 2010

Contact: Larry Smith

Entergy Vermont Yankee

The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant reconnected to the New England power grid at 5:18 a.m., Thursday morning. Operators manually shut the plant down on Sunday night to repair a leak on a 24-inch feed water pipe located in the turbine building feed pump room.

The minor leak was found to be from a weld on a one half inch metal access plug in the pipe. The access plug was used for radiography of pipe welds during the original construction of the plant. Technicians have replaced the seal weld with a more substantial weld to the plug. The minor leakage, estimated at 120 drops per minute was collected via a floor drain and returned to the reactor. There was no threat to public health or safety or to plant personnel at any time.

Operators made the conservative decision to shut the plant down Sunday night based on the information available at the time regarding the leak in the high pressure feed water system and for worker safety. Plant personnel also repaired a leak on a one inch drain line connected to the plant’s high pressure coolant injection (HPCI) system.

Prior to the shut down on Sunday, the 650 megawatt plant had been operating continuously for 163 days.

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What: The Vermont Environmental Action Conference is the largest grassroots activism conference in the state. Over 250 environmental activists will gather and discuss how to ensure Vermont Yankee is retired on schedule and replaced with clean, renewable energy and how to advance a slew of other environmental issues from moving local foods and local businesses forward to protecting and expanding Vermont’s bottle bill. Attendees will also be addressed via video by Governor elect Peter Shumlin and hear a keynote from former Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, Vermont Law School Professor Pat Parenteau.

Where: Judd Gym, Vermont Technical College, Randolph, VT

When: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, Saturday November 13, 2010

Who: Over 250 members and supporters of the state’s largest grassroots environmental groups: Democracy For America, Toxics Action Center, True Majority, VT LCV, VNRC and VPIRG and over 70 cosponsoring organizations and businesses

Contact: Ben Walsh, Field Director, VPIRG. bwalsh@vpirg.org

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A mountain of asbestos tailings at the former Vermont Asbestos Group mine in Lowell. This photo, taken in November of 2007, shows Gary Lipson of the federal Environmental Protection Agency looking over a gray pool of runoff from the mine tailings. Photo by Bethany M. Dunbar

Editor’s note: This story first appeared in the Barton Chronicle.

For decades, a couple of giant piles of asbestos tailings have loomed over the remnants of the once thriving Vermont Asbestos Group (VAG) mine in Lowell and Eden.

The mine closed in 1993 because of a sharply diminished market for asbestos due to health concerns. What remains of what was once the biggest asbestos mine in the United States — and by the late 1980s one of only two in the country — is roughly 50 to 70 million tons of tailings. State and federal officials are trying to prevent the asbestos from migrating off the site and contaminating air or water.

But what if, somehow, all that toxic waste was rendered innocuous? That’s the question Hannah McHardy is trying to answer.

In January, while in her final year at Sterling in Craftsbury Common, McHardy became interested in the tailings that remain at the former mine and the problems they pose in the way of cleanup.

With assistance from Professor Charlotte Rosendahl, Ms. McHardy began researching strains of fungi in hopes of finding one that breaks down chrysotile asbestos.

Ms. McHardy said her work builds on research started about a decade ago in Italy. She said her research has two aims: to find out whether the fungal species identified by the University of Turin in Italy to break down chrysotile asbestos naturally occurs in the asbestos-laden soil at the VAG mine, and to determine the extent of morphological changes to chrysotile asbestos fibers from the mine when they’re incubated with native fungi.

That’s the scientific way of saying that Ms. McHardy is looking for fungi that will essentially “eat” the asbestos.

The Italian research was done on the same type of asbestos found in the Lowell mine, Ms. McHardy said.

Asbestos’ toxicity to humans is related to its needle-like structure. Some species of fungi have been found to remove magnesium, silica, and iron from the chrysotile fibers, thus affecting their structure.

“We’re experimenting with the fungi and asbestos native to the mine site to see if there’s a morphological change in the asbestos fibers after the fungi remove these minerals,” she said. “If the asbestos is rendered amorphous, meaning it no longer has its needle-like structure, then it may no longer pose a toxic risk to humans.

“When it comes to cleaning up toxic waste, scientists keep finding that nature knows best,” Ms. McHardy said. “By mimicking nature’s adaptive processes, the VAG mine site could be remediated using less equipment and labor, and with less disturbance of asbestos into the air.”

Howard Manosh, an owner of the mine, attended Ms. McHardy’s senior research presentation about the project, got interested, and contributed money to continue the work.

“I think it’s worth examining,” Mr. Manosh said about the research. “She’s pretty sharp. I think she might possibly come up with something that will help. I don’t know that it’s the end-all solution.”

Ms. McHardy said that she and Dr. Rosendahl are still waiting on the results of their research so far. “If our hypothesis is correct, then plot tests at the site would be necessary before the fungal bioremediation technique could be adopted at the asbestos mine.”

Ms. McHardy, a former conservation ecology major, said she became interested in the VAG mine site in 2008 after the Vermont Health Department issued an alarming report suggesting that living near the mine could cause fatal asbestosis.

The report was retracted after the health department found that five area deaths from asbestosis between 1996 and 2005 could be explained by work exposure. Two of the people had the disease before they moved to Vermont.

The VAG mine is a potential Superfund site, and millions of dollars have been spent dealing with the tailings. According to an Environmental Protection Agency estimate in 2007, it would cost $500 million to cover the tailing piles so they would no longer erode.

Ms. McHardy said the field of bioremediation – using fungi and bacteria to break down toxic substances – is growing rapidly. Bioremediation has been used at about 50 Superfund sites across the U.S.

Vermont Asbestos Group bought the 1,200 acre mine in 1974. Manosh, who said he owns 2 percent of the shares, had been its president. He called himself “the last man standing up there.”

“We were milling at about 175 tons of ore per hour,” he said. “Out of that, we only got a 3 percent recovery rate of fiber, and the rest all went to waste. When you’re running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the waste piles get pretty big. We did that for 44 years.”

Government agencies seem inclined to want to put the asbestos tailings back where they came from, Mr. Manosh said, an idea he doesn’t agree with. “After it sets there, it crusts over so you don’t get the airborne particles,” he said. “If you start working on it and digging in it, it stirs it up again.”

He said he’s optimistic about Ms. McHardy’s research. “It’s a shot. Good as any. It seems like a huge task to get anything to work.”

VTDigger

BURLINGTON, Vt., Nov. 10 – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today hosted representatives of AARP and advocates for the disabled to defend Social Security from attacks by some in Congress.

Social Security provides benefits to more than 124,000 Vermonters, including nearly 20,000 persons with disabilities and almost 10,000 children.

“Social Security is a promise that we cannot and must not break. For 75 years, through good times and bad, Social Security has succeeded in providing a dignified retirement for millions of senior citizens,” Sanders said.

Sanders said he will oppose efforts to privatize Social Security, cut benefits or increase the retirement age to 70. He also supports providing $250 in emergency relief for seniors and disabled veterans facing the second straight year without a cost-of-living adjustment.

“Republicans have falsely claimed that Social Security is going bankrupt and is in crisis. This is a lie. As Vermont’s senator, I will do everything that I can to make sure that Social Security benefits are not cut, the retirement age is not raised to 70, and this life and death program is not privatized.

“Let’s be clear: Social Security is not in crisis and it is not going bankrupt. Social Security has not added a dime to either the federal deficit or the national debt. In fact, Social Security is running a $2.6 trillion surplus that is projected to grow to over $4 trillion by the year 2023. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that even if no changes are made, Social Security will be able to pay full benefits to every eligible American until the year 2039. After that, it will still have enough funding to pay about 80 percent of promised benefits.

“While we all believe that over the long-term, we have got to reduce our record-breaking $13.7 trillion national debt and unsustainable federal deficit, we should not reduce the deficit on the backs of our nation’s most vulnerable seniors by cutting Social Security benefits.

Joining Sanders at the press conference in his Senate office here were Janet Dermody, deputy director of the Vermont Center for Independent Living; Tom Davis, president of the Community of Vermont Elders and Jennifer Wallace-Brodeur, associate state director of AARP Vermont.

Contact: Michael Briggs or Will Wiquist

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