end i-99 delay

Those scientists in the article below that all of a sudden discovers this new and cheaper solution must think the EPA are fools. Firstly, whether indeed better or not, they would certainly not qualify as an 'in situ' solution. Reason is simply because it has not gone through the riguor of tests over a period of time just like all products has gone through. Yes, it may well be true that the immediate result is their solution works better. But what about long term effect? I understand from my many readings that limestone itself causes problem that iself needed to be cleaned up in the long run. Not so Bauxsol. Well, certainly not after so many years in trial so far by the US EPA. If anything, the Bauxsol seems to keep on working till this very day.

Basically, I think it is just mere last desperate throw of the dice by those limestone producer. If Bauxsol works, they are out of business. Period.

Cheers.

Posted on Sun, Oct. 23, 2005

Our View
End I-99 delay

At this rate, Interstate 99, the highway dream-child of former House Transportation Committee Chairman Bud Shuster, won't be completed until the congressional seat Shuster bequeathed to his son Bill is occupied by a yet-to-be-named great-great-grandson.

While Virotec, the Australian manufacturer of Bauxsol, conducts a million-dollar test on its product at the spoil piles on Skytop, Penn State researchers say they've discovered a cheaper and more effective way of neutralizing the acid runoff that threatens local water supplies.

With many more millions of dollars at stake in the eventual cleanup contract, the Aussies don't seem to be interested in the alternative compound tested by Duff Gold, Barry Scheetz and Hu Barnes.

That's what the Penn State researchers say. At the very least, relations between the two groups of researchers appear to be strained.

Virotec's tests, which won't be concluded until Thanksgiving, have been encouraging, according to the company's North American director.

But the Penn State group says its mixture of crushed limestone powder, magnesium hydroxide and kaolinite clay is better and cheaper than Bauxsol at reducing acidity and metal concentrations from the more than 900,000 cubic yards of pyritic rock unearthed at the Skytop construction site.

But, they say, Virotec representatives won't listen to them.

They will, Virotec's representative told state highway and environmental officials. They'll fix the communications breakdown and undertake a community effort with the Penn State group.

Meanwhile, acid-rock drainage has been found at another portion of the I-99 project near Port Matilda.

Another school year has arrived, with school buses again traveling the dangerous stretch of U.S. Route 220 while motorists, coming off the interstate highway, continue to speed by.

Wells are contaminated. The quality of Buffalo Run, Bald Eagle Creek and the local groundwater are in danger.

And state Rep. Lynn Herman, R-Philipsburg, said a third legislative hearing on the I-99 fiasco will be scheduled in December.

December is too late to hold yet another meeting. Today is too late.

Representatives of Virotec, the state Departments of Transportation and Environmental Protection, legislators, and Penn State researchers need to sit down now, get their heads together and come up with a workable solution -- one at which they should have arrived when Bud Shuster was still in office.