Prison Time for American Crooks

Two disgraced former executives of the Willbros Group have been convicted in United States court of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by bribing Nigerian officials. Jim Bob Brown was sentenced in federal court in Houston to one year and one day in prison and fined $17,500 while Jason Edward Steph was sentenced to 15 months and fined $2,000, Further details of the story can be found at All Africa and in the FCPA Blog.

More Power without Coal?

Because of "regulatory and legal uncertainties" about the future of coal, the Seminole Electric Cooperative today announced that it has canceled plans to build a new coal-fired power plant at its generation facility near Jacksonville, Florida (St. Petersburg Times, Dec 18th). Earthjustice, an non-profit public interest law firm based in Tallahassee, had threatened legal action on behalf of the Florida Wildlife Federation.

Seminole applied in 2006 for a permit to build the proposed 750 megawatt coal-fired plant, upgrading its Putnam County facility which currently generates 1300 megawatts. Power, an industry magazine, named it as "top facility" for 2009. The Seminole Electric Cooperative also received a Leadership Award from the Council for Sustainable Florida. It's webpage trumpets a "long-standing and continuing commitment to a diverse program of environmental stewardship at its generating stations." According to Earthjustice, Seminole is now proposing to build a natural gas fired plant instead along with a 1 to 5 megawatt solar energy project in southwest Florida.

A Tour of Governor's Island

EPA damages Fort Edward

This story is over a week old, but it is only just now beginning to show up on listservers and blogs about archaeology and historic preservation.

Fort Edward is located on the east bank of the Hudson River 45 miles north of Albany, New York. It strategic importance lay in serving as a point of portage between the Hudson River and Lake George. Fort Edward figured prominently in the history of the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. The fort's location is also within the area initially impacted by PCB wastes which were left behind by General Electric and were eventually washed downstream to contaminate the entire Hudson River valley and its estuary, where New York City is located.

The current chapter in Fort Edward's long and colorful history began when the Environmental Protection Agency restarted its project to dredge the entire Hudson River downstream of the spill. The dredging project had been strongly debated both pro and con for many years, and the environmentalist forces marshalled by the likes of Pete Seeger and Robert Kennedy, Jr. finally achieved their goal. Now some clumsy equipment operators appear to have ripped out timbers from an historic fort, triggering severe bank erosion. Conservative news outlest such as CNS News and Rupert Murdock's New York Post have jumped on the story, presumably because it casts the EPA in a bad light. Historic preservationists must regrettably admit that the fort site itself had been poorly maintained. Archaeological consultants working for EPA may have given inadequate guidance regarding the fort's extent, condition, and appropriate measures for dredging in the immediate vicinity.

Hat tip to New York History blogger John Warren, whose excellent writing just came to my attention while researching this story.

Restoring the Arch of Ctesiphon?

The U.S. military plans to assist regional Iraqi autorities in the "restoration" of a ruined brick arch. According to the story written by Pvt. Jared Gehmann of the 82nd Airborne, the Arch of Ctesiphon was built nearly 16 centuries ago and was formerly a popular tourist attraction in this part of Iraq.

Atlanta loses Lake Lanier

Last Friday, July 17th, Judge Paul Magnuson ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been improperly tapping Lake Lanier as a municipal water source for Atlanta. I have yet to read the entire decision, but according to newspaper accounts it hinged on the idea that current use of the reservoir deviates from the initial purpose of impounding federally protected waters of the Chattahoochee River.

The Lake Lanier case involved the state governments of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. It was tried before a judge from the federal district of Minnesota, presumably to insure impartiality. Judge Magnuson's decision has implications for many other localities where lakes originally constructed for flood control or irrigation have been converted to municipal water supplies or some other purpose than that for which the waters were originally impounded.

Many environmentalists are already applauding this decision, particularly in Alabama and Florida. However, it is likely that Georgia will now instead move forward on new dam construction. New dams, particularly if built within the "ACF" (Appalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint) system, could have even more deleterious impacts on both local Georgia environments and downstream fisheries and hydrology.

Tragedy Strikes the Atlanta Botanical Garden