Republican and Herald from Pottsville, Pennsylvania • A5

MAGENTA BLACK PRRE PUBLICANPAGES A05 061110 23:24 BUSHLEANNE MAGENTA BLACK POTTSVILLE (PA.) REPUBLICAN HERALD ROM PAG I SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 2010 BLIGHT Continued from Page 1 portant aesthetic repairs, such as someone's lawn not being up to code. "We all understand that blight is a problem but on the other hand, the personal asset attachment? That is getting into a sticky wicket," Rita Dallago, executive director of the Pennsylvania Residential Owners Association, said this week. PROA represents more than 10,000 residential landlords across the state. "Why should your assets be attached because your lawn service didn't show up on time?" Dallago said. "We heard from people who said there could be unintended consequences," Argall said.

"(Lenders told us) it would have been almost impossible to issue a mortgage in a troubled community," due to the lender's fear they could become financially responsible and legally liable for any repairs or injuries caused by the problem property Argall said the provision is not completely dead, and said it could be revisited in future legislation. However, for now, he said he felt it best to remove the language from Senate Bill 900. Argall said the asset attachment provision, along with building and other permit denials for repeat offenders, are being closely examined. He said he and bill co-sponsors are open to compromise. "We're reviewing their concerns," Argall said.

"We're looking for a realistic compromise without tearing the guts out of the bill. If the bill isn't strong enough, it won't solve the blight problem." Dallago and others have argued permit denials could have a harmful economic effect on municipalities, with developers denied the right to build because of blight problems that could be years in the past. Stumpf, Argall and others believe such provisions are necessary The bill would create a statewide database of blight violations, meaning Schuylkill County could check a landlord's record anywhere else in Pennsylvania. "This is one of the most challenging pieces of legislation I've ever worked on," Argall said of his yearlong effort to shepherd the bill through the Senate. So far, it has cleared the Appropriations and Urban Affairs and Housing committees.

It will now move to the full Senate. However, when it arrives there it will already be missing pieces included in the original draft. The first version of the bill included language making mortgage companies or other lenders responsible for upkeep of a property or liability immediately after a foreclosure notice is issued. Under current law, there is typically a months-long period between the issuance of a foreclosure notice and the date the lender actually seizes control of the property In the interim, the property owner remains responsible. The bill would have moved that responsibility to the lender, but Argall said an outcry from bankers and lenders forced lawmakers to remove those provisions.

CATS To boycott oil, you'd have to cut almost everything ASSOCIATED PRESS Vehicles travel along Highway 225 in Deer Park, Texas, as Shell Oil Deer Park refinery and petrochemical facility rises in the background in November 2007. Louisiana State University environmental sciences professor Ed Overton, who works with the government on oil spill chemistry, said: "There's nothing that we do on a daily basis that isn't touched by petrochemicals." When in the movie "The Graduate" young Benjamin is given advice about the future, it comes in one word: plastics. About 93 percent of American plastics start with natural gas or oil. "Just about anything that's not iron or steel or metal of some sort has some petrochemical component. And that's just because of what we've been able to do with it," said West Virginia University chemistry professor Dady Dadyburjor.

Nothing shows how pervasive and malleable petrochemicals are better than shampoo, said Kevin Swift, director of economics and statistics for the American Chemistry Council, the chemical industry's trade association. The bottle is plastic. The cap is plastic. The seal and the label, too. The ink comes from petrochemicals and even the glue that holds the label to the bottle comes from oil or gas.

"The shampoo it's all derived from petrochemicals," Swift said. "A bottle of shampoo is about 100 percent chemistry" Just add a bit of natural fragrance. What makes oil and natural gas the seed stock for most of our everyday materials is the element that is the essence of life: carbon. The carbon atom acts as the spine with other atoms SETH BORENSTEIN ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON Has the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico got you so mad you're ready to quit Big Oil? Ready to park the car and take up bike-riding or walking? Well, your bike and your sneakers have petroleum products in them. And sure, you can curb energy use by shutting off the AC, but the electric fans you switch to have plastic from oil and gas in them.

And the insulation to keep your home cool, also started as oil and gas. Without all that, you'll sweat and it'll be all too noticeable because deodorant comes from oil and gas too. You can't even escape petroleum products with a nice cool fast-food milkshake which probably has a petrochemical-based thickener. Oil is everywhere. It's in carpeting, furniture, computers and clothing.

It's in the most personal of products like toothpaste, shaving cream, lipstick and vitamin capsules. Petrochemicals are the glue of our modern lives and even in glue, too. Because of that, petrochemicals are in our blood. When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested humans for environmental chemicals and metals, it recorded 212 different compounds. More than 180 of them are products that started as natural gas or oil.

"It's the material basis of our society essentially" said Michael Wilson, a research scientist at the University of California Berkeley "This is the Petrochemical Age." gie Mellon chemistry professor Terry Collins. He said the underlying premise of the petrochemical industry is that "those little molecules will be good little molecules and do what they're designed for and not interact with life. What we're finding is that premise is wrong, profoundly wrong. What we're discovering is that there's a whole world of low-dose (health) effects." Many of these chemicals are disrupting the human hormone system, Collins said. These are substances that don't appear in nature and "they accumulate in the human body they persist in the environment," Berkeley's Wilson said.

The problem is science isn't quite sure how bad or how safe they are, he said. But plastics also do good things for the environment, the chemistry council says. Because plastics are lighter than metals, they helped create cars that save fuel. A 2005 European study shows that conversion to plastic materi attaching to it in different combinations and positions. Each variation acts in new ways, Dadyburjor said.

John Warner, a former Polaroid scientist and University of Massachusetts chemistry professor, called petroleum "fundamentally a boring material" until other atoms are added and "you unleash a textbook of modern chemistry" "Take a very complicated elegant beautiful molecule, bury it in the ground 100 million years, remove all the functionality and make hydrocarbons," said Warner, one of the founders of the green chemistry movement that attempts to be more ecologically sustainable. "Then take all the toxic nasty reagents and put back all the functional groups and end up with very complicated molecules." The age of petrochemicals started and took root shortly after World War II, spurred by a government looking for replacements for rubber. "Unfortunately there's a very dark side," said Carne als in Europe saved 26 percent in fuel. "Compared to the alternatives, it reduces greenhouse gases (which cause global warming) and saves energy; that is rather ironic," Swift said. Still, chemists who want more sustainable materials are working on alternatives.

Another founder of green chemistry Paul Anastas, an assistant administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, said: "We can make those things in other ways." LSU's Overton is old enough to remember the days before petrochemicals. There were no plastic milk and soda containers. They were glass. Desks were heavy wood. There were no computers, cell phones and not much air conditioning.

"It's a much more comfortable life now, much more convenient," Overton said. Swift said trying to live without petrochemicals now doesn't make sense, but he added: "it would make a good reality TV show" Continued from Page 1 "When he opened the door, several cats came to the door," Taglieri said. SPCA officials removed four cats, a ferret and a goldfish from the residence, Taglieri said. Miller also ordered Jus-tiniano to undergo a mental health evaluation during her confinement in a state correctional institution. Justiniano, who admitted she violated the terms of her parole but otherwise said nothing during or after Friday's hearing, pleaded guilty Feb.

18 to 117 counts of cruelty to animals, 20 of possession of a controlled substance and two of possession of drug paraphernalia. Miller accepted Justinia-no's plea and sentenced her to time served to 12 months in prison with immediate parole, 11 months consecutive probation. He also sentenced Justiniano to pay costs, $800 in fines and $1,360 restitution to the state police crime laboratory in Bethlehem, perform 50 hours of community service and not possess any animals for 10 years. Pine Grove police charged Justiniano and Oxenrider with mistreating cats, chickens, ferrets, geese and a deer on Jan. 24, 2009, at the Cats with No Name sanctuary in Pine Grove Township.

Oxenrider, 39, formerly of Lebanon and Tower City, pleaded guilty on Feb. 17 to 117 counts of cruelty to animals, nine counts of possession of a controlled substance and one count each of conspiracy and possession of drug paraphernalia. Prosecutors dropped 11 counts of possession of a controlled substance and one count of bribery Judge Cyrus Palmer Dol-bin sentenced Oxenrider to time served to 23 months in prison with immediate parole, to pay costs, $800 in fines and $1,360 restitution, perform 50 hours community service and agree not to possess any animals for the next 10 years. FOR THE RECORD Deeds Pine Grove Nicole A. Shoener-Witherow and Jeremy Witherow to Jodi L.

Rit-tenbaugh; 12 Cherry $67,000. Tamaqua Tax Claim Bureau of Schuylkill County to Joseph Y. Chamoun; 308 E. Elm $1,850. Jeffrey D.

Moser and Susan N. Sigoda to Hilda Rosa Sainz; 650 12 E. Broad $46,000. Charles H. and Jane E.

Rea-man to Charles H. and Jane E. Reaman; 202 Owl Creek Road; $1. OIL Continued from Page 1 could contribute to breathtaking liabilities against BP. Penalties can be levied against the company under a variety of environmental protection laws, including fines of up to $1,100 under the Clean Water Act for each barrel of oil spilled.

Based on the maximum amount of oil possibly spilled to date, that would translate to a potential civil fine for simple discharge alone of $2.8 billion. If BP were found to have committed gross negligence or willful misconduct, the civil fine could be up to $4,300 per barrel, or up to $11.1 billion. "It's going to blow the record books up," said Eric Schaeffer, who led the Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement office from 1997 to 2002. A larger spill also could lead to increased environmental hazards, with shrimp, crabs and fish such as marlin and swordfish especially hard hit. "Certainly if there are greater volumes of oil than were originally estimated, that doesn't bode well," said Jim Franks, a fisheries biologist at the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory "Do we expect twice the impact? I don't know how to judge that, but that much more oil could not be good at all for fish and wildlife resources.

I would anticipate far-reaching impacts." Days after the spill began, government officials told the public that the ruptured well a mile below the Gulf was leaking 42,000 gallons a day Then, officials said it was actually five times bigger. That estimate didn't last long either. The new estimates are based on spillcam video as well as such things as satellite, sonar and pressure readings. The lead scientist in the effort said the most credible range at the moment is between 840,000 gallons and 1.68 million gallons a day Another part of the equation is how much more oil started to leak last week after the riser pipe was cut, a step that BP and government officials said could increase the flow by 20 percent. The pipe cut was necessary to install a cap over the well; the cap has captured an estimated 4 million gallons so far.

If the higher-end estimates prove accurate, the leak amounts to an Exxon Valdez every five days or so. At that rate, in just over three weeks from now it will eclipse the worst oil spill in peacetime history, the 1979 Ixtoc disaster in Mexico, which took 10 months to belch out 140 million gallons of oil into the Gulf. And there's more bad news. The oil gushing from the Gulf contains large amounts of natural gas. Samantha Joye, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Georgia, said that can contribute significantly to oxygen levels plummeting in the water as microbes eat the methane clouds.

In addition to the potential for billions in fines, BP is responsible for paying all cleanup costs and up to $75 million for economic damages. But it could face far heavier expenses if gross negligence is found or if it is determined that there was a violation of a federal safety, construction or operating regulation, Schaeffer said. "You bet the trial lawyers are sharpening their swords around that language," he said. And that's not including the tens of billions of dollars in shareholder wealth that has already evaporated with the plunge of BP's stock since the disaster. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg became a lonely defender of BP, declaring the world should not rush to point fingers at the British oil giant.

The billionaire tycoon often sides with CEOs and businesses entangled in public relations disasters. PUPPY Continued from Page 1 nary care or exercise. Key provisions that went into effect in October required large-scale breeders to double cage sizes, eliminate wire flooring, and provide unfettered access to the outdoors. The new law also banned cage stacking, instituted twice-a-year vet checks, and mandated new ventilation and cleanliness standards. Many breeders have closed voluntarily rather than comply The number of commercial kennels in Pennsylvania plummeted from 303 at the beginning of 2009 to 111 today a reduction of almost two-thirds although a few of them are expected to reopen after making renovations, while other kennels got rid of enough dogs so that they are no longer classified as commercial operations.

Thousands of former breeding dogs have been relinquished to shelters and placed in homes as pets. Dogs have also been sold or transferred to other kennel owners in and out of state. "It's much more difficult now to run a puppy mill in Pennsylvania," said Sarah Speed, Pennsylvania state director of The Humane Society of the United States. "I think the puppy mill business in Pennsylvania is absolutely on its way out." Peachey 43, an Amishman who lives with his wife and seven children on a three-acre spread in Belleville, said he thought long and hard about whether he wanted to remain in the business of breeding and selling Yorkshire and Boston terriers, Maltese, and "morkies" (a trendy Yorkie-Maltese mix). He had always run a clean kennel, meeting and sometimes exceeding existing standards and taking good care of his dogs, according to state dog warden Melissa Bair, who has inspected the facility for years.

But even Peachey's operation required substantial upgrades to comply with the new regulations, including outdoor runs and new indoor enclosures. In the end, it was a matter of economics. Peachey who had paid more than $50,000 for a new kennel building in 2003, thought it made more sense to spend another $20,000 to bring the kennel up to code than to abandon it and lose his original investment. "I really didn't think I had a choice," he said. Other kennels have refused to go along.

Since October, the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement has revoked 13 licenses from operators who wouldn't or couldn't make the necessary changes at their kennels. The agency has also targeted unlicensed kennels, issuing a record 63 citations last year. "The new dog law has given us so many tools to do things we weren't able to do before," said warden Bair. "It's easier to close a problem kennel. And we do.

And we will continue to close problem kennels, because it's not acceptable to raise dogs in bad conditions." Dog law officials still have a ways to go before they can declare complete victory Key regulations have yet to be approved because of a tussle over standards for flooring, lighting, ventilation, air temperature, and ammonia and humidity levels. Hundreds of smaller kennels are exempt from the toughest provisions of the new law, meaning thousands of dogs are still being kept in substandard conditions. Also, it's likely that some kennels that claimed to have closed simply went underground, and are now operating illegally "The bureau estimates from past experience that at least 15 percent of the kennels recently closed have not really closed for good, and further enforcement will be required,".