Molasses used in cleanup of polluted sites

For more than half a century, International Molasses Corp. has sold its product to bakeries and manufacturers that use the sticky syrup in cookies and candy.

But recently, the Saddle Brook company found a new and unexpected market — at contaminated industrial sites, where the molasses literally gets pumped into the soil.

A 6,000-gallon tanker truck filled with diluted molasses recently pulled into the parking lot of the 25-acre campus of Kearfott Guidance and Navigation Corp. in Woodland Park. Workers attached hoses from the truck to several injection wells, and the molasses flowed silently into the ground under the facility's parking lot to help rid groundwater of high levels of contamination that seeped into the soil decades ago.

In a relatively new process called enhanced anaerobic bioremediation, the diluted molasses provides a food source for microbes that occur naturally in the soil. The microbes multiply, then use the solvents the way humans use oxygen, breaking them down into non-toxic byproducts, such as carbon dioxide.

International Molasses now ships its syrup to cleanup sites in New Jersey and several other states.

"A few years ago we started seeing a lot of growth in this area," said Eric Lushing, vice president of Malt Products Corp. and its subsidiary, International Molasses Corp., which supplies molasses to the Kearfott site.

"The molasses we produce is food grade, which is not true of a lot of refineries, which make it below food grade," Lushing said. That makes their product more appealing to cleanup experts, since food grade molasses does not contain other chemicals that might exacerbate a contaminated site's issues, he said.

The companies' molasses and malt products are more typically sold to food manufacturers that make cookies, snack foods, breakfast cereals, candy and peanut butter.

International Molasses Corp. began in 1957 as a regional supplier of malts and has grown internationally. It has manufacturing plants in Maywood as well as in Canada, Great Britain and the Netherlands. The company also has a product called Eco-Molasses, a byproduct of sugar refining that is sold to golf courses and other facilities for lawn maintenance. Eco-Molasses is touted as a product that improves leaf color and plant health, decreases thatch, and increases microbial activity in the soil.

"We're hoping that within two years this process will bring the contaminants down to an acceptable standard," said Mo Mohiuddin, project manager with Arcadis, the contractor hired to clean up the Kearfott site. "We won't get every molecule of contamination but we should be able to hit 99 percent of the mess."

Anaerobic bioremediation is a growing strategy for contamination cleanup experts. It has been used at hundreds of sites nationwide, including Air Force bases from Oklahoma to California.

Mohiuddin said Arcadis has used it successfully at dozens of sites, including a 3M plant in upstate New York and a Johnson & Johnson facility in New Jersey.

DuPont is conducting a pilot study to determine how well bioremediation would work to clean up groundwater contaminated with solvents beneath homes in Pompton Lakes. Instead of molasses to spur microbe activity, however, DuPont plans to inject the soil with soybean oil.

The concept is the same, but whether vegetable oil or molasses is used depends on factors specific to each site, said Dan Pope, a consultant affiliated with the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

"It's mainly dependent on the practical problems of making it work at the site. How long do you need or want the product to last in the subsurface — a few days, months or years?" Pope said. "Molasses is more readily broken down — it's pretty soluble, and you can push it out farther and more quickly into the subsurface. Oil globs on to the subsurface particles more. But in the end, basically they are both food for the microorganisms in the soil."

Arcadis' Mohiuddin agreed. "Oil stays a much longer time in the soil, and the remediation rate is slower," he said. "The molasses solution degrades very quickly." Molasses is also cheaper."

In the Kearfott cleanup, the molasses gets hauled in by tanker truck each month, Mohiuddin said. Workers attach hoses from the tanker individually to each injection well.

Because bioremediation is still relatively new, little data exists to measure success. Most sites using the process are still undergoing remediation and are not fully cleaned.

The Kearfott plant on McBride Avenue is bordered by the Passaic and Peckman rivers. The facility was built in 1950, and the company makes navigation and guidance systems, gyroscopes and other electro-mechanical products for the aerospace industry.

Before the early 1960s, chemical waste at the site, including solvents, was disposed of in dry wells, most likely unlined holes dug about five feet deep, according to documents filed with the Department of Environmental Protection. Later, waste solvent return lines from degreasing tanks were fed into 55-gallon drums for disposal.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, several underground storage tanks that had been leaking were removed from the site. They had been used to store solvents, gasoline and fuel oil. Several hundred yards of contaminated soil was excavated and disposed offsite in 1993.

Testing of the soil and groundwater indicated extensive contamination by six volatile organic compounds, including the solvents PCE and TCE, which have been linked in lab studies to cancer. Most of the contamination was detected near the site of the underground tanks.

Worried the contaminated groundwater could flow into the bordering rivers, an earlier contractor proposed installing a slurry wall in the ground to block the contamination and a pump and treat system to strip the contaminants out of the groundwater.

But Arcadis said the molasses treatment would be faster.

A six-month pilot test in 2005 to inject the molasses near the rivers worked well enough for Arcadis to propose widening the scope of the injections to the rest of the site. But the DEP case manager for the site left, Mohiuddin said, and it took the state until 2009 to issue the permits to restart molasses injections.

Arcadis recently won approval to add 14 more injection wells, which were drilled a few months ago. Arcadis now pumps about 6,000 gallons of molasses each month into 24 wells extending 16 to 17 feet deep.

Cleanup costs between 1986 and 2010 totaled an estimated $2.4 million, and cleanup through 2015 is expected to cost another $1.3 million, DEP records indicate.

Groundwater will be monitored quarterly until there are significant declines in contamination, officials said.

A new era in police vehicles begins at Ford

Ford's Crown Victoria has dominated the landscape of law enforcement in North America, but its run is about to end. The Crown Vic will cease production sometime in late 2011 and be replaced with the new Ford Police Interceptor. Thankfully, the new Police Interceptor will be immediately offered without any interruptions and is expected to exceed the durability, safety, performance, and fuel economy of the vehicle it's replacing. In addition, Ford is introducing a Police Interceptor utility vehicle to provide fleets with a choice of vehicles to meet their needs.

"Police nationwide asked for a new kind of weapon in the battle for public safety, and Ford is answering the call with a purpose-built vehicle – engineered and built in America – that's as dynamic as it is durable," said Mark Fields, Executive Vice President, Ford Motor Company, and President of The Americas. Fields was one of three Keynote Speakers at NAFA's 2010 Institute & Expo in Detroit where attendees were able to get a sneak peek at the new Police Interceptor.

To develop the new Police Interceptor, Ford engineers worked hand-in-hand with law enforcement professionals on Ford's Police Advisory Board who provided valuable input on key vehicle attributes such as safety, performance, durability, driver comfort, and functionality.

"This vehicle is pursuit ready," said Carl Widmann, Vehicle Engineering Manager for Ford. "It's no nonsense, through and through."

Some of the key changes include:

Safety — The Police Interceptor was engineered to pass 75-mph rear-end crash testing and features Ford's Safety Canopy side-curtain air bag rollover protection system to help protect front and rear outboard passengers in both rollover and side-impact crashes. The multiple side-curtain air bags use Ford's unique Roll Fold technology to help them slip between the occupant and the side window.

A Move To V-6 Without A Loss Of Power — The new Police Interceptor is part of a V-6 lineup that Ford says will perform equal to or better than V-8 engines. The lineup comes with two powertrain options which allow police departments to choose whichever best meets their patrol requirements. One option is a 3.5-liter V-6 engine that delivers at least 263 horsepower and E85 compatibility that is 25 percent more efficient than the 4.6 Single Overhead Cam (SOHC) V-8 offered in the current Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. The other option is an all-new 3.5-liter EcoBoost ™ V-6 twin-turbocharged, direct-injection engine that will deliver at least 365 horsepower and 350 foot-pounds of torque across a broad rpm range.

EcoBoost brings municipalities and police fleet administrators an ultra high-performance, yet environmentally friendly, police pursuit vehicle. It offers performance that bests V-8 powered police cruisers with fuel economy and CO2 emissions comparable to that of the standard V-6.

Redesigned Inside And Out — Some of the changes to the Police Interceptor include brakes that have been increased in size and performance; a purpose-built cooling package featuring a heavy-duty alternator and larger radiator; a honeycomb grill designed to work in harmony with the interior components to provide more air flow throughout the vehicle; and standard 18-inch steel wheels that are vented and designed to work in concert with the enhanced brake system.

Roughly 90 percent of the interior has been redesigned to meet the needs of the police. Front seats have been specially designed with a lower bolster removed to better accommodate officers' utility belts. Inserted into the seatback are anti-stab plates designed to protect front-seat occupants. The vehicle's second row features vinyl seats which are specially sculpted and set back to improve second-row space and maximize legroom. Meanwhile, the back door hinges have been modified to open up an additional 10 degrees versus traditional rear doors.

In addition, the vehicle is equipped with a column shift specifically designed so the console area is free for the ever-increasing amount of aftermarket police equipment necessary for officers to do their jobs.

Additional features of the Police Interceptor include:

BLIS (Blind Spot Information System) — The system uses two radar sensors located in the rear quarter panels to detect vehicles in the surrounding lanes. If a vehicle enters the driver's blind-spot zones, the system alerts the driver with a warning light in the side-view mirror.

Cross Traffic Alert— This system uses the existing BLIS radar modules to sense oncoming traffic when slowly backing out of a parking spot. The system only functions while the vehicle is in reverse and warns when cross-traffic appears within three car-widths.

Rear View Camera System — When the vehicle is in rear camera mode, a color image with guidance markers on the rear view mirror assists the driver in backing up.

Reverse Sensing System — An audible tone alerts the driver to certain objects up to 6-feet behind the vehicle.

A little March madness

A sure sign of spring around our house is when my wife transfers the yellowed Christmas wreath from our front porch to the compost pile out back.

Of course, there's also the emergence of crocuses — followed by trumpets of daffodils, clusters of pear blossoms, random sprinklings of golden dandelions and free form forsythia.

Not to mention the fact that I begin to get one crazy thought after another.

"A little Madness in the Spring / Is wholesome even for the King," wrote Emily Dickinson.

And what could be more mad than thinking of refusing to pay income tax this year. After all, the super rich got a tax break (we wouldn't want to cut into their country club fees, lest they stop playing golf, thus causing cutbacks in the employment of caddies and greenskeepers).

When questioned by the IRS, I could simply invoke the Geithner defense. (You may recall that Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner, was confirmed by the Senate despite despite failure to pay $34,000 in taxes. "An honest mistake," he called it.)

It was the spring of 1982 that I came up with the idea of opening a coffeehouse and café (The White Buffalo) in the Stilwell Hotel. Consumed by spring madness, I thought I'd sit and visit, read a little, and discuss literature with my patrons over an espresso or latte while the place just ran itself.

I now know better. But alas, knowledge does not predict behavior, so I've instructed my wife that if I bring up the coffeehouse idea in the future she should hit me in the head with an iron skillet until the thought leaves me.

Smart people do dumb things. Years back I saw a doctor, an oncologist no less, step out the back door of his office to have a quick cigarette between cancer patients.

And a lot of wealthy, smart people, who should have known better, handed over their fortunes to Bernie Madoff.

"Wholly to be a fool while spring is in the world, my blood approves," wrote e.e. cummings. Still, over time, one grows tired of certain kinds of foolishness. I see hanging out in a loud, crowded bar on a Saturday night as akin to medieval torture. Young people relate stories about getting hammered and throwing up in the parking lot and I think, "Whew, I'm sure glad that part of my life's over."

But there's always some fresh foolishness to try.

Being Christian, you're probably already aware, is no guarantee against foolishness. Even in churches, like the one I go to, where the congregation sings from missals and songbooks rather than a PowerPoint projected on a giant screen above the altar, people are prone to spring madness about as much as the atheists who don't attend church at all.

On a warm spring day a man sets out to "love thy neighbor" and, before you know it, he's run off with her in his new convertible to live in the ultramodern house he bought with the cash from his 401K and life insurance. Pure foolishness brought on by spring. (As Mark Twain described it, "It's spring fever.... You don't quite know what it is you DO want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!") Six months later, when the heat and humidity of Kansas summer replaces the balmy spring foolishness, the man comes to his senses and returns, chastened, to sit in the last pew.

To be sure a person has to develop a strategy of some sort to in order to make it through this time of year without doing something completely idiotic. Not just young people, mind you, us baby boomers and senior citizens have to be on our guard as well.

Kansas spring weather being mercurial as it is, watching a lot of the Weather Channel on TV is an option for getting libidinous ups and downs out of your system.

Or, one might fall back on an old adage for guidance. "Idle hands are the devil's workshop," for instance. A person can stay busy outdoors — raking leaves, planting new flowers and shrubs, and getting the mower running. As Margaret Atwood wrote, "In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt."

While yardwork isn't a sure thing to keep a person from getting the spring crazies, it should be noted that the treatment at early mental institutions, aka "Asylums for Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason," relied heavily on horticultural therapy to bring people back to their senses.

2012 Mercedes-Benz SLK Sets Safety Standards for Roadsters

The new SLK Roadster from Mercedes-Benz sets new standards in safety. The safety experts at Mercedes-Benz have long adopted the motto, the best or nothing, coined by Gottlieb Daimler. Mercedes is not content with just hitting safety ratings, they work to attain safety levels that not only meet but far exceed standars set by the world's legislators. The most important measure of their work is not the laboratory or crash test facility, but actual, real-life accidents. They call the results of their work Real Life Safety, a concept which is based on research into thousands of accidents. Using this irrefutable evidence, the Mercedes-Benz engineers have developed or initiated most of the assistance systems which today effectively support drivers and have been adopted by many of the company's competitors.

ATTENTION ASSIST and ADAPTIVE BRAKE as standard

The new SLK also features a unique combination of driver assistance systems which help to avoid accidents. These include the drowsiness detection system ATTENTION ASSIST, for example. Thanks to this system, the roadster develops a precise feeling for the level of attentiveness of the driver and can provide an early warning of overtiredness.

Also making up part of the standard equipment specification is the ADAPTIVE BRAKE. It comprises ABS, the acceleration skid control system ASR and also active yaw control (GMR). In addition, it features the following functions:

    * it supports the driver when moving off uphill, by preventing the vehicle from unintentionally rolling back;

    * it also keeps the vehicle stationary without having to keep the brakes applied continuously – for example when waiting at traffic lights

    * as soon as the driver abruptly steps off the accelerator, it brings the brake pads into light contact with the brake discs as a precautionary measure, so that the necessary braking pressure can be attained quicker in the possible event of emergency braking;

    * in wet conditions it applies light brake contact, without the driver even noticing, to dry the brake discs.

The ADAPTIVE BRAKE works in conjunction with the equally adaptive brake light. In emergency braking situations, it warns vehicles behind with flashing brake lights.

Emergency braking on detecting an acute risk of a front-end collision

Available as optional extras are the DISTRONIC PLUS proximity control as well as the PRE-SAFE Brake, already tried and tested in other Mercedes-Benz models. Both systems work in conjunction and can initiate emergency braking automatically on detecting an acute risk of an accident.

In normal driving conditions, the radar-based DISTRONIC PLUS proximity control adjusts the distance to the vehicle in front automatically. If necessary, it can apply the brakes, even bringing the SLK Roadster to a stop, and accelerate it again. This takes some of the strain off the driver, particularly in bumper-to-bumper driving conditions. If the distance starts to narrow too quickly, the system gives the driver visual and audible warnings, thereby prompting the driver to take action, at which point he is also supported by Brake Assist PLUS (BAS PLUS).