News on U.S. Uranium Mills Impacting Groundwater

On June 5, 2019, I posted a blog titled Mitigating Nuclear Hazards - Part 3 Production describing some of my professional experiences working on clean up of uranium mill sites. I concluded the blog to say, “In summary, with adequate regulatory oversight and inspections, processes to produce uranium can be done safely and protect the environment.”

The oversight of constructing a new uranium processing site in the U.S. today would be vastly different than what occurred during the Cold War rush to produce atomic weapons. Many of the lingering problems existing at mill sites occurred during operations in the 1950’s and ‘60’s, before EPA was created, where radioactive and heavy metal waste mill tailings spread in air, on the land, in water, and was used for construction materials. Today many private companies are in the process of turning remediated sites over to state and federal governments for costly long-term monitoring and surveillance as described in the news below.

On August 15, 2022, a reporter contacted me to provide more information:

“Dear Mr. Dam, I hope this finds you well. I'm reaching out from nonprofit investigative newsroom ProPublica, where I'm an environment journalist. My team recently published a story about the decades-long cleanup saga at the former Homestake uranium mill in northwest New Mexico. We're busy reporting a follow-up story that will examine the state of reclamation at every former uranium mill in the country. Thanks very much for sending us your thoughts in response to that story (if you didn't find it on our website, you might've come across the project via our partners at PBS NewsHour, the LA Times or KOB4). I'm emailing you to follow up on your submission and would love to pick your brain about your experiences. Would you be available to schedule a time to chat about your work with the NRC, the USGS and DOE's Legacy Management office? If so, could you let me know some times that would be most convenient for you? Thanks in advance for your time, and I hope we can connect soon. You can reach me at mark.olalde@propublica.org” Mark Olalde

I spoke with Mark for about an hour describing some of my work experiences starting almost 39 years ago with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and how much we learned along the way. We spoke again earlier last week to discuss the article. I greatly appreciate his interest, knowledge and desire to accurately quote me and get the story right.

Yesterday, on December 3, 2022, Mark Olade sent an email with a link to the news article:

“Hi, Bill. Thanks again for taking the time to speak with me several times about this story and for reviewing our findings. Our piece published today, and you can find it here: https://www.propublica.org/article/uranium-mills-pollution-cleanup-us. Best, Mark”

The title of the article is “Cold War Legacy Lurking in U.S. Groundwater” and here are a few excerpts:

“Regulators haven’t made a full accounting of whether they properly addressed groundwater contamination. So, for the first time, ProPublica cataloged cleanup efforts at the country’s 48 uranium mills, seven related processing sites and numerous tailings piles.

At least 84% of the sites have polluted groundwater. And nearly 75% still have either no liner or only a partial liner between mill waste and the ground, leaving them susceptible to leaking pollution into groundwater.

The DOE estimates that some sites have individually polluted more than a billion gallons of water.

Bill Dam, who spent decades regulating and researching uranium mill cleanup with the NRC, at the DOE and in the private sector, said water pollution won’t be controlled until all the waste and contaminated material is moved. “The federal government’s taken a Band-Aid approach to groundwater contamination,” he said.

The pollution has disproportionately harmed Indian Country.

Between 1958 and 1962, a mill near Gunnison, Colorado, churned through 540,000 tons of ore. The process, one step in concentrating the ore into weapons-grade uranium, leaked uranium and manganese into groundwater, and in 1990, regulators found that residents had been drawing that contaminated water from 22 wells.

The DOE moved the waste and connected residents to clean water. But pollution lingered in the aquifer beneath the growing town where some residents still get their water from private wells. The DOE finally devised a plan in 2000, which the NRC later approved, settling on a strategy called “natural flushing,” essentially waiting for groundwater to dilute the contamination until it reached safe levels.

In 2015, the agency acknowledged that the plan had failed. Sediments absorb and release uranium, so waiting for contamination to be diluted doesn’t solve the problem, said Dam, the former NRC and DOE regulator.”

So what did I mean by saying the government has taken a Band-Aid approach to groundwater contamination? The “cut” from these uranium processing sites is much deeper than just at the surface. Most of the funding for remediation went towards the surface clean-up like removing a cancerous mole. But beneath the surface, contaminated groundwater spreads contamination through soil and rocks. Groundwater is monitored at most sites to observe changing concentrations over decades but very little is known about the deeper minerals like iron hematite holding and releasing contaminants in the groundwater as biogeochemical conditions change. The government is choosing a temporary fix at many sites to wait and see if nature can remove the contamination or increase acceptable limits.

Ultimately, what is needed are improved scientific, collaborative site characterization assessments as we were rarely doing at DOE-LM such as on the Riverton, WY site where contamination spread onto tribal land. The collaboration enabled opposition groups to work together by developing partnerships with tribal consultants, federal and state scientists, and DOE National Laboratory experts.

So hopefully the work of ProPublica and other news organizations, as well as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and advocacy groups (here’s my article to PEER), can focus on budget needs for science research that got cut over the past several years especially during the Trump Administration. I borrowed the cover cross-section from the U.S. Geological Survey Toxics Hydrology program, which in my opinion is one of the most important organizations to independently evaluate groundwater contamination yet is very poorly funded and barely survived the war on truth and science. Here’s an example of continued collaboration that continued after I left DOE to follow up on the Riverton, WY research among university, USGS scientists, and myself by investigating the Little Wind River, downgradient from the former uranium mill site, located on the Wind River Indian Reservation.

Thanks to the readers of this blog to continually strengthen collaboration and communications among scientists, media, policy makers and concerned citizens!

The British are Coming, Again

Today, His Royal Highness Prince William, first heir to the King of England, is in Boston to award $1 million dollars to each of the five winners of his annual Earthshot Prize. He created the contest to promote finding solutions to climate change and felt inspired by John F. Kennedy’s space race to the Moon.

Last week my family took a Thanksgiving break to Boston and we stayed at the Revere Hotel located downtown near Boston Common. We visited many modern and historic sites including the Revere home and learned the history of his famous legendary horse ride to alert colonists that “the British are coming” which began the Revolutionary War. However, according to the Fondor’s Travel guide to Boston, Revere and others still considered themselves to be British colonists and he did not yell these exact words.

I took the cover photo at the Revere Hotel showing a “steampunk sculpture constructed out of recycled metals by a local artist,” according to Fondor’s Travel guide. A great example of the 3R’s: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. The hotel clerk jokingly said the rider is a statue of Paul Pierce of the Boston Celtics; however, the current player wearing number 0 is Jayson Tatum.

We also learned about our family history on my father’s side - my ancestor sailed from England to New Hampshire in 1633, only 13 years after the Mayflower landed in Plymouth, MA. He was not a Pilgrim but a fisherman who acquired 40 acres, planted an apple orchard on 3 acres, and his son William built a 30 foot by 20 foot log home that served as a garrison for protection to the community and is now preserved at the Woodman Museum. So my family ancestors came from Britain near Liverpool and I’m learning of family connections including with George Harrison and David Bowie (who were 14th cousins) and other famous Brits! Too bad my musical ability is limited to my whistling.

I’m grateful for our ancestors and patriots who fought for freedoms that we’ve inherited. Learning about the hardships and challenges faced by previous generations, we’re so fortunate to be living at this time of modern conveniences. Now we need to find a sustainable balance to protect our Mother Earth, reduce consumption, waste, and stress especially during this holiday season. Protecting our planet and all inhabitants is a recipe for global harmony.

Water Mission

Pictured is a Water Mission refugee settlement project which may provide clean water for 50,000 people a day or more, generating up to 350 gallons of clean safe water per minute. The above photograph is at a refugee settlement in Tanzania where hundreds of thousands of Burundians have fled to Tanzania due to violent political unrest and economic decline. Water Mission started delivering safe water in Tanzania’s refugee settlements in 2015, expanding solutions in partnership with the Poul Due Jensen Foundation.

One result from my previous blog A Long Walk to Water was reconnecting with my friend and colleague Bill Moore who volunteers with the faith-based Water Mission. Bill and I previously worked on a consulting project together and he is a very enthusiastic, caring and knowledgeable hydrogeologist. He’s progressed in his 40+ year career to achieve Vice President of several large environmental corporations. It’s wonderful seeing him use his education and extensive experience to help people around the world obtain safe drinking water. Here’s what he wrote about this blog that he shared on LinkedIn:

“I appreciate so much the work and heart of Bill Dam. Actually, in part it was Bill that, through seeing his water-related work, encouraged me to consider a volunteer role to help address the global water crisis – thus my current connection with Water Mission. Check out Bill’s blog. I have read the book he writes about – it will move your heart. Thanks for all you do Bill! And thanks to Wake County North Carolina for making the book required reading.”

I wanted to learn more about Water Mission so Bill agreed to share his experience. Here is text written by Bill Moore:

“Everything Else Changes

During a short-term work assignment in Charleston, South Carolina, several years ago, I drove past a warehouse building each day that caught my attention. While attending a conference near the end of my assignment, I met a representative who invited me to visit and tour this organization known as “Water Mission.” It was during that visit that I learned about the work they had done over the past twenty years to make a difference in the global water crisis.

The story began in 1998 when the deadliest hurricane in Central American history, Hurricane Mitch, hit Honduras. Seeing news reports of the devastation, Dr. George and Molly Greene, owners of the largest privately held analytical laboratory in the US with a focus on water, reached out to their contact in the country, an Episcopal bishop, asking how they could help. The reply came back, “We need six drinking water units.” After not being able to locate any “off-the-shelf” solutions, Dr. Greene, a PhD chemical engineer, sat down and within few hours sketched out his own design. The systems were built, tested and ready for delivery. Within the week they traveled to Honduras to deliver and setup six water treatment systems. Shortly thereafter (September 2000) the couple decided to sell their company and focus the rest of their lives working to provide access to safe water to those in desperate situations.

For over two decades, Water Mission has not only mobilized safe water relief during natural disasters around the globe, but they have also helped deliver clean water solutions to communities where 2.2 billion people live without access to safe drinking water. The statistics are staggering; 30% of the world’s population lacks safe water and one person dies every 37 seconds from a water-related illness. This includes 297,000 children annually under five with half of the hospital beds in developing countries filled with people suffering waterborne illnesses. Over their history, Water Mission has brought clean water solutions to 7,000,000 people in 57 countries with the completion of about 2,800 projects. Over recent months, in addition to their work in the nine countries where they have in-country teams, Water Mission has responded to help the overflow of refugees from the war in Ukraine, from the catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, and Hurricane Fiona which hit Puerto Rico in September.

Their past work in Haiti, subsequent to Hurricane Matthew (2016), was recently tested. Would the systems they had set up survive when the next earthquake hit the nation? Knowing that Haiti sits in a seismically active area, the organization’s engineering team took that into account and designed treatment systems and structures to withstand future seismic events. Of the 40 projects they built, 38 of them remained functional following the August 2021 quake - a remarkable design success underscoring their emphasis on technical excellence and providing long-term sustainable solutions. In the open fields of the Nyarugusu Refugee Camp in western Tanzania, Water Mission erected a 100,000-watt solar panel array to power the treatment and pumping of water for more than 250,000 displaced people. Similar projects have been constructed in two other large refugee camps. With so many of their projects off-the-grid, their designs require self-contained solar and sustainable energy sources. Having become one of the industry’s recognized experts with solar energy in rural and “end-of- road settings”, they were recently invited to partner with UNICEF to author the “Solar Powered Water Systems Design and Installation Guide”. This first-of-its-kind resource provides detailed instruction for fulfilling the internationally recognized technical standards for implementing solar powered water systems in rural settings. To complement this point, a 2017 audit of groups working in Ugandan refugee camps specifically highlighted Water Mission’s success. “Water Mission stands out as the nongovernmental organization with enough in-house expertise to independently design, operate, and maintain solar water schemes,” reads the International Organization for Migration’s associated report.

While attending Water Mission’s 2022 Strategic Partners Summit, three things stood out to me. First, there is an emphasis on collaboration regardless of who gets the credit to find better solutions to address global safe water needs. Next, several Fortune 500 companies which are actively involved in partnering with Water Mission. And finally, there is vision and creativity to think outside the box in the pursuit of emerging solutions that will result in major steps forward to ultimately solve the global water crisis.

These global accolades and corporate confirmations are powerful and well-deserved, but for me the words of Scott Linebrink, a former professional baseball pitcher now on staff with Water Mission, say it all. In talking to host Mohammed Abdalla on his Thinking Green Podcast series, Scott recently stated, “You can change the trajectory of an entire community that has never had safe water. They have spent generations living with bad water. The minute that you put in a system, that is not going to be the case anymore – it is the greatest before and after project that I’ve ever seen because everything else changes after the water system comes in.” This is why I and so many others choose to come along side of Water Mission to bring answers to one of the world’s most intimidating challenges.” References: Charleston - the City Magazine (December 2021); Water Mission website

Check out the many ways to support and Get Involved in the Water Mission!

A Long Walk to Water

According to the World Health Organization WHO, 1 in 3 people globally lack access to safe drinking water! That huge number, over 2.5 billion people, are struggling to survive - truly a Humanitarian and Ecological Crisis! So many people tragically face daily barriers of consuming clean water that it’s hard to comprehend the magnitude of the problem. One way for an affluent westerner who grew up with clean running water at home such as myself is to read personal accounts by people with direct experience of the crisis and how they are working to fix the problem.

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park is based on a true story, actually based on the real events of two people in different places at different times - one in 1985 and one in 2008 - that come together at the end. I agree with the quote on the cover by Publishers Weekly that the book is “Tragic and harrowing.”

This book is assigned reading for seventh grade English students at Wake County Public Schools. For much of the book I felt shocked, horrified, saddened, and even questioning if this book is appropriate for children to read. However, I’m glad to have read the book to the end, fighting through the tears, to learn about their “triumphant climax” as reviewed by Booklist.

Here’s a very brief synopsis without giving away the ending and I highly recommend the book to all who want to be better informed and increase your compassionate concern for life.

Eleven-year old Nya lived in the Southern Sudan region of northeastern Africa. As recent as 2008, she must still walk for water about a “half a morning’s walk away” to a dirty “brown, muddy water pond" in the village. Walking for water, not just once a day but two trips a day for seven months out of the year. Then when the pond dried up completely, her Nuer-tribal family relocated during the rainy season closer to a larger dry lake bed but taking the added risk of tribal warfare with the Dinkas.

Bringing the empty container to the pond might have been easy except for the excessive heat, wounding thorns, and long hours. Carrying a heavy plastic jug on her head filled with water was truly arduous and sometimes Nya had the additional burden of bringing her five-year old sister Akeer. But that was better then when Akeer got sick from drinking the dirty water and needed medicine and prescribed to consume only boiled water after her illness. But that really was not practical when they lived by the dry lake bed as it would take too long to boil the small amount of water they obtained or when they walked to the pond and needed to drink right away. Eventually, their lives would change for the better in unexpected ways.

Eleven-year old Salva also grew up in Southern Sudan but 23 years earlier than Nya and from a different tribe. His family came from the Dinka tribe, at war with the Nuers for many generations, fighting over the land in close proximity to water. He learned Arabic in school, and his father was a well-respected judge and cattle owner. Life was okay until the war reached his village school - the rebels from south Sudan fought against the Muslim government to the north. Silva got separated from his family when rebels attacked his school, he became an orphan, and sent to live in rebel camps. Luckily, he was too young to be a soldier. The older people who were not useful soldiers in the rebel army rejected Silva as being a burden and adding to their starvation. He kept moving, being forced out of Sudan, encountered lions and mosquitos, retched hunger, disease and severe dehydration crossing the desert. He made his way with different people heading east to the Nile River which split through Sudan and crossed the river into the Akobo desert. Many died along the way through the desert heading into Ethiopia where they would find relative safety at the Itang refugee camp. Silva spent many years in refuge camps which got overcrowded or closed when broken governments could not handle foreign aid. He escaped back to Sudan and Kenya camps: Kakuma and Ifo, searching for a better life. His life changed dramatically when as a young adult he got adopted by an American family!

An incredibly inspiring book that shows first hand how perseverance to survive can spring forth beautiful, fruitful outcomes!

The Climate Diet

I found The Climate Diet on the new book shelf at the public library. The author Paul Greenberg offers, “50 simple ways to trim your carbon footprint.” The small concise book is an easy and fun read with many practical ideas that are easy to implement. Many of these ideas are well known but it’s worth being reminded and during this COVID pandemic many people are being forced to change their habits by staying more at home, eating less meat and diary, buying energy efficient appliances and electric vehicles, riding bicycles, telecommuting, gardening and planting more trees.

Some of the ideas that I had not heard about include how much money banks fund the fossil fuels industry. JP Morgan Chase held the misdirected distinction of being the top money lender providing almost $270 billion from 2016-2019. The top four banks (Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, and Banks of America) loaned about $811 billion to the industry that created and exacerbates the climate crisis. As consumers we make choices on our banks, credit cards, investments, and insurance. This reminds me of a blog I wrote almost six months ago on ESG.

Another useful idea for new construction or when the air conditioner needs to be replaced is to use a heat pump. The author adds a resource section including advice on heat pumps from NRDC.

Here is what the publisher says:

“ABOUT THE CLIMATE DIET

A celebrated writer on food and sustainability offers fifty straightforward, impactful rules for climate-friendly living

“Some strong and rational suggestions for reducing your personal impact here–and when you’re eating smart, you’ll have the energy to do the movement building we need to change systems too! This book integrates the individual and the societal in a powerful way.”–Bill McKibben

We all understand just how dire the circumstances facing our planet are and that we all need to do our part to stem the tide of climate change. When we look in the mirror, we can admit that we desperately need to go on a climate diet. But the task of cutting down our carbon emissions feels overwhelming and the discipline required hard to summon. With The Climate Diet, award-winning food and environmental writer Paul Greenberg offers us the practical, accessible guide we all need. It contains fifty achievable steps we can take to live our daily lives in a way that’s friendlier to the planet–from what we eat, how we live at home, how we travel, and how we lobby businesses and elected officials to do the right thing. Chock-full of simple yet revelatory guidance, The Climate Diet empowers us to cast aside feelings of helplessness and start making positive changes for the good of our planet.”

Going Solar

Today I applied to the Homeowners Association (HOA) to approve installing solar panels on our home. The process to choose installing solar has been much more challenging, although less expensive, than buying a PHEV car last year as I previously described in this blog. While I’ve bought many automobiles in the past, this is the first time choosing a solar company to purchase and install panels. With the new Inflation Reduction Act allowing for 30% tax rebates and declining costs of solar panels, the time for homeowners to install solar could never be better!

We purchased our home in February 2022. About a dozen neighbors out of a couple of hundred homes have installed solar panels so far. However, the HOA just took over the 5-year old community after the builder completed the development. Our next door neighbor, who needed to signoff on our request, was able to install panels on their rear south facing roof and some homes were “grandfathered” allowing them with panels facing the front of the house. The new HOA requirements do not allow panels to be visible from the front of the house which eliminates many homeowners from installing solar if the front of their home faces the south.

So we may be the first to test the new architectural review committee (ARC) process, which just this month added solar to the guidelines: “Solar Panels are allowed and should be installed by a licensed professional with the proper architectural application approval. Panels should be installed on the sides or back of the roof and not front street facing to appeal more to the overall look of the home.”

We are requesting the ARC to approve our plan for installing 18 panels on the west facing rear roof and 4 panels on the south facing roof. Our neighbor in charge of the ARC informally suggested we get the most efficient and install the fewest number of panels we can.

I spoke with several neighbors who’ve installed solar panels in our neighborhood by knocking on doors or checking the Facebook group learning they used at least four different companies. Before contacting companies I wanted to get better informed on the options so I found this book to be very helpful as an introduction:

How to Solar Power Your Home by Martha Maeda, 2015 Atlantic Publishing Group

The author describes motivations for going solar, active and passive systems, evaluating if solar is right for you depending on where you live, energy efficiency, designs and selecting components, rebates, and maintenance.

After reading the book and reviewing some helpful websites including energysage.com, solarreviews.com, solarpowertalk.com, and nuwattenergy.com, I compiled lists of solar providers, ratings, reviews, manufacturer technology, and costs. I then contacted companies on the top list and got estimates over the phone after providing our monthly electric usage.

I compared bids from six companies that proposed to install panels from several companies including AlphaPure, QCell, REC, Solaria, and SunPower. So it’s important to learn about the actual panel technology in addition to selecting the company to install the panels. Some of the installers were locally owned companies and some were national. I spoke with sales people from several other states and only one person wanted to meet in person. I looked at solar panel specs including efficiency, duration (panels lose power over time), cost per watt, and warrantees. Many of the installation companies were willing to share how they could beat the competition.

The process to select a solar company took me several weeks, it will take several more months to get the panels installed, and we probably won’t know for many years or perhaps decades if we made the right decisions so far. But we can feel good today that we are trying to make a difference in going green!

Fed Climate Actions

Today there were two historic actions by the U.S. Federal Government responding to the climate crisis: President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Department of Interior imposed new water restrictions on the Colorado River.

The IRA law according to the White House makes the largest investment in clean energy by:

Lowering Energy Costs

• Families that take advantage of clean energy and electric vehicle tax credits will save more than $1,000 per year.

• $14,000 in direct consumer rebates for families to buy heat pumps or other energy efficient home appliances, saving families at least $350 per year.

• 7.5 million more families will be able install solar on their roofs with a 30% tax credit, saving families $9,000 over the life of the system or at least $300 per year.

• Up to $7,500 in tax credits for new electric vehicles and $4,000 for used electric vehicles, helping families save $950 per year.

• Putting America on track to meet President Biden’s climate goals, which will save every family an average of $500 per year on their energy costs.

Building a Clean Energy Economy

• Power homes, businesses, and communities with much more clean energy by 2030, including:

  • 950 million solar panels

  • 120,000 wind turbines

  • 2,300 grid-scale battery plants

• Advance cost-saving clean energy projects at rural electric cooperatives serving 42 million people.

• Strengthen climate resilience and protect nearly 2 million acres of national forests.

• Creating millions of good-paying jobs making clean energy in America.

Reducing Harmful Pollution

• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 1 gigaton in 2030, or a billion metric tons – 10 times more climate impact than any other single piece of legislation ever enacted.

• Deploy clean energy and reduce particle pollution from fossil fuels to avoid up to 3,900 premature deaths and up to 100,000 asthma attacks annually by 2030.

Federal water restrictions on the Colorado River are being imposed on seven Western states and Mexico. The crisis did not begin with current droughts and result largely from the original 1920’s compact that overestimated available water supplies.

Be Prepared!

David Pogue’s book How to Prepare for Climate Change: A Practical Guide to Surviving the Chaos compiles key resources for climate impacts and important steps we all need to take. With the help of 50 experts the book contains great advice on topics including where to live and invest, how to build and insure, and preparing for all kinds of increasingly frequent disasters. Many of these topics provide links to government resources or other well documented historical events as a guide to future predictions.

Despite the myriad of concerns we face with a changing climate, the book does offer hopeful solutions to reducing our carbon footprint that we can do at home, as we shop, as well as encouraging our elected officials.

Drinking-Water Awareness

Being aware of what’s in our water is essential to our health and survival. With that awareness there are many things we can do to improve the water we consume. But what if individuals or large groups of people are not aware that they are consuming contaminated drinking water? Environmental laws are usually enacted to stop some adverse pollution but that does not make it all go away overnight. Some chemicals never go away and are labeled ‘forever chemicals’ or lack scientific data and are classified as ‘emerging contaminants.’

People must take action to help themselves, their family, community, to gain awareness. Cleanliness is next to godliness and fortunately by the grace of God there are people in the world willing to fight for safe water. The Environmental Working Group is a non-profit organization spreading awareness of what’s in our food and water for almost 30 years. To find out what’s in your drinking water and what types of filtration systems can be used to treat the water check out EWG Tapwater.

They also provide an interactive map in the U.S. on hexavalent chromium (Cr +6) contamination popularly known as the ‘Erin Brockovich’ chemical listed as tainting the tap water of 251 million Americans.

You may recall the movie staring Julia Roberts portraying Erin Brockovich in her quest for helping a small California town become aware of Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) contaminating people’s drinking water.

It’s an amazing true story and I have some related personal experiences to share. For about one year I worked as an environmental scientist contractor to PG&E which was about five years after the movie was released. Because of the largest civil lawsuit in history costing PG&E $333 million as well as tremendous damage to their reputation and harm caused to many people, I observed they became very proactive in cleaning up remaining contaminated sites. I did not work on Cr +6 issues related to gas compressor stations but focused on electrical substations and transmission systems in the San Francisco Bay area. I led a team to remove underground pipelines containing transformer cooling oil that potentially contained PCBs. We removed contaminated soil containing arsenic that was used as an insecticide in the mid 1950’s. Power transmission lines built on landfills were subsiding needed urgent repairs. I monitored air quality at a substation construction site next to a school to make sure semi-volatile compounds disposed many decades ago in the soil did not spread.

Check out the recent Brockovich book (which I did at the local library) and found it very informative and relatable on why water supplies get contaminated, how they are affecting peoples health, and what we can do to take action. Here’s an interesting NPR review of the book.

Timber

For the past four months, I frequently drove by this old structure noticing the contrast between the old wood building and new multi-million dollar homes. I wondered about its history: who built it, when it was built, who lived there, and how much longer would it remain standing? One morning I took a walk around the site before construction workers arrived and noticed the large amount of lumber being used for these new homes. But the contrast of the old structure in front of the new homes caught my eye and lens the most. How do we preserve our history while the world is changing so fast? As a newcomer the the area I’m not attached to the history like people who grew up here but am curious about the stories - if only the buildings could speak!

The next day after taking photographs I drove by and was shocked by seeing a bulldozer knocking down the old wood house! Maybe some saw this place as an “eyesore” which might devalue the expensive mansions. Perhaps it would have been a safety hazard. But before it vanished I would have liked to have known more about the history of the area.

One of my previous jobs was to prepare Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessments for commercial property. Banks would hire my employer to research, inspect, and complete the report within one week. We needed to review the history of the property and surrounding one-mile radius going back to the first development or at least back to 1940 using air photos, telephone directories, and other documents. We were mostly focused on environmental hazards such as gasoline stations with leaking underground tanks and dry cleaners using PCE chemicals. Most farms had diesel tanks that might cause some local contamination. These hazards could pose a liability for the real estate owners and if we found anything of concern we would recommend collecting samples in a Phase 2 investigation.

Third Year of Community Garden

In July 2019, I posted a blog about a new community garden located in Grand Junction. How have they been able to support the community over three summers impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic? Ann and Walt Trout, who are the directors and primary gardeners of the non-profit known as Two Fishes Farm, have incredible experiences over the past three years and likely have kept many people alive by donating food to the Grand Junction Community Food Bank!

The first year of getting the organic garden started focused on improving the silty soil by adding nutrients and compost as well as developing the irrigation system. Very few people volunteered to help at first due to the new location. Despite the light turnout, the Trout’s persistence demonstrated the potential and provided a decent harvest which prepared the community for the unforeseen pandemic.

Last year with Covid-19 raging, people wanted to get outdoors and the community garden saw a great influx of volunteers. That allowed for more planting, weeding, and harvesting to support many more people. However, increasing seed prices incentivized creating heirloom tomatoes. Instead of buying tomato plants, the farmers save unpatented seeds from the prior year and new plants are grown and pollinated naturally. Other challenges involved finding better solutions for crop irrigation.

Instead of using traditional drip irrigation with a emitter at every plant, the garden adopted a new method this year for irrigation. Flexible fabric hoses connected to main water lines are placed along rows. The fabric hoses have holes at regular intervals of one to four feet allowing for planting at each hole. That eliminates the need for emitters and is buried in the roots but clogging can occur if the water is turbid. Therefore, the main water supply is treated with a sand filter and other chemicals may be needed to remove dissolved solids.

This year the community garden is struggling for volunteers as people are getting out of town. Ann and Walt show up most every day to keep up with the many needs but feel their inspired service making a huge difference to many people. Small grants of about $1,200 have been provided by Western Colorado Community Foundation to support purchasing seeds and weed control fabric.

Just this year so far over 200 pounds of vegetables and eggs have been grown and more than half donated to the food bank! If you would like to support the community garden with your time, labor, or donations please contact Ann Trout at atrout@twofishesfarm.org.

Update August 9, 2021

Ann Trout provided totals of donated vegetables for the three years:

Year 1, 3,400 pounds

Year 2, 6,400 pounds

Year 3, 500 pounds so far this year with an estimate of about 6,000 pounds of vegetables to be donated.

So the total estimate for the three years is 15,800 pounds of vegetables. It is recommended we eat 3 cups of vegetables per day. One pound equals about 1.9 cups so 15,800 pounds equals over 30,000 cups which translates to 10,000 daily servings of vegetables!

Nuclear Plant Community and Contacts

About three months ago we bought a home only three miles away (and 20 miles to Raleigh) from the Harris Nuclear Power Plant. We considered the many tradeoffs with benefits of living in a more rural area near lakes and forests while being mindful of extra unnatural radioactivity in the environment much less the fear of low probability-high consequence risks of a nuclear meltdown. If you saw the recent NETFLIX docudrama on Three Mile Island (TMI), I can understand how scary it might feel wondering if that could ever happen again? The series does reveal the scarcity and importance of honest corporate officials, vigilant regulators, accurate reporters, insider whistleblowers and community organizers.

So far, I feel safe living so close to Harris NPP based on what I know about building, operating, and regulating nuclear power plants. Power plants have improved tremendously over many decades as a direct result of lessons learned from accidents and world events like 9/11. In 2019, I published a series of eight blogs on Mitigating Nuclear Hazards examining my professional experiences with the nuclear fuel cycle including blog number 5 on Reactors.

Finding unbiased sources of information - people, especially experts, who are not pro-nuke or anti-nuke is essential for getting at the realities of safely living by a nuclear power plant. I highly recommend checking out the series of videos by University of Illinois Energy Professor Dr. David Ruzic including the 2021 overview Dispelling the Myths of Nuclear Power and a technical recounting of the history of TMI.

So I’m just beginning to learn specifically about the Duke Energy Progress Harris plant. I discovered that the sign in front of the closed visitors center (“open by appointment only”) provides an outdated phone number because the area code changed from 919 to 984 so the correct number is 984-229-6261. Some websites and customer service representatives still had the old number last time I checked.

So I reached out to the resident inspectors (who live in our community) with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to get the correct information. This led to my attending the first tour of the environmental center after the Covid pandemic ended public events. The Harris public affairs specialist is Michelle Burton who can be reached at 984-229-2160. She and Nathan Blanton, a senior scientist for radiation protection, provided an overview of the plant operations to a group of 10 people - mostly with the girl scouts.

I also joined a public meeting held by NRC one month ago on the phone focusing on annual safety inspections of the Harris plant. I was the only member of the public to ask questions on topics including cyber security, evacuation routes, upgrades to equipment, and nuclear waste.

I am hopeful to attend a tour of the plant inside the protected area if it’s offered later this fall. I’ve joined my neighborhood HOA safety committee to be a community organizer seeking and sharing accurate information on topics including the swimming pool, traffic, and the nuclear power plant.

For residents living within a 5-mile radius of the nuclear power plant, the company issues a public alert radio. To obtain the radio, I spoke with Dave Bell (984-229-2229) in the emergency preparedness department at the Harris plant who dropped a Midland weather alert radio off at my house. I found preset channel 7 with a broadcast frequency of 162.550 MHz provides the best reception. Now we’re getting many frequent alerts from the National Weather Service. The Harris plant sends weekly radio tests on Wednesday’s at noon according to the EP Booklet which provides abundant community information including on evacuation routes.

So if you’re in the area perhaps on the way to Harris Lake County Park and driving by the Harris Energy and Environmental Center please let me know if they update the visitors sign with the correct phone number to schedule tours. You may also enjoy the White Oak nature trail with short loops and numerous trees identified. Calling the company public affairs specialist and NRC to request public meetings is another way to show an engaged and informed community.

Coder Dojo

I met the CoderDojo team at the Earth Day celebration in Apex, NC. According to their website:

“CoderDojoApex NC is a volunteer-led digital making and coding club with a mission to inspire children to learn, make and express with technology. We meet every Saturday from 10:30a-12:30pm ET(regular session). We welcome children from ages 7-17 years old and all levels of coding experience from beginner to advanced. Attending a session is free of charge, however signup is necessary. Register on the CoderDojo website to reserve your tickets and become a member of this community.”

Initially my wife and I got excited to learn about the CoderDojoApex group for our son to improve his computer programming skills as well as my sharing the opportunity with kids I meet as a substitute teacher at the public schools. When I heard they are currently creating projects on environmental sustainability I got even more thrilled and they asked me to judge the presentations held last Saturday! Our son is still on a baseball team so we hope he will get involved later this summer.

Group presentations of sustainability projects were judged based on factors created by the organizers for Coolness, Complexity, Presentation, Design and Usability.

Six groups of three or four children presented their projects that they had worked on for over a month. Some groups presented posters, PowerPoint slides, and many wrote Scratch programs. Topics included finding ways to improve growing food at home, sharing information to reduce fossil fuel consumption, protecting wildlife, conserving water, reducing plastic pollution, and preventing forest fires. The winning team programmed soil moisture sensors to water plants using Arduino and they came up with a great title and presentation: “SPLP Sustainable Planting for Lazy People!”

I also liked many of the Scratch games that the students created. The group from Kenya created a game to promote awareness for saving White Rhinos from illegal ivory poaching.

When I see the enthusiasm, concern, creativity, and willingness to sincerely address world problems and create positive outcomes gives me great hope for the future of humanity. For more on the #CoolestProjects Jam event and future events check them out on Facebook!

Watch Out!

Isn’t there a joke about why did the geese (or chicken) cross the road? As I drove the car through a Cary, NC shopping center, our son noticed and photographed this family of Canadian Geese crossing the road. We can assume the chicks were too young to fly strutted in between the parents. Drivers sped by the busy road as the geese tried to find a gap to cross searching for a nearby pond.

This photo reveals the danger that nature faces everyday surviving in the expanding human environment. It also shows how we humans need to be vigilant of nature surrounding us to avoid collisions.

Most parents will do everything they can to protect their children. Even Middle East peace is possible as President Carter negotiated with the leaders of Israel and Egypt by showing photos of their grandchildren while asking what kind of world did they want for their progeny.

So what kind of world do we want for current and future generations? Flourishing in a healthy world abundant with natural resources that sustains all life in balance is the goal of sustainability. The laws of nature strive to continue this balance and people can either realign by becoming defensive drivers in the world environment taking responsibility or acting selfishly wreaking havoc by exploiting nature like road rage maniacs.

Watch Out! With every purchase we make we can ask if this product is sustainably benefiting us and nature. We must reduce our demand on resources like oil, gas, water, food, clothes and more. Conserve and use the minimum necessary or become more efficient in using resources - make it a fun game with your family to get by with just enough. It’s like buying car insurance - we all need it to drive - and the lower risk drivers pay less for their insurance. Prosper — the result of needing and using less, minimizing expenses, and maximizing profits!

Earth Day 2022

Happy Earth Day 2022!

Thanks to the U.S. government agency NOAA for the infographic posted for this very special day. There are so many good ideas represented in this diagram!

We’re so happy when our son can wake up in time to catch the school bus. Two days this week he needed me to drive him the three miles to school and we noticed 100’s of cars doing the same thing. Imagine how much pollution we can save if more kids take school buses more often! Converting to electric or CNG cars and buses will make for better air quality including less carbon emissions.

If you’ve read previous early blogs you may have heard my story but if not here’s a summary of my health/career bio: I was born with asthma so my parents quit smoking cigarettes. Air pollution growing up in D.C. area in the 1960's as well as allergies triggered many severe, almost fatal asthma attacks. There were red alert smog days when we could not go outside. Becoming aware of my sensitive lung issues made me more interested in our environment, learning about weather and earth science in high school, college, and master's program eventually becoming an environmental geologist. I spent my career working on public health issues and for seven years blogging/photographs on global sustainability!

I just posted this bio on the American Lung Association website and found great information:

What's the State of YOUR Air?

For 23 years, the American Lung Association (ALA) has analyzed data from official air quality monitors to compile the State of the Air report. The more you learn about the air you breathe, the more you can protect your health and take steps to make the air cleaner and healthier.

You can make a difference in the air that you breathe.

SIGN OUR PETITION

SHARE YOUR STORY

For the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area:

• Tied for 1st for cleanest metropolitan areas in the country for Ozone

• Ranked 99 for 24-hour particle pollution out of 221 metropolitan areas

• Ranked 127 for annual particle pollution out of 202 metropolitan areas

Check out the air quality for where you live and see how the air has improved since issuing the Clean Air Act in 1970 but there is still work to do according to ALA:

The “State of the Air” 2022 report finds that despite decades of progress on cleaning up sources of air pollution, more than 40% of Americans—over 137 million people—are living in places with failing grades for unhealthy levels of particle pollution or ozone. This is 2.1 million more people breathing unhealthy air compared to last year’s report. Nearly 9 million more people were impacted by daily spikes in deadly particle pollution than reported last year. In the three years covered by this report, Americans experienced more days of “very unhealthy” and “hazardous” air quality than ever before in the two-decade history of “State of the Air."

Western U.S. wildfires burning more frequently and intensely are increasing due to climate change which is the main reason for the increasing air pollution. We all need to do more to celebrate this beautiful Earth every Day as well as give back and find ways to make a difference to improve all life.

Celebrating Yellowstone!

Happy 150th Birthday Yellowstone National Park! The central Wyoming hot spot, home to Old Faithful and Yellowstone Falls (shown in my photo from September 2019), was the first designated location for an American National Park.

Yellowstone was one of the first national parks that my parents and I visited when I was just 17 years old. We drove from our home in northern Virginia across America to see many national parks and other beautiful places. Luckily, I had just gotten my driver’s license so I enjoyed the trip much more by being behind the wheel about half of the trip.

Seeing Yellowstone’s incredible geology, ecology, and wildlife - as close to nature as I had ever been - motivated me to want to learn about the natural sciences. I vividly recall getting very close to a moose in Yellowstone next to a wetland but my Kodak Instamatic camera made the animal look far away.

I read a book on Geology of the National Parks that served as the foundation for my studying geology at Guilford College in North Carolina and in graduate school at the University of Wyoming.

I’ve been back to Yellowstone many times. One time during winter, I stayed with a friend at a West Yellowstone cabin and we cross country skied into the park. The fresh snow covered a harder icy layer so conditions were great for making new tracks. We skied into the park about 10 miles on a closed road. Unexpectedly, on the way back we noticed animal tracks following our ski marks - big prints made from a bear! Seemed unusual to have a bear coming out of hibernation so we imagined how good we must smell to a hungry bear which motivated us to return with alacrity!

Taking my wife and young son to Yellowstone in 2019 fulfilled a dream of mine to share my wonder for park. We could hear reintroduced wolf calls and see his excitement for huge bison herds.

I’m so grateful to our ancestors including Hayden, Grant and others to create and protect Yellowstone and many other national parks. Ken Burns aptly stated that National Parks are “America’s Best Idea.”

Sustainable Fishing

The Wake County (North Carolina) Public School System’s sixth grade science classes are reading World Without Fish by Mark Kurlansky. Published in 2011, the author states that on the current trend most fish we know of could be gone in 50 years! Even worse, since all life is interconnected, including on land and in oceans, loss of fish populations will affect other wildlife like birds as well as threaten the food web and human existence.

Environmental stresses such as climate change and pollution and fishing fleets using drag nets to meet consumer demand are leading causes for species depletions and extinctions. Biodiversity is the key to success for all life which would be threatened if fish species decline. For example, overfishing bluefin tuna would harm dolphins and cause other species like jellyfish to expand. Seabirds that eat fish would also die out causing problems on land. Reptiles would not have food that is discarded by sea birds.

It’s interesting to read how many scientists in the late 1800’s thought fish populations could not diminish due to abundant egg production and fisherman would never intentionally impact fish populations. They misused Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” by not considering new inventions like the steam engine and monofilament plastic nets that allowed for deeper bottom fishing. People mistakenly thought fish in the deep oceans were as abundant as along coastal waters.

Humpback whales and herring eat krill - shrimp-like creatures which eat microscopic phytoplankton. White meat fish include cod, haddock, flounder, and halibut can swim near the bottom of the ocean and swim to the surface to eat smaller fish and shell fish. These fish are prized in commercial markets. Middle ocean depth fish include sardines, anchovies, herring, mackerel, and tuna have darker flesh and contain oily fluids.

Mr. Kurlansky aptly points out the sad story of the Orange Roughy that only 50 years ago became too popular and within a decade diminished by 90% in Australia due to a lack of scientific understanding. These red fish are found at depths of 5000 feet and turn orange when they die. They can live for 150 years but do not begin reproducing until age 20 so catching juvenile fish harmed the entire population.

Fish farms may not be the answer for sustainable fishing due to related problems. Ships the size of factories net and grind up fish for feeding farmed fish. The book shares that four pounds of fish meal are needed for one pound of farmed salmon. Farmed fish confined to small overcrowded areas develop weaker muscle tissue as well as increase water pollution.

The best solutions for sustainable fishing are for consumers to buy fish labeled as “certified sustainable seafood.” Higher prices to fisherman are going for line-caught fish like white albacore tuna and we can avoid buying other fish higher on the food chain such as bluefin tuna and shark. Lower food chain fish are more abundant and sustainable including sardines, anchovies, and herring. Other suggested actions include becoming active in environmental groups and promoting international relations to change consumer demand.

Sustainable Blogging

Today’s the last day of February 2022. I last posted a blog just after the New Year. Since starting the Conserve-Prosper website in May of 2015, I’ve consistently posted at least one blog every month for 80 months. So now I have just a few hours left today to add a blog for this month.

During the month of June 2019, I challenged myself to post a blog every day of the month. Typically writing a blog and finding the relevant photograph could take up to four hours to complete.

It’s been a great privilege to express my First Amendment freedom of speech, particularly in the last few years after retiring from the federal government. We see dictatorships that prevent free speech but does your employer (teacher, spouse, parent or child) block you’re expressing diverse points of view? Perhaps it’s ironic that I am borrowing the “Blogging” photo from a .gov website!

With the crisis in Ukraine, I feel shock, dismay, helplessness and confusion. It brings back memories from 43 years ago as a college student spending a semester in Germany when we visited East and West Berlin before the fall of the Soviet Union. After a week in West Berlin, we passed through the Wall at CheckPoint Charlie and spent three days in the communist country. There were many Russian tourists that we could not meet but our tour guide shared his misery living in East Germany and he desperately wanted to escape to America. The dictatorship government claimed they wanted to prevent western ideas from contaminating the minds of their people. I heard during this time Putin was stationed with KGB nearby in Dresden.

The most amazing memory was on a Saturday evening at 9 pm we walked out near the Wall and could see West Berlin from the Eastern side. The nightclubs blasted disco music and neon lights lit up the sky. In stark contrast, the East Berlin side was dark and quiet with a curfew at 10 pm. It seemed to me that East and West Berlin were at two extreme ends of the spectrum before the Wall came crashing down ten years later.

The fight in Ukraine between a democratic system and crazy Putin’s dictatorship is all about freedom of individual rights such as free speech!

So pray there is a peaceful resolution to this and many other crises. Everyone needs to find a way to express themselves and force free speech around the world. I consider each blog like a message in a bottle hoping some will be read and make a difference in the world. Writing these blogs has made a difference in my life so thanks to everyone who takes the time to check it out and feel free to post a comment.

Charge It!

Filling our PHEV battery at a public facility requires three things to charge it: the charging station, a “smart” phone, and a credit card. For the past week I’ve attempted to find several public charging stations to learn the process: some EV stations were broken, some cost more than gasoline, and some locations are free! The difference depends upon the location owner who purchases and maintains the charging station.

The first charging station we discovered, located in front of our apartment office and the largest across the United States and Europe, is made by ChargePoint Holdings, Inc:. -chargepoin+. I downloaded the app on my iPhone which provides map locations and used my credit card to maintain a balance of $10. They make and distribute hardware and software but did not claim responsibility for setting up and operating the station when I called their customer service to seek help. They said our apartment location was not listed on their network and had not been properly installed. Strike one.

They sent me to the nearby Whole Foods that claims to offers a free charge but it was also not working. When I called again to ChargePoint customer service, a different agent told me it’s been broken for many days. Turns out the plug-in charger locking mechanism had been broken on both outlets and has not been repaired in at least a week. Maybe sabotage? Strike two on public charging!

The next day on Saturday searching for another free charging location the ChargePoint app directed me five miles away to an empty office parking lot at the MetLife building located at 1000 Weston Parkway in Cary, NC. Using my iPhone to unlock the cable charger for the first time it worked - A single! We took a family walk around Lake CrabTree reservoir on a chilly day so we only stayed about 30 minutes and added 1.62 kwh, an estimated four miles to the battery. Then we found the West Regional Library provides a free charge manufactured by EATON that recharged faster than the last place with a full charge taking 4.5 hours.

The first EV charging station requiring us to pay money was in downtown Raleigh in front of the Museum of Natural Sciences which is free to visit. However, street parking costs $2 for a maximum of two hours. For the ChargePoint charger I paid $1.75 to get an estimated 14 miles of charge which works out to $0.125 per mile which is more than the cost of gasoline that costs about $0.08 per mile.

The next day I returned to our apartment and asked the manager about operating the charger. She said some people have been able to use it but they did not know how it worked. After a few attempts I discovered that by repeating the process to unlock the charger three times with my iPhone finally opened up the power cable and since it is not installed to the ChargePoint network there is no cost for using the charger. A home run!

We also just began to rent a one-car garage that has an electrical outlet so we can use the 110v cable to get a full charge in about 12 hours. This process of looking for charging stations has made me feel like a e-vampire searching for a free energy connection!

Does charging the lithium-ion battery affect it’s lifetime? According to driving electric:

“1. Don’t overcharge it: constantly topping up your electric car to keep it fully charged can actually damage it. Laptops, for example, lose battery capacity if they're plugged in all the time. It's better to let the capacity run down to 10 or 20%, then recharge to around 80%.

2. While electric-car batteries have a built-in thermal management system to keep them cool, it’s still worth seeking out a shady spot on a hot day, or even a garage or car port if you plan to charge at home.

3. It’s also advisable to avoid immediately charging your electric car following a particularly spirited drive. Give the batteries a chance to cool down first . Limit your use of rapid chargers. Obviously, there are times when you need a top up in a hurry, and the fact they can give you a quick boost of up to 80% in a short space of time will be invaluable to higher-mileage drivers. But don’t rely solely on rapids to keep your car topped up, as they’re not good for the batteries in the long run. Slow charge whenever you can and especially if it's cold outside.

5. Don't park your car uncovered for long periods of time in very hot conditions.”

Combining my experience with these recommendations indicates that EVs are most suitable for people who can charge their cars in their home garage overnight.

Driving Across the USA in our PHEV

This year we purchased and enjoyed driving across the United States, from Los Angeles to North Carolina, in our plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. Our experiences are teaching us about making the energy-efficient transition from gas to electric motors and this blog is not a plug for any particular brand.

Almost six years ago I described our positive experience purchasing a 2016 Toyota Rav4 hybrid. We sold that car after five years to travel to Thailand one year ago. Over there we attended the 42nd Bangkok International Motor Show entitled “Shaping the Next Chapter” to compare several PHEVs. All the major brands were represented including new models by Audi, BMW, Ford, Hyundai, Kia, MG, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, and Volvo allowing us to sit inside many cars all in one location. We also watched many videos of people test driving the new vehicles. In the end, we chose our most familiar brand hoping to make the sixth purchase of a Toyota vehicle. The challenge was being able to find the new Rav4 Prime with only about 3,600 vehicles projected to be made during the pandemic due to supply-chain battery and chip shortages. In July 2021, we found several dealers in Los Angeles had one or two Primes available per week with more customers than cars. Our dealer in Grand Junction, Western Slope Toyota, said they only had one Prime for the entire year and sold it quickly! We found out later that it was a friend of ours who bought that vehicle.

We ruminated over taking the risk to fly to LA and look to buy our dream car compared to going home to Colorado first. We took the gamble and within a few days in LA found that Carson Toyota provided the best deal in LA. Our credit union website facilitated our search and selection by making online offers for vehicles in advance of arriving at the dealer. However, the dealers charged an extra premium for the low inventory and for the first time we paid above the manufacturers suggested retail price MSRP.

Another decision we needed to make was choosing between two trim levels: SE and XSE. We chose the better package mostly for the SofTex® instead of fabric seating. According to Toyota, “SofTex® is a synthetic leather seat material designed for wear, easy cleaning and resisting spills. Soft to the touch, SofTex weighs about half as much as genuine leather. The way it's made generates around 85% fewer CO2 emissions and 99% fewer Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) than conventional synthetic leather.”

The Toyota Rav4 Prime mid-sized SUV features a 2.5 liter, 4 cylinder gasoline engine rated at 40 mpg in the city and 36 mpg on the highway. The better fuel efficiency around town is a function of the hybrid battery capturing energy from the braking system. The 2021 hybrid improves efficiency over the 2016 Rav4 Hybrid which got 34 mpg city and 31 mpg on the highway.

Front and rear electric traction motors are linked to the powertrain hybrid system providing 42 miles of range from its 18.1-kwh lithium ion battery pack. The electric fuel efficiency is rated at 94 MPGe which is quantified by EPA in kilowatt-hours (kWH) per 100 miles. This is unit of volume per unit of distance, which is exactly the opposite of MPG. Basically, with kWh/100mi, lower numbers are better; with MPG, higher numbers are better. According to the EPA, burning one gallon of gas produces 115,000 BTUs (British thermal units). To generate the same amount of heat by way of electricity, it takes 33.7 kWh. Kilowatt-hours is the standard energy unit for electricity. In simplified terms, if an electric vehicle can travel 100 miles on 33.7 kWh of electricity, the EPA rates it at 100 MPGe. As you can see, this would be a very efficient vehicle, because a gas car would have to travel 100 miles per gallon to be equivalent.

Driving our new Prime off the lot in Carson, CA we caught the interstate and noticed the electric charge running out quickly in EV mode so we switched to HV gas mode. The EV is more efficient to use in town and the HV mode on the highway. Our trip along I10 to I15 took us from a morning of coastal rain into the rain shadow Mohave Desert with July temperatures rapidly increasing from 60 degrees at the coast to over 100 degrees F by the time we reached Barstow. We spent overnight at Lake Las Vegas meeting my brother and his wife for an enjoyable dinner. However, we did not find a charging station at the hotel and continued the next day running mostly on gasoline.

Employing the full-speed range dynamic radar cruise control (DRCC) became the biggest surprise of the trip. Before setting the cruise control I noticed a slight grab by the steering wheel to stay in my lane and when changing lanes only by using my turn signal would the steering wheel release the tension. When setting the cruise control on the interstate, the steering wheel takes over using the radar system to by guided by the traffic lines. This worked okay on straight roads but I did not trust the car to let go of the steering wheel and it seemed to weave left and right as if I was intoxicated. I also noticed cross winds made going straight more challenging. The DRCC slows the car down when getting close to a vehicle in front and I needed to anticipate sooner then normal to go around slower vehicles. Guess I still like to feel in control of the driving and using technology to supplement but not automate my driving experience.

We stayed in Grand Junction from July until November running primarily on EV mode. We could plug-in to the 110v outlet in our garage and full recharge took about 12 hours. We ran the gas engine once per week to keep the fluids moving and after four months only consumed about a half a tank or 5.5 gallons of gasoline. It seemed amazing that we could drive all around town and very rarely need to go more than 42 miles on one change. Luckily, the battery range improved over time and we noticed an improvement up to about 50 miles on one charge.

We got our first free service check at four months. We only put on about 2,500 miles and service is recommended before 4,000 miles or at four months. I asked about gasoline degrading after time and they suggested a BP fuel additive to clean the engine every 10,000 miles. I asked about the ability to recharge the electric battery using the gas engine but the mechanic was not aware of this feature.

Driving on our move from Grand Junction to the east coast, my wife discovered that by holding down the EV/HV button for five seconds allows the gas engine to recharge the electric battery up to about 80% or 32 miles. Using the extra energy stored in the battery helped when getting off the freeways and avoid idling at traffic lights. We still averaged 36 mpg for our trip so perhaps recharging the battery with the gasoline engine does not improve fuel efficiency overall. I still have more to learn and in the next blog will share our experience now that we are staying in an apartment with commercial plug-in charging stations.

In preparing this blog, I learned that Toyota in the second half of this year greatly accelerated supply for the Rav4 Prime and delivered about 20,000 vehicles to the marketplace overall this year. That should help reduce costs at the dealer and offer consumers more choices.