new.stockwatch.com 2003-02-18 09:41 EST - News Release

HOUSTON, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Environmental Safeguards, Inc. (BULLETIN BOARD: ELSF) announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary OnSite Technology LLC ("OnSite") has entered into a global alliance with Onyx Environmental Services, L.L.C. ("Onyx"). OnSite and Onyx will each assist one another as preferred suppliers and jointly bid on projects that may utilize the services, expertise, or equipment of each party.

OnSite's patented ITD technology uses a heat jacketed rotating chamber that vaporizes hydro-carbons and hydrocarbon derivatives from contaminated materials, and a condenser that liquefies the vapor into hydrocarbon liquids of better than 99% purity, for reuse. A single ITD unit can process one to 10 short tons of waste per hour, depending on its content. In addition to the United States, soil remediation and hydrocarbon recycling operations have been successfully conducted in Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Scotland and the U.A.E. Since becoming fully operational six years ago, the Company has processed more than 750,000 tons of contaminated waste, recovering in excess of 15 million gallons of hydrocarbon fluids. More information on OnSite can be found at www.onsite2.com .

Onyx is a worldwide supplier of environmental services to the petrochemical, refining, and manufacturing industries. OES's web site is located at www.onyxes.com .

James S. Percell, chairman and CEO of Environmental Safeguards stated "This alliance is a win-win deal for all parties involved. It expands Environmental Safeguards' global market presence and allows us access to the expertise of Onyx and its many global clients. It also gives OES an exciting new line of services to add to its repertoire."

The Forward Looking Statement or Projections contained herewith involve risk and uncertainties which could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed, and accordingly should be read in conjunction with the Company's 10K for the year ending December 31, 2001 with particular reference to Information Regarding and Factors Affecting Forward Looking Statements in the Management Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. Environmental Safeguards, Inc.

CONTACT: R.F. Hengen, +1-908-508-9000, for Environmental Safeguards, Inc.; or James S. Percell, President of Environmental Safeguards, Inc., +1-713-641-3838

Web site: www.onyxes.com www.onsite2.com

story.news.yahoo.com Mon Feb 17, 9:42 AM ET Add Top Stories - USA TODAY to My Yahoo! Kathy Kiely and Traci Watson USA TODAY

WASHINGTON -- President Bush (news - web sites) and his Republican allies in Congress have an opportunity to give the nation's energy and environmental policies a more pro-business tilt, and they're moving quickly to take advantage of it.

The pending war with Iraq and disruptions of oil supplies from Venezuela highlight the need for greater energy independence, a goal Bush listed as one of his top priorities in his State of the Union address last month. Republican leaders in Congress are moving quickly to revive an energy bill that died last year in the Senate, which was controlled by Democrats.

This year, Republicans control both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and a number of key committee chairmanships and leadership posts are held by staunch conservatives. Several were small-business owners who had run-ins with environmental agencies before coming to Washington. They view the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) as a bureaucracy run amok.

Last week, the conservatives demonstrated their new clout. They expanded a program that allows for more logging on federal land. They lifted a ban on preliminary oil and gas exploration in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (news - web sites). They barred environmental lawsuits over reissuing permits for the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. And they cut $140 million from Bush's requests for national parks and wildlife refuges.

The measures, all controversial, were part of a massive spending bill that had to be approved for the federal government to continue operating.

In the coming months, the president and his allies are hoping for more energy exploration on federally owned lands; more freedom to thin national forests; and environmental regulations that would give businesses, power plants and property owners more flexibility in meeting federal standards on clean air, clean water and the preservation of endangered species.

The stage is set for a showdown that could move environmental issues to the top of the political agenda.

Conservative Republicans think voters will agree that it's time to update environmental policies that they say have put the interests of obscure bugs and plants over Americans who need jobs.

Democrats are trying to make an issue of the administration's plans for energy and the environment. ''They're set on rolling back 30 years of environmental progress,'' House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said last week.

New power brokers

When Republican congressional leaders made appointments to key committees last month, moderates with close ties to the environmental movement were shunted aside in favor of Westerners with a history of tangling with the EPA. Among the new chairmen:

• Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma. At a recent appearance before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (news - web sites), Inhofe recited a list of epithets environmentalists have hurled at him since he took over the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee: '' 'An extremist, a dangerous idiot, Mr. Pollution, Gunga Din, Attila the Hun and Villain of the Year,' '' he said with a laugh.

The combative businessman-turned-lawmaker has said he intends to change the EPA, which he sees as too closely tied to ''environmental extremists.'' He called it an agency of ''bureaucrats inflicting terror'' on small-business owners. He said the costs of environmental regulations need to be weighed against their benefits. He wants more oil and gas drilling in areas that are now off-limits. ''You can't run the most heavily industrialized nation in the world on windmills,'' Inhofe said.

• Rep. Richard Pombo of California. In a rare decision to circumvent the congressional seniority system, House Republican leaders passed over nine more-senior members to make Pombo chairman of the House Resources Committee. The recipient of a ''zero'' rating from the League of Conservation Voters, Pombo is an outspoken fourth-generation rancher who favors cowboy boots and an equally flamboyant rhetorical style. ''I'm anything but politically correct,'' he once said.

A 1996 book that Pombo co-wrote, This Land Is Our Land, inveighed against ''an eco-federal coalition that owes more to communism than any other philosophy.'' But as chairman, Pombo is sounding more conciliatory. He said he's seeking a ''broad consensus'' on ways to ''do a better job of protecting our environment and have less conflict with people.''

• Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma. The 22-year Senate veteran and ace parliamentary strategist took over the Senate Budget Committee this year. Each year, the committee writes one of the few bills that is not subject to a Senate filibuster. That could lead Republicans to include controversial issues in it, such as a measure to permit drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

• Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico. The new chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee also favors opening the Arctic refuge for drilling. And he wants any new national energy policy to include additional nuclear power. No new nuclear power plants have been built since the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania.

   

The committee chairmen help set the legislative agenda. They can showcase an issue by holding a hearing on it. They can bury a bill by never scheduling it for consideration. They can make policy behind closed doors.

A pro-business agenda

The conservatives are assuming leading roles on the environmental and energy committees at a key time. The administration is trying to revive several bills that never made it out of Congress last year, largely because of opposition in the Democratic-led Senate:

• The ''Clear Skies'' bill, a sweeping proposal that the administration says would reduce airborne sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury by about 70% over the next 16 years. Environmentalists argue that the bill does not address pollution from carbon dioxide, which some scientists believe causes global warming (news - web sites). The environmentalists also say the president's measure is too lenient on coal-fired power plants that cause some of the worst pollution problems. The bill would allow plants the option of installing new pollution-control equipment or buying clean-air ''credits'' from other, less dirty facilities.

• A comprehensive national energy strategy. It would open up new opportunities for oil and gas drilling in regions where it is currently prohibited, including the Arctic refuge. Environmentalists say the White House isn't putting enough emphasis on cleaner, alternative energy sources. Supporters of the Bush approach say it is ''balanced.'' Any long-term energy strategy ''has to involve alternative energy and where we're going to be in 30 years,'' Pombo said, ''but it also has to take care of our needs right now.''

• Speeding up timber cuts in Western forests. Advocates say doing so would prevent wildfires in a region where they have recently caused devastation. Environmentalists counter that it would be used as an excuse to expand commercial logging.

Also on the agenda for conservative Republicans such as Inhofe and Pombo: a rewrite of the endangered species act. Advocates of the law say it protects important plants and animals from extinction. Opponents argue that it deprives property owners of the right to use their land.

But there are signs of a schism in Republicans' narrow congressional majority. Influential centrist Republicans have delivered a vote of no-confidence in Bush's ''Clear Skies'' plan. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both Maine Republicans, are supporting an alternative by Vermont independent Sen. Jim Jeffords and backed by a number of leading Democrats.

Centrists also have objected to Bush's plans for energy exploration in the Arctic refuge. Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., is co-sponsoring a bill to ban oil and gas drilling permanently in the refuge.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., plans to use his post as chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to crusade against global warming. And Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., who often holds the deciding vote on the Environment and Public Works Committee, is prepared to break ranks with the Bush administration on environmental issues.

Nonetheless, business leaders and property owners think they have their best chance in years to rein in government regulators. ''It does look as if the stars are lined up,'' says Nancie Marzulla of the Defenders of Property Rights.

Environmentalists agree. They say they're facing the most hostile Congress in at least a generation. John Echeverria, director of the Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Institute, said, ''You can be confident nothing good will happen for the next two years from an environmental standpoint.''

new.stockwatch.com 2003-01-27 06:00 - News Release

HOUSTON, Jan. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Environmental Safeguards, Inc. (BULLETIN BOARD: ELSF) said today that it signed a contract to process various waste streams at a facility owned by Rineco Chemical Industries, Inc., a privately owned concern located in Benton, Arkansas.

Environmental Safeguards said it is using its own proprietary Indirect Thermal Desorption (ITD) technology and equipment, manned by its own trained personnel, to complete the project.

James S. Percell, chairman and president, stated: "This is a reflection of our continued marketing efforts in the industrial arena."

The Company's patented ITD technology uses a heat jacketed rotating chamber that vaporizes hydro-carbons and hydrocarbon derivatives from contaminated materials, and a condenser that liquefies the vapor into hydrocarbon liquids of better than 99% purity, for reuse. A single ITD unit can process one to 10 short tons of waste per hour, depending on its content. In addition to the United States, soil remediation and hydrocarbon recycling operations have been successfully conducted in Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Scotland and the U.A.E. Since becoming fully operational six years ago, the Company has processed more than 750,000 tons of contaminated waste, recovering in excess of 15 million gallons of hydrocarbon fluids.

The Forward Looking Statements or Projections contained herewith involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed and, accordingly, should be read in conjunction with the Company's 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001, with particular reference to Information Regarding and Factors Affecting Forward Looking Statements in the Management Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

Environmental Safeguards, Inc.

CONTACT: RF Hengen Inc., +1-908-508-9000, for Environmental Safeguards, Inc.; or James S. Percell, Chmn & Pres of Environmental Safeguards, Inc., +1-713-641-3838

www.canada.com Renata D'Aliesio The Edmonton Journal Saturday, January 25, 2003

EDMONTON - A dangerous radioactive cylinder smaller than a triple-A battery has gone missing, igniting a search stretching 600 kilometres from Alberta to Saskatchewan.

The silver metallic cylinder contains cesium 137, which emits gamma radiation and poses a serious health risk if it's near or held by someone for mere minutes. It was last seen Sunday at an oil-drilling site 35 kilometres southwest of the village of Pierceland in northwestern Saskatchewan.

Since then, the Tucker Wireline Services Canada truck carrying the cylinder has been to the company's branch in Leduc and to another oil-drilling site in Wandering River, about 50 kilometres north of Athabasca. It was in Wandering River on Tuesday that the cylinder was found to be missing.

The company has been looking for it ever since, but a search of Wandering River, Leduc, Pierceland and routes in between has turned up nothing, says Jeff Levack, sales manager at the company's Canadian head office in Calgary.

"It's a major concern," Levack said Friday. "The search is focusing along the highways, and in the bush where we were in Saskatchewan.

"Where we would really have a problem is if someone were to find the source, not know what it is, and pick it up and carry it around in their pocket."

The cylinder is used along with a five-metre-long tool to determine the density of rock within a hole drilled for oil. It should be kept in a secure case separate from the tool when it's not being used, said Carl Schumaker, a radiation safety expert at the University of Alberta.

"I think that the likelihood that somebody is going to receive a very high dose of radiation from the source is probably minimal simply because it's probably laying somewhere adrift," Schumaker said.

"The longer the time goes that it's not found, the more likely it is that somebody eventually is going to be exposed to it."

If someone were to pick up the cylinder, he or she wouldn't immediately know it was dangerous, Schumaker says. There are no warning marks, nor does the cylinder feel harmful when touched.

"Unlike a hot object, where you are going to feel the burn right away and you're going to drop it, a radiation burn would not happen immediately," Schumaker said. "It would take several hours, maybe several days or longer, before the skin would start to show the damage."

Aside from radiation burns, exposure to cesium 137 may also increase the risk of cancer. This can happen even without touching the cylinder, Schumaker said.

In terms of radiation measurement, the cylinder is rated at two Curies. By comparison, United States estimates of the radiation from the nuclear power-plant explosion at Chornobyl in 1986 have been in the range of three billion Curies.

Cesium 137 was found at Chornobyl after the accident.

Standing just a metre away from the cylinder for 10 minutes would expose a person to more radiation than is deemed safe for an entire year, Schumaker said.

This isn't the first time cylinders containing cesium 137 have gone astray in Canada. Since 1996, there have been three other incidents in which radioactive cylinders have been lost at oil sites, all in Alberta, said Michel Cleroux, spokesman for the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. In those cases, the cylinders were located at the sites where they were used before anyone was exposed to dangerous levels of cesium 137.

Tucker Wireline has brought in an outside expert to help its workers with the search. Levack said the company has hired the same man who worked with Canadian military officials in New Brunswick to locate six radioactive gauges. The gauges, which were mistakenly thrown out in 1998, were eventually found in scrap yards in New Brunswick and Quebec.

There have been no serious medical or environmental disasters connected to cesium 137 in Canada. The cylinder is not considered a risk to the environment.

But it has been linked to a nuclear disaster in Goiania, Brazil, where scavengers in 1987 dismantled an abandoned metal canister containing 1,400 Curies of cesium 137. It was days before anyone realized the canister's danger. Four people died from radiation exposure, while scores of others fell sick.

Tucker Wireline is hopeful its cylinder will be found. Levack says workers are using gamma-radiation detectors mounted on trucks to search for it.

"It's like looking for your car keys. You have two or three very obvious places and when they don't show up there you have to really start thinking," he said. "It seems like a large area that we're looking over, but it's really a thin band because the source is either on the locations where we were working or on the road somewhere in between."

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has ordered the company to suspend work with radioactive materials.

Cleroux said anyone who finds the missing cylinder should call Tucker at 1-888-444-5647, or the RCMP.

There is a possibility the cylinder will never be found. If that's the case, it would pose a health risk for decades to come, Schumaker said. The half-life of cesium 137 is 30 years, which means it will take that long for it to lose half its strength.

Don McGladdery, a councillor with the county of Athabasca, said he doesn't believe residents should be greatly concerned about the missing cylinder.

"I'm sure they'll find it," the former engineer said. "These companies have the highest standards and it's unusual for them to lose something like this."

McGladdery said about 100 people live in the Wandering River area. The population of Pierceland is about 460.

rd'aliesio@thejournal.southam.ca

www.townonline.com By Susan May Danseyar / Journal Staff Thursday, January 23, 2003

Somerville chapter of Amnesty International is one of most active groups in the world

Despite their awareness that human rights violations are taking place - and possibly increasing - all over the world, members of Amnesty International Group 133 in Somerville are not discouraged but rather extremely encouraged by the progress they've made in abolishing heinous acts.

That may be because Group 133, one of 1,500 local and student branches in the United States, is one of the most active groups in the world, said Rick Roth, a former Somerville resident who owns his own T-shirt factory. He joined the group 21 years ago and said since its establishment 25 years ago, Group 133 has attracted unusually committed members who dedicate enormous amounts of time to research and action for the protection of human rights guaranteed to every individual on earth.

"It's not the amount of evil happening in the world that we focus on," said Carl Williams of Roxbury, a computer programmer who joined Group 133 10 years ago. "It's the resolve of people who want to do something about it which gives us encouragement."

And Group 133 has accomplished quite a bit, said Paul Bugala of Somerville, a market analyst who joined four years ago. In addition to writing thousands of letters to elected officials on behalf of changes they insist must take place in countries and regimes and attending demonstrations and educational events, members of the group were responsible for the release of two Tibetan nuns who were jailed, along with 12 others, for taking part in peaceful demonstrations. In addition, Group 133 was responsible for the release of Manuel Salazar who was sitting on Death Row in an Illinois prison by pushing for a second trial where he was found guilty of manslaughter and later released from jail.

"Once you accomplish something, you realize what you can do," said Roth. "And the continuity of the work this group has done over such a long period of time means we have so many individuals we can count on to dedicate their time."

Tamara Jenkins of Boston, a Web programmer who joined Group 133 three years ago and serves as group co-coordinator with Bugala, said Amnesty International has many concerns. "There are more slaves now than ever in the history of the world," she said. "What that means to us is that we have a lot of work to do."

And their unending energy comes from seeing tremendous accomplishment, said Roth. "One of the biggest inspirations came from seeing what happened in East Timor," he said. "If things could change there where 10 years ago things seemed so hopeless, then things can change anywhere."

Perhaps the campaign Group 133 worked on which had the most measurable changes was one which tackled the abolition of physical contact between guards and inmates in womens' prisons which was not illegal in many states, said Williams. "No one but Amnesty International was campaigning against this and, as a result of so many groups working on this, laws were passed in many states which now outlaw such contact," he said.

Serving Somerville as well as neighboring communities, Group 133 is divided into several action teams which work on specific themes or regions of the world. Current teams include those which work for refugees and asylum seekers forced to flee their homelands in fear for their safety; for worldwide abolition of the death penalty; opposing human rights violations in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela; work for the five Tibetan nuns who remain in jail after being arrested and tortured for their taking part in peaceful demonstrations; defending the environment from large corporations which fail to ensure environmentally responsible behavior; and 'Get on the Bus.'

In 1995, Group 133 started 'Get on the Bus' - the largest human rights demonstration in the country which takes place each April in New York. It's a day of action where thousands of members from Amnesty International groups all over the Northeast congregate to take part in a rally and meet with various consulates to either persuade of further action that must be taken or to thank for those that have already taken place.

Another endeavor the group started is '14 for 14' - a series of concerts for 14 months in a row which will raise money for the effort on behalf of the Tibetan nuns. So far, there have been six concerts and there will be eight more at the Linwood Bar and Grill in Boston.

Jenkins said Amnesty International is completely non-partisan. The 40 or 50 active members of the organization are extremely diverse with a variety of political leanings, she said. "There are people who have supported extremely conservative politicians but we all agree on the issue of human rights."

This is a group of people who are doing the very best thing one can do with freedom, said Bugala. "The best patriotic act you can perform is to use your freedom to help others," he said.

Group 133 is always looking for new members, said Roth. One doesn't have to devote as many hours as he and many of the other members do but can help by just writing letters or contributing to its newsletter, he said. Or donations to Group 133 are accepted with all proceeds going to direct human rights work.

The group's action teams meet on Monday nights. The entire 133 meets on the second Tuesday of every month from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in the Northwest Regional Office at 58 Day Street in Davis Square. The next meeting is on Jan. 14 and new members are welcome to attend.

For additional information, see the group's Web site at www.Amnesty133.org or contact group co-coordinator Paul Bugala at pbugala@amnesty133.org or call him at 617-504-3991.