Category: Articles, Chemicals / Toxic Substances, Construction, Environment, Resources for Attorneys, Resources for Experts, Safety OIL & GAS PIPELINE ACCIDENTS: Failure Mechanisms in Non-Technical Language TASA ID: 18867 Oil and gas pipeline construction in the U.S. has grown steadily over the years at a rate of approximately 10,000 miles per year. As of 2019, more than 2.6 million miles of natural gas and 219,000 miles of hazardous liquid pipelines were operating in the United States.The U.S. Department of Transportation’s PHMSA agency began tracking serious accidents in 2000. The latest failure rates reported by PHMSA show 0.01 failures per 1000 miles for hazardous liquid pipelines, 11 failures per 1,000,000 miles for gas distribution pipelines, and 0.008 failures per 1000 miles of gas transmission pipelines. Despite such low probabilities of failure, accidents do occur often making news due to the spectacular way they fail and the likelihood of deaths and injuries. Read more
Category: Articles, Environment, Lost Wages, Medical & Healthcare, Resources for Attorneys, Resources for Experts The Backside of COVID-19, or What The World May Look Like After The Virus Peaks© TASA ID: 826 There is, we believe, a false expectation that after the virus peaks in a few weeks or days, that things will go back to normal. That is most likely not the case. In perhaps a year or longer, we should have a vaccine, which based upon our experiences with other viral vaccines may be partially effective against COVID-19 . Based upon the influenza vaccines, the effectiveness in preventing an infection is between 23% and 60% depending upon the virus and the vaccine. Essentially, entire countries will have to be immunized. The alternative is that enough of us get the virus so that our society develops the “herd immunity.” We also don’t know how effective or long-lasting that vaccine will be. It is possible that the treatment could provide life-long immunity, but the prospects for that are, at this point, unknown, and probably very low- based upon the experience with influenza.To read the full article, download the PDF below. Read more
Category: Environment EPA's Tools for Settling Civil Penalty Cases TASA ID: 1582 "...the EPA issued statute-specific civil penalty policies. Although the specifics of these policies differ from one environmental medium (i.e., clean air, clean water, solid waste) to another, their purpose is to establish a highly structured process for negotiating civil penalty settlements. Read more
Category: Environment Six Ways To Improve Indoor Air Quality Now TASA ID: 931 Air quality is an important issue to anyone's health, and many people don't realize that their health issues and illnesses could be significantly diminished if their air quality was improved. There is much scientific evidence to suggest that the indoor air can be more polluted than the air outdoors, even in industrialized areas. Read more
Category: Engineering, Environment Attorney Services Are Needed for Solar Power Project Conflicts TASA ID: 971 The high cost of energy - both monetary and environmental - has compelled many property owners to install solar collection systems to provide electric power for their property. Read more
