Odds and ends, 9/16/09

Power companies likely will face stricter limits on water pollution from their coal-fired power plants, federal officials said yesterday.

That's the lead paragraph in a story in The Columbus Dispatch. For a long time, people worried about what came out of the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants. Now, it seems, more attention is being paid to what goes onto the land and in the water after coal is burned.

The story focuses on two plants owned by American Electric Power. Both are in the part of Ohio directly across the Ohio River from West Virginia's Northern Panhandle.

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This weekend it's Wheeling's turn to host a gathering of sternwheelers as the city celebrates its Heritage Port River Festival.

I still plan to write one more text-and-photo entry from the Point Pleasant festival a couple of weeks ago. It will be heavy on photos.

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The new island -- a pile of sand and such dredged from the bottom of the Ohio River this past weekend, actually -- still sits alongside Huntington WV. I went to look at it this morning and noticed a number of flags surrounding it. I assume they're there to warn boaters and navigators about the big pile of dirt near the main river channel.

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The Ohio River bridge at Madison IN is 80 years old and in poor shape. In fact, it's worse off now than it was when repairs were done a decade ago, and a new set of repairs could require that the bridge be shut down for 18 months. That's according to this AP story on the Chicago Tribune Web site.

Meanwhile, according to The Madison Courier, there are plans to widen the bridge piers and then remove the existing superstructure and build a new bridge on the wider piers.

The bridge at Madison connects that community with Milton KY. As with other river communities, the economies of the two cities are tied together, and no one wants to deal with not having  a bridge for an extended time. The proposed work at Madison could cost about $131 million. That's almost nothing compared to billion-dollar bridge projects being discussed in Cincinnati and Louisville.

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One more thing: This past summer, some guy threw a pit bull off an Ohio River bridge in Louisville. The dog survived.

The Courier-Journal in Louisville reports an arrest has been made. The newspaper reported, "The dog survived the 80-foot fall to the river and was rescued by Louisville firefighters who were nearby on a training exercise. She was adopted by a waitress at Joe's Crab Shack who witnessed the rescue — as did numerous people on the bridge and riverfront."