Landfill cleanup slowed after more nuclear waste found
Nuclear waste buried in a Missouri landfill that sits near an underground smolder is more extensive than first believed, and is part of the reason the $205 million Superfund project that began nearly four years ago has been delayed, an Environmental Protection Agency spokesman said Friday. The EPA announced a plan in September 2018 to remove some of the radioactive material at West Lake Landfill in the St. Louis suburb of Bridgeton, and cap the rest. The EPA originally estimated the project would take about four years but now offers no timetable.
news.yahoo.comJustice Department, EPA Propose Settlement to Resolve Federal Hazardous Waste and Oil Spill Prevention Violations on the North Slope of Alaska
Today, the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed settlement with the North Slope Borough of Alaska to resolve federal hazardous waste and oil spill violations. The settlement requires the Borough to take comprehensive actions and make infrastructure investments to comply with solid and hazardous waste management rules and oil spill prevention rules. The violations contributed to at least two oil spills into wetlands near the Kasegaluk Lagoon, Kaktovik Lagoon and Pipsuk Bight. The Borough began making improvements to its hazardous waste management and oil storage programs during negotiations for the proposed settlement. EPA has taken two previous administrative enforcement actions against the Borough in 1998 and 2015 for RCRA hazardous waste management, storage and treatment violations.
justice.govHouse Dems seek probe of USPS plan for new mail truck fleet
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are seeking an investigation into a U.S. Postal Service plan to replace its aging mail trucks with mostly gasoline-powered vehicles. The plan largely ignores White House calls to replenish the mail-service fleet with electric vehicles and has drawn sharp criticism from the Biden administration, Democratic lawmakers and environmentalists, who say it falls far short of President Joe Biden’s goals to address climate change. In a letter Monday, Democrats on the oversight panel asked the agency's inspector general to investigate whether the Postal Service complied with the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws when awarding a 10-year contract to Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense to supply up to 165,000 new mail trucks.
news.yahoo.comBiden restores California's power to set car emissions rules
The Biden administration is restoring California’s authority to set its own tailpipe pollution standards for cars, reversing a Trump administration policy and likely ushering in stricter emissions standards for new passenger vehicles nationwide.
US officials reverse course on pesticide's harm to wildlife
U.S. wildlife officials reversed their previous finding that a widely used and highly toxic pesticide could jeopardize dozens of plants and animals with extinction, after receiving pledges from chemical manufacturers that they will change product labels for malathion so that it’s used more carefully by gardeners, farmers and other consumers. Federal rules for malathion are under review in response to longstanding concerns that the pesticide used on mosquitoes, grasshoppers and other insects also kills many rare plants and animals. A draft finding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last April said malathion could threaten 78 imperiled species with extinction and cause lesser harm to many more.
news.yahoo.comEPA rule would make heavy trucks cut smog, soot pollution
The Biden administration is proposing stronger pollution regulations for new tractor-trailer rigs that would clean up smoky diesel engines and encourage new technologies during the next two decades. The proposal released Monday by the Environmental Protection Agency would require the industry to cut smog-and-soot-forming nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 90% per truck over current standards by 2031. New rules would start in 2027 to limit the emissions from nearly 27 million heavy trucks and buses nationwide.
news.yahoo.comHigh court to weigh limits to EPA efforts on climate change
The Supreme Court is hearing a case its conservative majority could use to hobble Biden administration efforts to combat climate change. The administration already is dealing with congressional refusal to enact the climate change proposals in President Joe Biden's Build Better Back plan. Now the justices, in arguments Monday, are taking up an appeal from 19 mostly Republican-led states and coal companies over the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
news.yahoo.comIn EPA case before the Supreme Court, the agency’s power to combat climate change hangs in the balance
The Supreme Court next week will consider a challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s power that could hobble President Biden’s ability to curtail U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, and restrict the ability of future presidential administrations to aggressively combat climate change.
washingtonpost.comUSPS Finalizing Plan To Replace Fleet With 90% Gas-Powered Vehicles
The U.S. Postal Service is moving ahead with a plan to replace its current fleet with 90% gas-powered trucks and 10% battery electric vehicles, after the Environmental Protection Agency and White House objected to the move and asked for...
detroit.cbslocal.comUSPS gets final signoff to order new delivery vehicles
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the completion of an evaluation required by the National Environmental Policy Act is an important milestone for postal carriers who have soldiered on with overworked delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 to 1994. The U.S. Postal Service’s fleet comprises more than 230,000 vehicles, including 190,000 local delivery vehicles that are due to be replaced. “The men and women of the U.S. Postal Service have waited long enough for safer, cleaner vehicles,” DeJoy said in a statement.
news.yahoo.comEx-EPA workers ask Virginia senators not to confirm Wheeler
More than 150 former Environmental Protection Agency employees are writing to the Virginia Senate, asking the Democrat-controlled chamber to oppose the nomination of former EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler to GOP Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin’s Cabinet.
EPA moves to crack down on dangerous coal ash storage ponds
The Environmental Protection Agency is taking its first major action to address toxic wastewater from coal-burning power plants, ordering utilities to stop dumping waste into unlined storage ponds and speed up plans to close leaking or otherwise dangerous coal ash sites.
Biden boosts fuel-economy standards to fight climate change
In a major step to fight climate change, the Biden administration is raising vehicle mileage standards to significantly reduce emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases. A final rule being issued Monday would raise mileage standards starting in the 2023 model year, reaching a projected industry-wide target of 40 miles per gallon by 2026 — 25% higher than a rule finalized by the Trump administration last year and 5% higher than a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency in August. “We are setting robust and rigorous standards that will aggressively reduce the pollution that is harming people and our planet – and save families money at the same time,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.
news.yahoo.comEPA promises fixes to Trump-era lead water rule, but lets it commence
“These conversations have underscored the need to proactively remove lead service lines, especially in low-income communities. The revisions drew criticism, however, because they did not mandate speedy removal of lead service lines. Nationally, the $15 billion for lead removals is considered insufficient to remove the estimated 6 to 10 million lead lines nationwide. In Flint, about 27,000 water service lines have been excavated thus far this year through a $97 million multi-year program that’s nearing completion. Utilities must now test more homes, target buildings with known lead lines and sample in a way that increases the likelihood of finding lead.
mlive.comEPA looks to tighten rules for lead in drinking water while president works to replace pipelines
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is looking to tighten rules for allowable levels of lead in drinking water while the Biden Administration is looking to replace the country’s lead lines using new funds.
EPA lowers ethanol requirements, citing reduced demand
At the same time, the administration moved to reject requests by small oil refineries to be exempted from ethanol requirements, saying they had failed to show exemptions were justified under the Clean Air Act. Taken together, the actions reflect the administration’s “commitment to reset and strengthen” the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS, “following years of mismanagement” by the Trump administration and disruptions to the gasoline market stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said. The actions announced Tuesday will enable officials “to get the RFS program back in growth mode by setting ambitious levels for 2022 and by reinforcing the foundation of the program so that it’s rooted in science and the law,” said Michael Regan, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, which sets ethanol requirements under the RFS.
news.yahoo.comProject Monitor and Abatement Company Owner Sentenced to Jail and Fined $399,000 for Conspiring to Violate Asbestos Regulations
Kristofer Landell and Stephanie Laskin were sentenced today before U.S. District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy sitting in Binghamton, New York, for conspiring to violate Clean Air Act regulations that control the safe removal, handling and disposal of asbestos. Co-defendants Roger Osterhoudt, Gunay Yakup and Madeline Alonge were all sentenced to three years’ probation in early November. According to court-filed documents, Landell, Laskin, Yakup, and Alonge engaged in a year-long conspiracy to violate federal and New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) regulations intended to prevent human exposure to asbestos. Conditions at the TechCity Property deteriorated until NYSDOL shut down operations in August 2016 and directed the defendants and their companies to cease all work. Notwithstanding this NYSDOL order, the defendants continued operations for a short time, prompting a criminal investigation.
justice.govUnited States Proposes Modification to EPA Consent Decree to Reduce Sewer System Overflows for the Hampton Roads Sanitation District
The United States lodged with the U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia today a proposed modification of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2010 consent decree with the Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) to require implementation of a comprehensive set of improvements to the sewer system to resolve longstanding problems with sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs). SSOs are releases of untreated or partially-treated sewage from a municipal sanitary sewer. The HRSD sewer system serves 18 municipalities with 1.7 million residents. The projects are scattered throughout the Hampton Roads region in Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg and York County. These projects focus on increasing the capacity of the regional sanitary sewer system.
justice.govCoal-fired power plants to close after new wastewater rule
Climate change isn’t what’s driving some U.S. coal-fired power plants to shut down. Dozens of plants nationwide plan to stop burning coal this decade to comply with more stringent federal wastewater guidelines, according to state regulatory filings, as the industry continues moving away from the planet-warming fossil fuel to make electricity. The new wastewater rule requires power plants to clean coal ash and toxic heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic and selenium from plant wastewater before it is dumped into streams and rivers.
news.yahoo.comFederal-State Clean Water Act Settlement Resolves Sewer Overflow Violations in Berkeley County, West Virginia
The settlement, lodged today in federal court by the Department of Justice on behalf of EPA and WVDEP, resolves chronic alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act and the West Virginia Water Pollution Control Act. “This settlement, done in partnership with the state of West Virginia, will ensure that Berkeley attains compliance with environmental laws protecting our waters and the citizens of Berkeley County,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. This project requires Berkeley to provide treatment for sewage from the White Bush Landing and Midway mobile home parks in Falling Waters, West Virginia, a project valued at $1,145,000. By improving water quality, the settlement will benefit communities in Berkeley, West Virginia, as well as communities downstream of Berkeley, including communities that are historically underserved and disproportionately impacted by pollution. The proposed consent decree, which has been lodged with the U.S. District Court in Martinsburg, West Virginia, is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final federal court approval.
justice.govIn letter to EPA, Dingell calls latest Ann Arbor-area dioxane news ‘alarming’
ANN ARBOR, MI — U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell is urging the Environmental Protection Agency to designate the Gelman plume as a federal Superfund site. Citing the recent discovery of new dioxane-contaminated residential drinking water wells north of the designated plume area just outside Ann Arbor, Dingell sent a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan on Friday, Nov. 12, “to reenforce the urgent need” for a Superfund cleanup.
mlive.comThe Great Lakes are warmer than they’ve ever been in early November: Why that’s a problem in several ways
Some parts of the Northern Great Lakes region were greeted by their first significant snowfall of the season earlier this week, but not even the arrival of the fluffy white stuff could mask these historic times for the Great Lakes themselves.
Raw Photos Of Landfills Show The Extreme Amount Of Waste Humans Produce
Where does all the trash go after you take it to the dumpster? The reality depicted in the images here showcase the current state of waste management, and how the items we discard are piling up all over the world.View Entire Post ›
news.yahoo.com‘Is it safe?’ -- Area of concern grows in Flat Rock after hazardous chemical found in sewer system
Officials said the city plans to use firefighting form to suppress the vapors found within the sanitary system. The industrial facility has taken measures, including inserting plugs into the onsite sewer system to prevent it from entering the system at a location north of Gibraltar Road at the Ford Flat Rock Assembly Plant property.