Oil Spill
Seafood safe; problem is price
By David A. Farrell
The Picayune Item
PICAYUNE — Area seafood restaurant owners and dealers say that "most of the
public," who love their seafood, are not worried about safety as much as
they are about price.
http://picayuneitem.com/local/x2089089017/Seafood-safe-problem-is-price
Sarasota dolphin expert working on oil disaster research
Bradenton Herald
By SARA KENNEDY
Posted: 12:00am on May 11, 2012
Randall Wells has studied bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico since
the 1970s, and is currently studying the effects of the Deepwater Horizon
spill on the local dolphin population.
http://www.bradenton.com/2012/05/11/4033994/sarasota-dolphin-expert-working.html
Push from Mississippi Kept Deepwater Horizon Oil Slick Off Shore
Science Daily
Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, 2010, residents feared
that their Gulf of Mexico shores would be inundated with oil. And while
many wetland habitats and wildlife were oiled during the three-month leak,
the environmental damage to coastal Louisiana was less than many expected,
in part because much of the crude never made it to the coast.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120510225001.htm
State News
Miss. Farm Bureau files motion to intervene in water quality lawsuit
Mississippi Business Journal
May 10th, 2012
The Mississippi Farm Bureau joined 13 sister state organizations earlier
this week in filing a motion to intervene in Gulf Restoration Network, et
al. v. Jackson, et al.
Gulf Restoration is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to either
adopt uniform nutrient water quality standards for all U.S. waters or to
adopt similar measures for states in the Mississippi River Basin. The suit
is filed in federal court in Louisiana.
http://msbusiness.com/magnoliamarketplace/2012/05/10/miss-farm-bureau-files-motion-to-intervene-in-water-quality-lawsuit/
Hazardous Waste Day
WTOK
Quitman, Mississippi
Clarke County officials have organized a free disposal day
Clarke County officials are getting the word out about a hazardous waste
disposal day set for this weekend.
http://www.wtok.com/home/headlines/Hazardous_Waste_Day_151060505.html
MDEQ lifts water contact advisory
Sun Herald
By NICOLE DOW
BILOXI -- The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality has lifted
the water contact advisory issued Tuesday for the stretch of beach from
DeBuys Road east to Edgewater Drive in Biloxi.
http://www.sunherald.com/2012/05/10/v-print/3940119/mdeq-lifts-water-contact-advisory.html
Grand Gulf refueling taking longer than expected
by Associated Press
Published: May 10th, 2012
VICKSBURG — Refueling Grand Gulf Nuclear Station has taken longer than
plant officials said a year ago, and officials now aren't saying when it
will be completed.
http://msbusiness.com/2012/05/grand-gulf-refueling-taking-longer-than-expected/
Conservation with a beat
Enterprise JournalT
The Blues Rangers, a music group made up of U.S. Forest Service rangers,
performed at St. Alphonsus Catholic School on Tuesday.
http://www.enterprise-journal.com/news/article_aa89efee-99f2-11e1-8d45-0019bb2963f4.html
National News
Coal industry warns proposed EPA rule could force fourth of plants to close
Published May 10, 2012
|FoxNews.com
advertisement
In obscure, blue-collar towns across Appalachia -- places that most
Americans have never seen -- generations of coal miners have toiled away at
back-breaking labor to power American homes and industry. Now, as many as
200,000 of them who dig, process, transport and burn America's most
abundant fuel are threatened by EPA's latest coal rule.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/10/coal-industry-warns-proposed-epa-rule-could-force-fourth-plants-to-close
EPA to remove vapor-capturing rubber boot from gas pump handles
By Todd Sperry
CNN
Washington (CNN) -- Even though there's been little change in gas prices
recently, drivers could soon see changes in the look of the pumps they use
to fill up.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/10/politics/epa-gas-pump-handles/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Coast Girds for Tsunami Litter
Flotsam Believed to Be From Japan Washes Up in the West, With More to Come
Wall Street Journal
By JIM CARLTON
Flotsam believed to be from last year's tsunami in Japan is starting to
wash up on Western beaches in North America, triggering environmental
concerns as officials from California to Alaska brace for more.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304543904577394101498432824.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_3
EPA offers $280K in grants to reduce marine debris
The Associated Press
Published: Thursday, May. 10, 2012 - 12:51 pm
HONOLULU -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking grant
proposals to reduce the amount of debris in the ocean by shrinking the
amount of trash on land that could make its way out to sea.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/10/4481356/epa-offers-280k-in-grants-to-reduce.html
Opinion
Bees are being killed: beekeepers take first step to sue EPA over
pesticides
Washington Times
FREDERIC, Wis., May 9, 2012 — The battle of the bees and the deadly
insecticides killing them en mass has taken a first step in a lawsuit
against the Environmental Protection Agency for negligence in not
protecting the bees.
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/buzz-bees/2012/may/10/bees-are-being-killed-beekeepers-sue-epa-over-pest/
Press Releases
Industry Intervenes In Mississippi Nutrient Case
Posted: May 10, 2012
A federal court has granted a request from industrial and municipal
dischargers to intervene in environmentalists' high-profile litigation
aimed at compelling EPA to strictly regulate nutrient pollution in
Mississippi River Watershed states -- a move that would give industry a
seat at the table should EPA and activists initiate settlement talks.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana May 4
approved a recent request from the Federal Water Quality Coalition (FWQC)
-- whose members include municipal, industrial and agricultural companies
and trade groups -- to intervene in Gulf Restoration Network, et al. v. EPA
.
The American Farm Bureau Federation, National Pork Producers Council,
National Corn Growers Association and other agriculture industry groups
also filed a preliminary motion to intervene in the case on May 8.
The underlying suit, filed last March, seeks to compel EPA to force
Mississippi River Basin states to adopt strict numeric nutrient criteria
and develop pollution load limits, known as total maximum daily loads
(TMDLs), after the agency last year denied a 2008 administrative petition
on the issue.
Environmentalists filed the underlying suit last March in response to EPA's
denial of their 2008 petition that sought to have the agency establish
numeric nutrient criteria in the entire Mississippi River Basin -- a span
of potentially 35 states -- in order to address the hypoxic "dead zone" in
the Gulf of Mexico. The agency denied the petition last July, defending
states' ongoing efforts to curb nutrient pollution as adequate to address
the Gulf dead zone, and saying the technical complexity of establishing
numeric criteria for such a large area make granting the petition
impractical.
Nevertheless, agriculture industry officials have said they expect EPA to
settle the suit and impose some measure of what the plaintiffs are seeking
on the Mississippi River states. Don Parrish, senior director of regulatory
services with the American Farm Bureau Federation, said in March that he
expected the suit to be settled sometime toward the end of the year and
that the administration "will either gift it to the administration that's
coming in or they will tee it up for the next four years."
The motions to intervene in the case would ensure that, should settlement
negotiations begin in the suit, the industry groups would have the right to
be present and participate in those negotiations.
In its motion to intervene, FWQC argued successfully that its members hold
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for their
facilities in Mississippi River Basin states and therefore will potentially
be subject to changes in the terms of their permits if the environmental
plaintiffs prevail. The agriculture groups argue in their motion to
intervene that if the plaintiffs' suit is successful and EPA establishes
numeric nutrient criteria in Mississippi River Basin states, farms will be
subject to costly measures to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus runoff from
their fields.
"Any court order requiring EPA to promulgate new numeric nutrient
criteria . . . would directly affect these members farms by increasing the
costs associated with their nutrient management plans and implementation,"
the complaint says. "Nutrient management is already an expensive part of
the operation of farms, and the costs associated with these plans would be
expected to increase substantially if plaintiffs were successful in this
suit."
