State
Action Report: Gulfport raw sewage problem will cost the city $250,000
WLOX
GULFPORT, MS (WLOX) -Imagine waking up to sewage in your bathtub. That's exactly what some people in a Gulfport neighborhood say has been going on for three years.
Underwater noise pollution will cost Port of Gulfport
WLOX
GULFPORT, MS (WLOX) -The most ridiculous regulation I've ever heard of. That's how one port commissioner described the National Fisheries Service requiring the Port of Gulfport to install a bubble curtain to prevent pile driving noise from harming fish and turtles.
http://www.wlox.com/story/33161381/underwater-noise-pollution-will-cost-port-of-gulfport
CMU board reinstates fired CEO
Madison County Journal
CANTON — The Canton Municipal Utilities Board of Commissioners voted on Friday to reinstate CEO Brian Finnegan and Staff Attorney LaToya Thompson following a hearing in federal court last Wednesday.
Beaver control program keeps water flowing, instead of taxpayer’s money
Picayune Item
The Pearl River County Road Department has partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Service’s program for over 10 years to control the rising beaver population.
Pigweed War Reaches Far Beyond Farmland
Farm Journal
When Jason Smith was a boy in the 1980s, a farmer could drive into town, stop at a dealership and buy a seemingly endless variety of Bush Hog blades. Everyone he knew mowed field edges and had a ditch bank mower. Broad-spectrum herbicides were available at a high dollar, but when a technological messiah arrived in the form of Roundup Ready, the turnrow game was flipped on its head. Areas once mowed became spray zones as glyphosate prices dropped and pushed Bush Hogs deeper into the farm shed.
…In 2008, Delta FARM, along with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and a host of other partners, developed a nutrient reduction strategy for the region.
http://www.agweb.com/article/pigweed-war-reaches-far-beyond-farmland-naa-chris-bennett/
Oil Spill
The Living Shoreline
Shoofly Magazine
| Work is now under way on a multi-million dollar project to stop erosion and restore a section of remote marshland that is critical to Hancock County’s shoreline and the creatures who depend on it for shelter and food. |
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http://www.bslshoofly.com/archives/beach-to-bayou-september-2016
Lt. Gov. Reeves’ meeting unleashes flood of ideas for BP money
Sun Herald
GULFPORT
The BP settlement for economic damages — $750 million over 17 years — seemed like a lot of money.
http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/article103597017.html
Reeves says Mississippi's BP settlement money should go to the coast
WLOX
GULFPORT, MS (WLOX) -Over the next 17 years, $750 million in BP settlement money will be coming to Mississippi. Thursday night, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves held the first of three town hall meetings to get ideas on how to spend it.
Coast residents lobby for fair share of BP settlement funds
Mississippi Today
GULFPORT — It doesn’t take long for Biloxi resident Terese Collins to get fiery when she’s talking about how Mississippi lawmakers should vote to spend $750 million of BP oil spill settlement money.
http://mississippitoday.org/2016/09/23/coast-residents-lobby-for-fair-share-of-bp-settlement-funds/
Regional
Taylor Energy agrees to share Gulf oil leak documents
AP
Environmental attorneys and a New Orleans energy company agreed Thursday (Sept. 22) to work out differences over the confidentiality of documents related to an ongoing Gulf of Mexico oil leak from an offshore site damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2016/09/taylor_energy_agrees_to_share.html#incart_river_index
National
Obama’s Clean Power Plan Heads to Court: What to Know
His signature environmental policy achievement faces its first legal test.
Bloomberg
President Barack Obama’s plan to rein in carbon pollution from power plants has been a boon for at least one group: the legal profession.
Ports Can Cut Diesel-Engine Emissions by Replacing Equipment, EPA Report Says
New research also backs improvements in cargo-handling operations
WSJ
The nation’s ports can reduce the harmful effects of diesel-engine emissions by replacing old equipment and improving cargo-handling operations, according to new research published Thursday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In the Wild, Goldfish Turn From Pet to Pest
NY Times
Two decades ago, someone dropped a handful of unwanted pet goldfish into a creek in southwestern Australia. Those goldfish grew, swam downstream, mucked up waters wherever they went and spawned like mad. Before long, they took over the whole river.
New regs for Friday: Residential furnaces and insecticide residue
The Hill
Press Releases
EPA Releases National Assessment of Strategies to Reduce Air Pollution at Ports
Washington – An EPA report finds that air pollution at the nation’s ports can be reduced significantly at all port types and sizes through a variety of strategies and cleaner technologies. Implementing these approaches, the report finds, would reduce greenhouse gas and other harmful emissions from diesel-powered ships, trucks and other port equipment.
“The National Port Strategy Assessment: Reducing Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases at U.S. Ports” examines current and future emission trends from diesel engines in port areas, and explores the emissions reduction potential of strategies like replacing and repowering older, dirtier vehicles and engines and deploying zero emissions technologies.
“This report shows that there are many opportunities to reduce harmful pollution at ports that we know will work,” said Christopher Grundler, director of EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality. “This is great news for the roughly 39 million Americans who live and breathe near these centers of commerce.”
U.S. ports are set to expand significantly as international trade continues to grow, and the size of ships coming to ports increases. This growth means more diesel engines at ports emitting carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change. These engines also emit fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and other pollutants that contribute to serious health problems including heart and lung disease, respiratory illness, and premature mortality. Children, older Americans, outdoor workers and individuals with respiratory and heart conditions can be especially vulnerable. Many ports are located in areas with a high percentage of low-income and minority populations, who bear the burden of higher exposure to diesel emissions.
Accelerating retirement of older port vehicles and equipment and replacing them with the cleanest technology will reduce emissions and increase public health benefits. For example, the report found replacing older drayage trucks with newer, cleaner diesel trucks can reduce NOx emissions by up to 48 percent, and particulate matter emissions by up to 62 percent, in 2020 when compared to continuing business as usual. In 2030, adding plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to these fleets could yield even more NOx and PM2.5 relative reductions from drayage trucks.
The new assessment supports EPA’s Ports Initiative’s goals to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases, to achieve environmental sustainability for ports, and improve air quality for all Americans working in and living near our nation’s ports. Through this initiative, EPA is engaging a wide range of stakeholders including ports and port operators, communities, tribes, state and local governments, industry, and other technical and policy stakeholders. EPA developed this national scale assessment based on a representative sample of seaports, and the results could also inform decisions at other seaports, Great Lakes and inland river ports, and other freight and passenger facilities with similar profiles.
EPA’s regulations are already reducing port-related diesel emissions from trucks, locomotives, cargo handling equipment and ships. For example, the North American and U.S. Caribbean Sea Emissions Control Areas require lower sulfur fuel to be used for large ocean-going vessels. This requirement has reduced fuel-based particulate-matter emissions from these vessels by about 90 percent. In addition, some port areas are already applying the emission reduction strategies assessed in the report. The emissions reduction strategies assessed in the report would make a significant difference in reaching the nation’s air quality goals, and would help reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
To view the report, visit www.epa.gov/ports-initiative/national-port-strategy-assessment.
For more information on EPA’s Ports Initiative, visit www.epa.gov/ports-initiative.
