State
Council OKs easements for ditch project
Commercial Dispatch
September 27, 2016 10:20:20 AM
Alex Holloway
Columbus city councilmen voted Monday to give easements to the Greenfield Multistate Trust for the duration of an environmental remediation project for the Seventh Avenue ditch.
http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=53132
High hazard dam cause for concern
Oxford Eagle
County planning commission members want some answers before they approve a 150-home development that is facing three major hurdles.
http://www.oxfordeagle.com/2016/09/27/high-hazard-dam-cause-for-concern/
BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE CLEAN COAL PLANT IN KEMPER COUNTY
WXXV
Tonight, we start our two part series on the much talked about Kemper County Energy Facility.
http://www.wxxv25.com/2016/09/27/behind-scenes-clean-coal-plant-kemper-county/
Oil Spill
$50 million marsh project underway in Hancock County
WLOX
HANCOCK COUNTY, MS (WLOX) -It's a $50 million project funded by BP restoration money. Construction began recently on a "living shoreline" project in Hancock County. The work is taking place near the mouth of the East Pearl River and the shoreline along Heron Bay.
http://www.wlox.com/story/33264029/50-million-marsh-project-underway-in-hancock-county
The Deepwater Horizon spill may have caused ‘irreversible’ damage to Gulf Coast marshes
Washington Post
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been called one of the worst environmental disasters in American history — and more than six years later, scientists are still investigating how much damage it actually caused. Now, a new study suggests the spill may have permanently marred one of the Gulf shore’s most important ecosystems.
Asphalt removal begins at Fort Pickens
Pensacola News Journal
Cleanup of asphalt fragments and road base materials at Fort Pickens has begun. The Gulf Islands National Seashore project may affect visitor use in the areas where beaches are closed due to the cleanup. These closures will be temporary and confined.
Regional
Mosaic’s Radioactive Sinkhole Problem Could Mean Mine Delays
Bloomberg
As the world’s largest producer of phosphate fertilizer, Mosaic Co. is used to digging up parts of Florida to recover the mineral. But lately, one particular hole is causing the company some headaches.
National
Power-Plant-Emissions Court Case Raises Questions on EPA Rules’ Scope
Judges focus on whether the agency overstepped its legal authority
WSJ
WASHINGTON—Defenders and detractors of President Barack Obama’s centerpiece climate-change regulation faced critical questions from a federal court Tuesday in a lawsuit that will have a far-reaching impact on how the nation fuels its electricity.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard several hours of oral arguments, with a focus on the separation of powers between Congress and the executive branch, and what constitutes a power plant source.
U.S. appeals court hears arguments in Clean Power Plan case
Reuters
WASHINGTON • The centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s climate change strategy faced a key test on Tuesday as conservative appeals court judges questioned whether his administration overstepped its legal authority under an air pollution law to make sweeping changes to the U.S. electric sector.
How An Engineer's Desperate Experiment Created Fracking
NPR
The fracking boom in America kicked off almost by accident. An engineer worried about losing his job kept experimenting until he hit on a technique that changed the world.
http://www.npr.org/2016/09/27/495671385/how-an-engineers-desperate-experiment-created-fracking
Invasive Asian carp leaps onto restaurant tables
USA Today
Feared as an invasive menace taking over U.S. waterways, Asian carp is leaping onto tabletops in Kentucky's finest dining establishments.
Press Releases
EPA’s SmartWay Honors Green Leaders in the Freight Industry
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced the 2016 winners of the SmartWay® Excellence Awards, which honors logistic companies and shippers in the retail and manufacturing sectors. The awards recognize the top-performing SmartWay shipper partners that demonstrate how businesses can mitigate their carbon footprints and contribute to cleaner, healthier air, while saving on fuel costs as they move goods across America.
“EPA is honoring its top environmental performers – those SmartWay Partners that have taken significant steps towards a sustainable freight transportation energy future,” said Christopher Grundler, director of EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality. “SmartWay Excellence Award recipients have become leaders in this crucial sector of our economy by embracing the mutual benefits that efficiency brings for both operational performance and environmental results.”
The 2016 SmartWay Excellence Awardees for retailers, manufactures and logistics companies are:
- Bacardi USA, Inc. (Coral Gables, Fla.)
- Hewlett-Packard Inc.
- Johnson & Johnson (Skillman, N.J.)
- Kimberly-Clark Corporation (Knoxville, Tenn.)
- Lowe's Companies Inc. (Wilkesboro, N.C.)
- The Home Depot U.S.A. Inc (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Transportation Insight LLC (Hickory, N.C.)
- Union Pacific Distribution Services (Omaha, Neb.)
- Whirlpool Corporation (Benton Harbor, Mich.)
Award winners demonstrate a commitment to environmental leadership by achieving lower emissions and by demonstrating effective collaboration, advanced technology and operational practices, robust SmartWay data validation and reporting, communication and public outreach, and implementation of sustainability practices in local communities.
EPA’s SmartWay Transport Partnership supports companies who demonstrate their commitment to corporate sustainability and social responsibility by moving goods in the cleanest, most energy-efficient way possible. Since 2004, SmartWay Partners have avoided emitting more than 72 million metric tons of the carbon pollution that contributes to climate change, while saving more than 170 million barrels of oil and $24.9 billion in fuel costs – equivalent to eliminating annual energy use in more than six million homes. SmartWay also contributes to cleaner air and healthier citizens by significantly reducing emissions of the pollution that contributes to smog, including fine particulate matter and nitrogen oxides.
The awards were presented today at the 2016 Annual Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals conference in Orlando, Florida.
Awards for SmartWay carrier partners – such as trucking companies, multimodal transport companies and barge transport companies – will be announced next week at the 2016 American Trucking Association Management Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas, Nevada.
For more information about SmartWay Excellence Awards, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/smartway-excellence-awards
For more information about SmartWay, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/smartway
