State
Mayfield wages war on illegal dumps
Vicksburg Post
North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield walked around the small pile of broken furniture and lumber at the dead end of East Magnolia Street Friday afternoon.
Tanker spills 300 gallons of gas; closes road for hours
Vicksburg Post
Goodrum Road was closed for 3 1/2 hours early Friday morning after a gasoline tank trailer lost a valve, spilling 300 gallons of gasoline, Warren County fire coordinator Jerry Briggs said.
He said the spill occurred about 2 a.m. Friday when tanker truck pulled into the Corner Stop Fina at the intersection of Fisher Ferry Road and Goodrum.
Still no deal on rates for Mississippi Power's Kemper plant
AP
JACKSON, MISS.
Regulators and Mississippi Power Co. on Friday again failed to agree on how much money customers should pay for a power plant.
2016 Mississippi deer harvest lowest in 31 years
Clarion Ledger
Mississippi hunters complained more loudly about low numbers of deer in the 2016 season than in any year most can remember. Hunters in some areas cited low sightings, less deer sign and fewer pictures of deer on game cameras as indicators of a declining population.
OUTDOOR NOTEBOOK
Meridian Star
MDWFP welcomes new commissioner
The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks is excited to welcome its newest commissioner, William M "Billy" Mounger II. Mounger is a Jackson native, an entrepreneur in wireless communications, and an outdoor enthusiast.
MISSISSIPPI PROVIDING HELP TO RESPOND TO HURRICANE IRMA
MPB
Hurricane Irma is causing widespread devastation through Florida. As MPB's Mark Rigsby reports, Mississippi is ready to help with disaster relief and recovery.
State revenue collections off to strong start
Daily Journal
JACKSON – State revenue collections, which have been sluggish for the previous two fiscal years, are off to a strong start for the first two months of the new fiscal year.
Regional
After 42 years, Arkansas has not carried out plan to protect state waters from degradation
Federal act’s quality standards to protect rivers, lakes run aground in Arkansas
Arkansas Democat-Gazette
More than 40 years after the passage of the federal Clean Water Act, Arkansas remains one of only two states that hasn't carried out the provision that protects a state's most important waters from degrading.
Shafer says Memphis sewer decision puts Shelby County in ‘terrible position’
WREG
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The chairwoman of the Shelby County Commission says a recent decision by Memphis Public Works to halt new sewer taps outside the city puts the county in "a terrible position" and could stand in the way of recruiting new businesses to the area.
National
TOXIC SITES IN LIKELY PATH OF IRMA
AP
MIAMI (AP) -- Dozens of personnel from the Environmental Protection Agency worked to secure some of the nation's most contaminated toxic waste sites as Hurricane Irma bore down on Florida.
More Than 40 Sites Released Hazardous
Pollutants Because of Hurricane Harvey
NY Times
Houston’s sprawling network of petrochemical plants and refineries released millions of pounds of pollutants in the days after Hurricane Harvey began barreling toward Texas.
Trump riles Dems with pick for powerful EPA job
The Hill
William Wehrum, an energy industry attorney and former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official, has been tapped to fulfill one of the agency’s most consequential roles.
Trump stacks administration with climate change skeptics
The Hill
President Trump has stacked his administration with officials who doubt the scientific consensus behind man-made climate change, underscoring a growing divide within the Republican party.
Government watchdog to launch probe into EPA’s hiring practices
Washington Post
A government watchdog agency has agreed to a request from Democratic senators to open an inquiry into whether the Environmental Protection Agency circumvented the Trump administration’s own ethics rules when hiring certain agency employees.
Iowa Capitol lawn getting compost, but it won't smell like a barnyard
Des Moines Register
Work crews plan to start applying compost to the Iowa Capitol's lawns next week with a goal of demonstrating how to improve soil quality while helping rainwater soak into the ground, reducing runoff.
Press Releases
Gov. Bryant Announces Treasury’s Award of RESTORE Projects
(JACKSON, Miss.) — Gov. Phil Bryant announced today that the U.S. Department of the Treasury has issued grant awards for two Mississippi RESTORE projects. In June 2017, Gov. Bryant announced the approval of grant awards for six other projects.
“The approval of these two grant awards is another positive step for our efforts to propose and implement projects that support both the economic and natural resource recovery of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and South Mississippi resulting from the BP oil spill,” Gov. Bryant said.
The projects are:
Strategic Stream Restoration ($5 million) — The purpose of this project is to implement coastal stream restoration strategies in the three Mississippi coastal counties to improve water quality entering the Mississippi Sound. RESTORE funds will be used for planning, engineering and design, and implementation. The project will leverage the Coastal Stream and Habitat Initiative project funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund (GEBF). The NFWF GEBF project partnered with The Nature Conservancy and Audubon Mississippi to engage stakeholders across the Mississippi landscape to examine and formulate a plan to restore nine coastal streams. This project aligns with the eco-restoration priorities developed by the GoCoast 2020 Commission.
Accreditation Support for the William Carey University School of Pharmacy ($1 million) – RESTORE funds will support workforce development and job creation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as faculty and staff are hired as part of the accreditation process for the William Carey University School of Pharmacy located in Biloxi. The project will support the development of a professional degree program that will supplement the pharmacist workforce and is anticipated to create more than 40 faculty and staff jobs. Once achieved, the School of Pharmacy anticipates 60 pharmacy graduates annually. This project aligns with the workforce development priorities developed by the GoCoast 2020 Commission.
These projects are part of Mississippi’s Multiyear Implementation Plan (MIP) which includes 16 proposed projects totaling more than $80 million. The projects were proposed to the governor by the GoCoast 2020 Commission.
The RESTORE Act requires the state, through the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, to prepare the MIP for Direct Component Funding, which is administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Some of the eligible activities that can be included in the state’s MIP include: restoration and protection of natural resources; mitigation of damage to natural resources; workforce development and job creation; improvements to state parks; infrastructure projects, including ports; coastal flood protection; and, promotion of tourism and Gulf seafood.
