State
EPA presents plan to Pascagoula residents to clean-up Mississippi Phosphates site
Mississippi Press
PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- Residents packed the Pascagoula Senior Center Thursday night to hear members from the Environmental Protection Agency discuss their plan for containing the Mississippi Phosphates site.
Land records being researched to find source of park contamination
Vicksburg Post
Officials with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality are researching county land records to determine the source of oil contamination at Riverfront Park, and who may be responsible for it.
Trump offshore drilling opposed by Mississippi environmental groups, supported by Bryant
Clarion Ledger
Mississippi environmental groups are opposed to the Trump administration's plans to open more federal waters to oil and gas drilling and are calling on Gov. Phil Bryant to ask for an exemption or protections for Mississippi like Florida was granted.
Stagnant water, not sewage, being pumped into Biloxi's Back Bay
WLOX
A pump sending water into Biloxi's Back Bay alarmed some nearby residents Monday. Because of its foul odor, one resident worried it was raw sewage. But it's not.
PAINT THINNER GOES UP IN FLAMES AT METAL BUSINESS IN HARRISON COUNTY
WXXV
Fire officials say this morning’s fire in Harrison County serves as a safety reminder.
State Government
Carmichael to lead PEER Committee
WTOK
JACKSON, Miss. (WTOK) - State Sen. Videt Carmichael of Meridian (R-Dist. 33) has been elected to chair the state legislative Performance Evaluation Expenditure Review Committee.
Carmichael has been on the committee since 2012 and was vice-chair in 2017.
Oil Spill
Jackson hears Coast pleas to spend BP money in South Mississippi
Sun Herald
BP settlement dollars are one step closer to coming to South Mississippi.
Plan would reserve oil spill money for Gulf Coast projects
AP
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The Mississippi Senate is working on a plan to reserve oil spill settlement money for use on projects along the Gulf Coast.
BP’s Deepwater Horizon Bill Grows by $1.7 Billion
Charge shows how BP remains handicapped by liabilities related to the disaster even as the oil industry returns to profitability
WSJ
LONDON— BP PLC’s bill for the Deepwater Horizon disaster keeps getting bigger. The British oil giant said Tuesday it would take a $1.7 billion charge in its fourth-quarter earnings because of settlement claims related to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico blowout.
Regional
Nothing fishy about it: Cold temperatures cause fish kill
AP
GULF SHORES — Alabama conservation officials say recent cold temperatures are the likely culprit behind a large fish kill that’s left some beaches and docks a smelly scene.
Former Donaldson Air Force Base remains polluted with toxic garbage, report says
Greenville Journal
A new report from ProPublica, an independent nonprofit newsroom based in New York, shows that the former Donaldson Air Force Base in Greenville is one of six military bases statewide that pose a serious threat to the environment and human health.
Dozens of Chattanooga homes are sitting on toxic properties
For some, nothing is being done to correct the poisonous issue
Chattanooga Times Free Press
James Wood sat on the porch of his East 17th Street home on one of the first warm days in weeks.
ADEQ to host public hearing on proposed regional haze plan
Newton County Times
NORTH LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) will host a public hearing to receive comments on revisions to the Arkansas Regional Haze State Implementation Plan (SIP).
Pumping sewage underground is illegal. St. Pete wants it legal.
Tampa Bay Times
ST. PETERSBURG — The city wants the state to change its environmental rules to make legal an illegal maneuver it has relied on a lot lately: flushing wastewater down into the aquifer.
National
Trump EPA spends first year rolling back environmental regulations
ABC
In its first year under President Donald Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency moved quickly to fulfill several promises Trump made during his presidential campaign, most notably to roll back climate regulations put into place under the Obama administration.
EPA Trashes Plan To Pause Landfill Methane Limits
Bloomberg
The EPA dropped plans to delay Obama-era methane emissions limits for landfills, as it faces legal scrutiny over similar plans to pause rules regulating methane from new oil and gas drills.
US review shows pesticides harm threatened salmon, whales
AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal scientists have determined that a family of widely used pesticides poses a threat to dozens of endangered and threatened species, including Pacific salmon, Atlantic sturgeon and Puget Sound orcas.
Utility Jobs Lost as New Power Plants Need Fewer Workers
Older plants are being supplanted by newer power plants fired by natural gas, as well as wind and solar farms
WSJ
As coal and nuclear power plants around the U.S. close due to competitive pressures, the number of people employed in making electricity is shrinking.
Ford Increasing Electric Vehicle Investment to $11 Billion by 2022
Auto maker’s head of global markets said company is ‘electrifying our iconic vehicles’
WSJ
DETROIT—A top Ford Motor Co. executive said the company will now spend $11 billion on electrified vehicles through 2022, increasing its previous estimates as it races to catch up on battery-powered cars.
McDonald's is going green
CNN
McDonald's has pledged to make its packaging and restaurants more Earth-friendly.
By 2025, the fast food chain plans to use renewable, recyclable or certified materials in all of its packaging, and it will put recycling bins in its restaurants.
Think Flu Season Is Bad? It Might Get Even Worse
Bloomberg
The influenza virus that’s sickened millions of Americans this season is already the most widespread outbreak since public health authorities began keeping track more than a dozen years ago. Now, with the threat of more strains emerging, it might get even worse.
Opinion
The Three Stumbling Blocks to a Solar-Powered Nation
Every hour, the sun bombards the Earth with enough light to satisfy our energy needs for a year, but there are barriers to our solar-energy future
WSJ
As a fraction of our energy mix, renewables in general and solar power in particular are growing faster than ever. What seemed like an impossibility just a decade ago—the displacement of fossil fuels from the U.S. power system, if not the world’s—is increasingly a reality.
Press Releases
Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp Site in Columbus, Miss. included on EPA Superfund Redevelopment Focus List
ATLANTA (January 16, 2018) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its initial list of Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) sites with the greatest expected redevelopment and commercial potential. The Columbus Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp site is one of 31 sites on the list.
“EPA is more than a collaborative partner to remediate the nation’s most contaminated sites, we’re also working to successfully integrate Superfund sites back into communities across the country,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “Today’s redevelopment list incorporates Superfund sites ready to become catalysts for economic growth and revitalization.”
The 90-acre Kerr-McGee site is located at 2300 North 14th Avenue in Columbus, Miss. The site includes the area where Kerr-McGee and its successor, Tronox Incorporated, operated a chemical manufacturing facility from 1928 to 2003. While it operated, Kerr-McGee made pressure-treated railroad and wood products using creosote and creosote tar solutions. Operators also used pentachlorophenol for wood treating from the 1950s until the mi-1970s. EPA put the site on the Superfund Program’s National Priorities List (NPL) in 2011 because of contaminated groundwater, sediment and soil caused by facility operations. The Multistate Trust, under oversight from EPA and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, has taken steps to clean up the site in order to protect the public and the environment from contamination. EPA is currently working on the final cleanup plan for remaining contamination at the site.
Community stakeholders favor mixed-use redevelopment of the site, including light industrial, solar, commercial and health center uses. More than 20 acres of the roughly 45-acre pine yard could be ready for redevelopment in the next two years.
Superfund redevelopment has helped countless communities reclaim and reuse thousands of acres of formerly contaminated land. Superfund sites on the list have significant redevelopment
potential based on previous outside interest, access to transportation corridors, land values, and other critical development drivers.
In July 2017, the Superfund Task Force released its recommendations to streamline and improve the Superfund program including a focus on redevelopment training, tools and resources towards sites on the NPL. EPA will work diligently with developers interested in reusing these and other Superfund sites; will identify potentially interested businesses and industries to keep them apprised of redevelopment opportunities; and will continue to engage with community groups in cleanup and redevelopment activities to ensure the successful redevelopment and revitalization of their communities.
Administrator Pruitt has set the expectation that there will be a renewed focus on accelerating work and progress at all Superfund sites across the country. The Superfund program remains dedicated to addressing risk and accelerating progress at all of its sites, not just those on the list.
This is not a complete list of sites in the Superfund program with redevelopment potential. The list is intended to be dynamic. Sites will move on and off the list as appropriate.
For more information, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/superfund-redevelopment-initiative/superfund-redevelopment-focus-list
Connect with EPA Region 4 on Facebook: www.facebook.com/eparegion4
And on Twitter: @EPASoutheast
###
2018 Youth Art Contest
From MDWFP
Students across Mississippi are invited to get outdoors and participate in the 2018 North Mississippi Fish Hatchery Youth Art Contest. Each student must submit a portfolio including entry form and artwork to the Visitor Education Center (VEC) by May 10, 2018.
The contest is sponsored by the Foundation for Mississippi Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks. Winners in four age categories will have their work published in the Mississippi Outdoors magazine and will receive a complimentary copy of the magazine displaying their work. Winners will also receive gift cards and have their work posted on the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks’ website.
The VEC is part of the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks’ North Mississippi Fish Hatchery and is located at Exit 233 east off I-55.
USDA Announces National Peanut Board Appointments
WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2018--Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue today appointed five members and six alternates to serve on the National Peanut Board. The appointees will serve three-year terms beginning Jan. 1, 2018, and ending Dec. 31, 2020. One appointee will serve the remaining one-year portion of a vacancy.
Newly appointed members are:
- Tom Corcoran, Eufaula, Ala.
- William T. Carte, Live Oak, Fla.
- Paul Rogers, Wakefield, Va.
Newly appointed alternates are:
- Thomas Adams, Newville, Ala.
- Jeremy Rolling, Westville, Fla.
- Westley B. Drake, Newsoms, Va.
- Jeff Roper, Lubbock, Texas (1-year term)
Reappointed members are:
- Joe H. Morgan, Hattiesburg, Miss.
- Dan Ward, Clarkton, N.C.
Reappointed alternates are:
- Lonnie Fortner, Port Gibson, Miss.
- Raymond P. Garner Jr., Roanoke Rapids, N.C.
“Research and consumer education are keys to growing the $1 billion peanut industry in America,” said Perdue. “Both the new and continuing members of the board bring great insight to this work from their many years of experience helping America’s 7,000 peanut-farming families improve production practices and continue to produce the world’s highest-quality peanut product for people around the globe.”
The board is composed of 12 producer members and their alternates. Eleven members and alternates are from the primary peanut producing states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. An at-large member and alternate represent the minor peanut producing states.
Research and promotion programs are industry-funded, authorized by Congress and date back to 1966. Since then, Congress has authorized the establishment of 22 research and promotion boards. They empower agricultural industries by establishing a framework for them to pool resources and combine efforts to develop new markets, strengthen existing markets, and conduct important research and promotion activities. The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) provides oversight, paid for by industry assessments, which helps ensure fiscal responsibility, program efficiency and fair treatment of participating stakeholders.
#
