State
Jackson drops court challenge opposing West Rankin water permit
Clarion Ledger
The battle over a water permit that pitted Jackson against the West Rankin Utility Authority is no more.
http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/01/05/city-drops-court-challenge-west-rankin-wast/1003377001/
City officials have plans for improvements
Vicksburg Post
Making the necessary improvements to the city’s infrastructure will be the main challenge facing the Board of Mayor and Aldermen heading into 2018.
…Flaggs said the city now has the approval of the Mississippi Department of Transportation and Development and the state Health Department and the Department of Environmental Quality, clearing the way to advertise the South Frontage Road extension utility relocation project out for bids.
HANDLING EVIDENCE
Drug lab finally up and running on Front Street
Daily Journal
TUPELO – When someone goes to court in Northeast Mississippi on drug charges, chances are Alicia Waldrop has handled the evidence.
…Those clandestine meth labs used things like sulfuric acid, anhydrous ammonia, propane and red lye in the manufacturing process. When a lab was uncovered, the Department of Environmental Quality had to be called in to clean up the hazardous material.
Mississippi arboretum looking for milkweed hunter-growers
AP
Mississippi State University's arboretum is looking for gardeners who know where milkweed's growing wild and want to help monarch butterflies.
State Government
She killed herself months before the DMR scandal broke. Now her story has come to light.
Sun Herald
Michaela Hill knew what her boss was doing at the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources was wrong.
Regional
Long-Running Florida-Georgia Water Fight Goes To Supreme Court Monday
WABE
Florida and Georgia have been fighting over water for decades.
Alabama site off EPA Superfund list 52 years after chemical spill
Al.com
A chemical spill site near the north Baldwin County community of Perdido has been officially removed from a list of the country's most polluted places more than 50 years after a train derailment contaminated the local groundwater with benzene.
High-risk underground fuel tanks in Florida await cleanup as state spends millions on easy fixes
Tampa Bay Times
Scattered across Florida are 19,000 underground petroleum storage tanks that are no longer in use and may be leaking into the aquifer, the state’s drinking water supply.
National
EPA moving quickly to write new climate rule in 2018
Politico
Environmental Protection Agency staffers are under orders from the Trump administration to complete a replacement for former President Barack Obama’s major climate change rule by the end of the year, far faster than the normal pace the agency uses to develop major regulations, according to three sources familiar with the process.
Expect Environmental Battles to Be ‘Even More Significant’ in 2018
NY Times
WASHINGTON — If 2017 was the Trump administration’s year of grand pronouncements declaring an end to environmental regulations, 2018 will be the year of trying to finish what it started.
Are toxic chemicals at Air Force bases leading to cancer, low birth weight?
CBS
For 25 years, Dan Cruz delivered mail at the Peterson Air Force Base and drank the water. Then came cancer – thyroid, prostate, testicular – he said never before seen in his family.
Congressional watchdog to study Superfund site risks posed by disasters, climate change
The Hill
A top government watchdog group is planning to study the risk that natural disasters and climate change pose to the nation's Superfund sites.
EPA touts Superfund cleanups actually finished years ago
The Hill
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) boasted this week about removing from its contaminated Superfund list sites whose cleanups were actually completed years ago.
How antidepressants are ending up in Great Lakes fish
Detroit Free Press
A new study might depress anyone concerned with Great Lakes water quality.
Antidepressant drugs, making their way through an increasing number of people's bodies, getting excreted in small amounts into their toilets, and moving through the wastewater treatment process to lakes and rivers, are being found in multiple Great Lakes fish species' brains, new research by the University of Buffalo has found.
Opinion
Editorial: Aquifer study rejection penny-wise and gallon-foolish
Editorial – Commercial Appeal
The timing was off, and preparation for presenting the Memphis City Council with a proposed 1.05 percent water rate increase was inadequate. So a frustrated council’s rejection of the proposal last month was predictable.
Protecting our source of drinking water, the Memphis aquifer
Commercial Appeal
Keith Cole
Last year, our community’s awareness of the need to protect the Memphis aquifer grew substantially due to the proposed use of groundwater in the production of electricity by the new TVA Allen Combined Cycle plant.
