State
City Council advised that Highway 11 widening pushed back to March 2019
Picayune Item
In other business, the Council approved a motion to apply for grant funding from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to hold a hazardous waste collection day in the city. Grants Manager Christy Goss said the grant is competitive, so the city would be competing with other municipalities for the funding. But if it’s approved, then a day would be set to collect hazardous household waste, such as paint and oils.
Harrison County spent millions on this industrial park. Years later, it sits empty
Sun Herald
Thousands of drivers pass by a sign pointing the way to the North Harrison County Industrial Complex off U.S. 49 just south of Saucier. Few, if any, follow that sign.
Mississippi demands $100K from city utilities board members
AP
CANTON, MISS.
Officials say utility board members in a Mississippi city owe nearly $100,000 to the state auditor's office after using public funds for personal use.
Cooperative Energy and Origis Energy celebrate launch of solar site
WJTV
Rural Lamar County goes high tech with a little help from the oldest source of light around - the sun.
Summit: Get dirty, clean up town on St. Patrick’s Day
Enterprise-Journal
Summit officials are encouraging residents to spend part of St. Patrick’s Day removing litter from city streets and public spaces.
Flood forecast remains the same
Vicksburg Post
The 50.5-foot forecast crest for the Mississippi River at Vicksburg is expected to remain, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Jackson said Thursday.
The Mississippi Coast is getting a new lighthouse on the beach
Sun Herald
Million-dollar restrooms dot the beach from one end of the Coast to the other, except in Waveland.
Food Truck Fridays returning to downtown Jackson
Every second Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
WAPT
Food Truck Fridays are coming back to downtown Jackson beginning Friday, March 9.
State Government
Mississippi House again seeks lottery despite dim prospects
AP
A longtime proponent of a lottery for Mississippi tried again Thursday to prod legislative leaders to consider one, although a symbolic vote supporting the concept could amount to little.
Oil Spill
New Popp's Ferry Causeway Park is opening soon
WLOX
A $6 million project that has been 32 years in the making is close to completion in Biloxi.
Ten acres of wetlands are being turned into Popp's Ferry Causeway Park, just west of the Popp's Ferry bridge.
POPP’S FERRY CAUSEWAY PARK
WXXV
Multi able projects is underway in Biloxi. One of them is the Popp’s Ferry Causeway Park and there is an end in site for the construction here to tell us more is News 25’s Caroline Eaker.
MISSISSIPPI AQUARIUM PROGRESS
WXXV
Progress is being made toward the Mississippi Aquarium in downtown Gulfport.
Escambia County receives three RESTORE ACT grant awards
PNJ
Escambia County announced Wednesday that it had received two additional grant awards through the RESTORE Act.
U.S. court dismisses Mexican claims against BP over Deepwater Horizon
Reuters
A federal judge overseeing the litigation over an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, ruled that Mexico’s Yucatan state could not bring claims against oil giant BP, which operated the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded in 2010.
Regional
Lake Pontchartrain basin being monitored for spillway environmental effects
Times-Picayune
Officials with several federal agencies and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation have begun monitoring the environmental effects of opening the Bonnet Carre Spillway to lower water levels on the Mississippi River by moving part of its flow into Lake Pontchartrain. The spillway was opened Thursday (March 8) by the Army Corps of Engineers and is expected to remain open for about three weeks.
Easing pressure on levees, raising environmental worries
AP
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began opening part of a 1930s flood control structure northwest of New Orleans on Thursday to divert water from a rising Mississippi River into nearby Lake Pontchartrain, a move that eases pressure on the city's levees but raises environmental concerns about the lake and the Gulf of Mexico.
Senate approves wetlands bill denounced by environmentalists
Florida Times-Union
Florida’s Senate approved legislation Thursday allowing a state agency to take over wetlands protection that’s handled now by the federal government, a change that worries environmental activists.
Radioactivity Found In Groundwater At 11 Duke Energy Plants
WFAE
New data from federally mandated testing has found elevated levels of radiation in groundwater at 11 of 18 Duke Energy coal plants. Environmentalists and Duke disagree over what the numbers mean.
National
House Votes to Ease Toxic Air Pollutant Rule for Coal Waste Plants
Bloomberg
Power plants that turn coal waste into energy would be exempt from some of the EPA’s toxic air pollutant standards, under a bill passed by the House March 8.
EPA Wants Environmental Justice Input on Superfund Push
Bloomberg
The EPA wants its environmental justice advisers to take part in Administrator Scott Pruitt’s efforts to speed Superfund cleanups, a top EPA policy official said.
Home Depot to pay $27.8M in California hazardous waste settlement
The Hill
National retailer the Home Depot will pay more than $27 million to the state of California to settle an unlawful disposal of hazardous waste case.
Berkshire Unit Ordered to Pay Millions for Asbestos-Related Settlement
Judge rules National Indemnity is responsible for paying more than $68 million to victims in Montana lawsuit
WSJ
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s BRK.A +0.84% National Indemnity Co. has to pay more than $68 million of Montana’s asbestos-related settlement costs, a state judge has ruled.
Aging Oil Fields Defy Gravity to Pump More Crude
Bloomberg
Bob Dudley, in his 38 years in the oil industry, has never seen anything like what happened with BP Plc’s old fields last year: They gushed more crude.
Permian producers can halve sand costs through local sourcing: report
Reuters
Oil producers in the Permian basin could save 40-50 percent on frack sand costs by sourcing it from local basins, market research consultancy Energent said on Thursday.
Press Releases
EPA Awards $8.7 Million to Clean Up More Than 450 School Buses in 32 States
WASHINGTON (March 8, 2018) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded more than $8.7 million to replace or retrofit 452 older diesel school buses.
