State
Turkey season looks promising, but will open late in some areas
Clarion Ledger
Deer season is over except in the Southeastern Zone and some hunters are shifting their focus to turkey season. According to Adam Butler, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks Wild Turkey Program coordinator, it should be a season to look forward to and for several years to come.
City signs contract for erosion control
Vicksburg Post
Central Asphalt of Vicksburg will do the city’s erosion control project on Sherman Avenue.
13th annual “Shred Days” announced
NewsMS
The 13th annual “Community Shred Days” have been announced.
U.S. Secretary of Labor tours Continental Tire training center
WLBT
The United States Labor Secretary visited Mississippi to check on what’s being done with workforce training at Continental Tire. Tire production won’t start on the Hinds County site until the start of next year.
State Government
State spending $260 million less now than 2008 when factoring in inflation
MS Today
The amount of money appropriated to pay for state government for the last fiscal year – 2018 – is $260 million less than what was spent in fiscal year 2008 in inflationary dollars.
Analysis: Tort reform is back at the Mississippi Capitol
AP
Tort reform is back at the Mississippi Capitol.
Oil Spill
Coastal News Roundup: New Research On Dispersants, And The Quest For An Elusive Marsh Bird
WWNO
The chemicals used to clean up the BP oil spill may not have been as bad as previous studies suggest -- that’s one of a few themes from the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science (GOMOSES) Conference this week.
Part of BP money could help hurricane recovery
News 4
PANAMA CITY, Fla. - A relatively small amount of settlement money from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster moved closer Friday to being available to local governments struggling to recover from Hurricane Michael.
Regional
Louisiana online map shows where not to eat the fish or swim
AP
A recently created interactive map shows people where pollution has made a Louisiana waterway unsafe for swimming. It also tells fishers whether it’s safe to eat their catch.
EPA delays emissions monitoring plan for St. Bernard Parish
Times-Picayune
The Environmental Protection Agency has delayed the approval of a state plan aimed at assuring that sulphur emissions in St. Bernard Parish remain below federal air quality standards to allow Rain CII Carbon in Chalmette to complete tests that will confirm it can properly monitor emissions from part of its manufacturing process.
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton joins tour at burning dump site in Northwest Arkansas
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
BELLA VISTA -- U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton says he will talk with the interim director of the federal Environmental Protection Agency about the underground fire at a dump site in Bella Vista.
The state says it needs federal money to extinguish the fire and clean up the site.
EPA questions imported GenX
Fayetteville Observer
Federal regulators want to know more about material containing GenX that Chemours is importing to its Bladen County plant.
Scammers targeting the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and contacts
KLFY
LAFAYETTE (LA) - The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council is warning they are the latest target of a phishing scam.
National
Under Trump, EPA inspections fall to a 10-year low
Washington Post
Under President Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency inspected fewer industrial facilities during 2018 than at any time over the past decade, according to data released by the agency Friday.
EPA decision soon on chemical compounds tied to health risks
AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chemical compounds are all around you. They’re on many fabrics, rugs and carpets, cooking pots and pans, outdoor gear, shampoo, shaving cream, makeup and even dental floss. Increasing numbers of states have found them seeping into water supplies.
How U.S. hospitals cleaned up their toxic trash
PBS
It was an ironic discovery: Medical centers designed to treat patients could actually be harming them. In 1994, the Environmental Protection Agency released a report that found that incinerators used by many hospitals throughout the United States were a top of emitter of harmful air pollutants, including mercury and dioxin.
Lawsuit seeks action on Lake Erie algae cleanup
AP
Environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit pushing for more action to prevent the toxic algae blooms that plague Lake Erie's western basin each summer.
Opinion
OUR VIEW: Talking trash and fixing our litter problem
Meridian Star
We love it when the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors talk trash.
...We encourage the supervisors to continue their discussions and work toward a solution.
The recommendation of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality for the county to hire an enforcement officer to levy fines seems like a potential solution.
Press releases
EPA Announces 2018 Annual Environmental Enforcement Results
02/08/2019
WASHINGTON — In FY 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) worked in collaboration with state and tribal programs to assure compliance with federal environmental laws. In doing so, EPA focused its enforcement and compliance resources in areas that will have a major environmental or human health impact, support the integrity of our environmental regulatory programs, create a deterrent effect, or promote cleanups.
MDMR offering food safety workshop Feb. 20-22
BILOXI, Miss. – The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources Seafood Technology Bureau is conducting a basic seafood Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) food safety workshop February 20 – 22 at the Bolton State Building in Biloxi.
