State
MDEQ issues water contact advisory near Taylorsville
WDAM
TAYLORSVILLE, MS (WDAM) - The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality has issued a water contact advisory for several streams near Taylorsville.
Loan sought to fund sewer system repairs
Vicksburg Post
The Board of Mayor and Aldermen are seeking to borrow $1.24 million through the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality’s Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund Loan Program for work on the city’s 111-year-old sewer system.
Water and sewer improvements on the way in Ocean Springs
WLOX
OCEAN SPRINGS, MS (WLOX) - The city coffers in Ocean Springs are richer to the tune of $900,000 dollars. The city received the money from the state when the legislature passed the infrastructure improvement bill this past session. Now, the money will be used to improve water and sewer systems in the city of discovery.
Water plant rehab bids authorized
Daily Times Leader
Converting the city’s electric service from the current outdated 46 kV system to a more modern 161 kV system isn’t the only major project West Point Water and Light has going on.
TENN-TOM WATERWAY REPAIRS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE
WCBI
ABERDEEN, Miss. (WCBI) – The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway could partially be open for business in a couple of weeks.
Supervisors discuss new option for landfill expansion
Monroe Journal
ABERDEEN – The board of supervisors and Monroe County Solid Waste Department Manager Tony Ligon continued discussions April 5 about the need for more space at the county landfill.
‘THROW IT AWAY THE RIGHT WAY’ THIS SATURDAY
Hub City Spokes
Have you been stockpiling old paint, light bulbs, motor oil and the like?
Then Saturday is your day to get rid of it during Right Way to Throw Away Day.
Volunteers Needed for Greenwood City Wide Clean-Up
Delta News TV
Cans, cardboard, paper, and plastic bottles all sounds like the contents of a recycling bin, but those items are not found there, but rather lying around areas in the Delta.
Pascagoula River Audubon Center announces newest manager
Mississippi Press
MOSS POINT, Miss. -- A familiar face around the Pascagoula, Moss Point area will be the newest center manager of the Pascagoula River Audubon Center.
HOW GIS MAPPING BENEFITS STORM RECOVERY RESPONSE
WCBI
WINSTON/OKTIBBEHA, Miss. (WCBI) – The 2014 Winston County EF4 twister is the fastest storm recovery response in the history of Mississippi and the program that helped make that happen could be helping some of Winston County’s neighbors.
Oil Spill
State rebuilt 5.1 square miles of coast with $500M in fines since BP Deepwater Horizon
Times-Picayune
Just four days before the ninth anniversary of the catastrophic BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill, state coastal officials outlined how they are using the disaster’s silver lining – billions of dollars in fines and other payments – to rebuild 5.1 square miles of the state’s eroding coastline.
Beach restoration slated to begin in August
Port St. Joe Star
At this point it’s akin to shooting darts blindfolded to announce a start date, month even, for a long-sought, and long-discussed beach restoration project.
Regional
11 dolphins found dead in Gulf after spillway opening, Louisiana parish says
Sun Herald
A “dolphin kill” is suspected in the St. Bernard Parish area.
Louisiana environmentalists, others sue EPA over coke oven emissions
Times-Picayune
The Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations governing the operation of coke ovens used to manufacture iron are failing to protect nearby communities from cancer-causing air emissions, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in San Francisco.
Earthquakes are shaking the Florida border, and that’s a mystery even to the experts
Miami Herald
Florida is known for many things: the Everglades. Walt Disney World. An inability to count votes. Florida Man.
Earthquakes, not so much.
That might be changing.
Tennessee gov seeking $24.7M to treat hepatitis C in prisons
AP
— $500,000 for the state attorney general's involvement in a lawsuit over the Memphis Aquifer, bringing the total to $750,000. The attorney general's office says Mississippi is challenging Tennessee's use of water from the aquifer and is seeking more than $600 million in damages, with the U.S. Supreme Court set to decide because the case is between two states.
National
Senators ask Perdue to expand water quality initiative
Delta Farm Press
A bipartisan group of senators are asking Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to expand the National Water Quality Initiative now housed at the Natural Resources Conservation Service to prioritize conservation measures in the 2018 Farm Bill to address water quality.
Critics say new EPA rule could reintroduce asbestos use
The Hill
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Wednesday a new rule they say will limit the use of asbestos in the U.S., but critics, including some of the agency’s own staff, describe it as a half measure that could reintroduce some asbestos products to the market.
Pollution and national parks — why it's an issue
Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY — Critics of Utah's proposed regional haze plan say it does not go far enough to cut emissions from a pair of power plants and want state regulators to require upgrades to significantly reduce the pollutant nitrogen oxide.
Earth, meet Polo: Ralph Lauren unveils plastic bottle shirt
AP
Earth, meet Polo.
Polo Ralph Lauren on Thursday launched a version of its iconic polo shirt made entirely of recycled plastic bottles and dyed through a process that uses zero water.
Press Releases
Mississippi’s RESTORE Act State Expenditure Plan Amendment Approved
(JACKSON, Miss.) – Gov. Phil Bryant announced today that Mississippi’s 2018 State Expenditure Plan Amendment (SEP) has been approved by the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council (RESTORE Council). EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, as Chair of the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, approved the document on April 12, 2019. The plan details restoration activities under the Oil Spill Impact Component, or Bucket 3, of the RESTORE Act and are administered by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ).
EPA Strengthens Regulation of Asbestos to Close Loophole and Protect Consumers
04/17/2019
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a broad new rule that strengthens the agency’s ability to rigorously review an expansive list of asbestos products that are no longer on the market before they could be sold again in the United States.
