State
Why Mississippi Sound salinity levels are low and how opening Morganza Spillway can lower freshwater intrusion
WLOX
BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) -As freshwater intrudes the Mississippi Sound, over one hundred dolphins and sea turtles have washed-up dead-on Mississippi beaches in 2019.
Marine life expert provides insight into issues created by spillway opening
WLOX
BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) - The alarming number of dead animals on Mississippi beaches continues growing. The latest figures show 114 dolphins and 145 turtles have washed ashore dead on the Mississippi coastal beaches so far this year.
Shrimpers keep their fingers crossed for the upcoming season
WLOX
BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) - It was a busy morning at the Biloxi Small Craft Harbor. Fishermen and shrimpers were getting ready for the 2019 Blessing of the Fleet while selling whatever fresh seafood they managed to catch overnight.
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City demolishes former used tire store on Highway 11
Picayune Item
Early Friday morning, a crowd gathered next door to what was a used tire business located on Highway 11 in Picayune.
THE CITY OF COLUMBUS IS TURNING TO GO BOND TO COVER STORM BILLS
WCBI
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- When a storm hits, the resulting clean up comes with a cost. Covering that cost can be more than some city budgets can handle.
Okatibbee Lake 'a lot more than flood control'
Meridian Star
Even in the 1930s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recognized the need for flood control in East Mississippi, pinpointing the Okatibbee Creek for a future project.
Simulation session gets county ready for disaster response
DeSoto Times-Tribune
You were likely not aware of it, but Wednesday morning, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake centered near Jonesboro, Arkansas struck, causing widespread devastation across DeSoto County.
Former Brandon fire chief named executive director of State Fire Academy
WLBT
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Commissioner of Insurance and State Fire Marshal Mike Chaney has named Terry Wages as the Executive Director of the Mississippi Fire Academy.
Regional
Tennessee officials plan to recommend dropping Hamilton County car emissions testing; modeling shows little impact on air quality
Chattanooga Times Free Press
NASHVILLE — Tennessee environmental officials hope to argue to the federal government that the state can safely end mandatory vehicle emissions inspection requirements in Hamilton and four mid-state counties, saying a monthslong study shows doing so won't significantly increase current ozone levels in the air.
Record floods breach Arkansas levee, overtop 2 in Missouri
AP
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Relentless flooding in the central U.S. on Friday inundated communities and damaged or spilled over levees on three major rivers in two states, and authorities discovered the body of a drowning victim at a Missouri lake.
National
FDA food sampling finds contamination by ‘forever chemicals’
AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration’s first broad testing of food for a worrisome class of nonstick, stain-resistant industrial compounds found substantial levels in some grocery store meats and seafood and in off-the-shelf chocolate cake, according to unreleased findings FDA researchers presented at a scientific conference in Europe.
Researchers seek PFAS solutions as they try to break down the 'forever chemical'
Detroit Free Press
It's a daunting task: How to break down "the forever chemical?"
But scientists across the country are researching, with urgency, ways to bust apart or capture per- and polyflouroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
Smoke from Canadian wildfires drifts into 5 US states
AP
Smoke from large wildfires in Canada's Alberta province has drifted into five U.S. states and is causing haze and air quality issues.
Idaho couple appeals government wetlands ruling on property
AP
A northern Idaho couple whose lawsuit against the U.S Environmental Protection Agency was kept alive by a U.S. Supreme Court decision has filed an appeal after losing that lawsuit in U.S. District Court.
North Dakota's new Cabinet agency: The Department of Environmental Quality
PPB
North Dakota has a new cabinet agency.
It’s called the Department of Environmental Quality. It was created by moving the Division of Environmental Quality out of the state Health Department.
Opinion
Keep Europe’s Sick Shellfish Out of America
Oyster herpes won’t make you ill, but it’s an ecological threat.
By Michael Osinski and
Isabel Osinski
WSJ
European oysters have herpes. It isn’t the virus that infects humans, but OsHV-1 kills up to 90% of juvenile oysters, making it a serious threat to the shellfish industry and ecosystems. Next month, ships full of live European Union oysters will arrive on American shores for the first time in a decade. All will be carrying the virus.
America banned imports of EU shellfish in 2008 because of concerns over norovirus, which can make people sick for short periods. In November the U.S. eased the ban, allowing Massachusetts and Washington state to trade with Spain and the Netherlands.
Our family runs an oyster farm on Long Island. In March we visited several European farms and were alarmed by what we heard and saw. The virus appeared in France in 2008 and has since spread throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand and China. The East Coast of the U.S. has remained free from the virus, but a milder strain has been a recurrent problem on the West Coast for 20 years.
The infected EU oysters are headed for American restaurants, but we see some possible vectors of transmission into our waters. Popular shell recycling programs gather used shells from restaurants and set them with oyster larvae, or spat, and place them in bays to build living reefs. Diners at restaurants built over the water sometimes toss shells overboard, another potential source of infection. I can see four such restaurants from our work dock here. National Geographic reported an English oyster farmer lost 80% of his crop to the OsHV-1 virus after using a piece of French equipment that had been out of the water for several years.
Scientists have detected susceptibility to the virus in Crassostrea Virginica, the oysters we grown on the East Coast. Out west they grow the same species as the Europeans: Crassostrea gigas. Introducing the virulent herpes strain from Europe into West Coast oyster beds would be catastrophic.
We are asking for common sense. No pig, cow or chicken—not to mention a tulip bulb—would be allowed into this country if it were carrying a virus as dangerous as OsHV-1. When we called the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, an aquaculture specialist told us to start a petition. After talking to her boss and industry lobbyists, she informed us that the USDA doesn’t consider oysters animals.
We started the petition anyway, and many of New York’s most prominent chefs and restaurateurs have signed. There is time to prevent a problem instead of reacting to one. Why recklessly experiment in our waters where there is no do-over? “You don’t want OsHV-1 in this country,” says Chris Langdon, a marine biologist at Oregon State University. “Stop it while you can.”
Mr. and Mrs. Osinski own Widow’s Hole Oysters.
Press releases
Recreational, commercial fishing seasons set to open, close
BILOXI, Miss. – Officials with the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources announced Friday the openings and closings for some recreational and commercial fishing seasons.
The recreational fishing season for Gag (Mycteroperca mecrolepis) is set to open in Mississippi territorial waters on Saturday, June 1, 2019, at 12:01 a.m. local time. The season shall close on December 31, 2019, at 11:59 p.m. or until the quota is met.
The commercial fishing season for Greater Amberjack (Seriola dumerili) will reopen on June 1, 2019, as scheduled. It will close at 12:01 a.m. on June 9, 2019.
The commercial fishing season for Gray Triggerfish (Balistes capriscus) will close as scheduled in Mississippi territorial waters from June 1 until July 31, 2019.
Extension of the Public Review and Comment Period
The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council (Council) recently provided a 7 day extension of the 45 day public review and comment period, the deadline for submitting public comments on the Planning Framework draft is 11:59 MDT on June 19, 2019. The Planning Framework draft became available on April 26, 2019. The Council continues to gather public input on the Planning Framework draft to ensure restoration investments fit into a broad vision for the Gulf of Mexico.
The RESTORE Council hosted and recorded two live public webinars on April 29, 2019. During each live webinar, Council staff presented an overview of the Planning Framework draft, and responded, in real time to selected questions from webinar participants. A recording of the Planning Framework draft webinar presentation and a list of all questions and responses from each webinar is available on our RESTORE Education Opportunities Series page. In order to give the public additional opportunities to learn about the Planning Framework draft, ask questions, and provide comments, the RESTORE Council hosted public meetings in each of the Gulf Coast states.
