State
Mississippi environmental agency director leaving his job
AP
The head of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality says he is leaving his job this month.
Rikard to leave MDEQ post
DeSoto Times-Tribune
The man who has been the head of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) since 2014 will leave his position on Jan. 13.
Executive Director of MDEQ to step down Jan. 13
WLBT
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - The executive director of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) announced on Friday that he will be leaving the agency January 13.
Exec. Director of MDEQ to leave agency
WJTV
JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – The Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality will leave the agency on January 13, 2020.
Officials seek course of action to fix recurring problems on Robins Lake
Natchez Democrat
NATCHEZ — Adams County and state officials were hard at work Friday morning addressing damages to a dam on Robins Lake Road.
Pumps brought in to prevent flooding from partial breach at Robins Lake Dam in Adams Co.
WLBT
ADAMS COUNTY, Miss. (WLBT) - The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) provided two pumps to Adams County in response to flash flooding that caused a partial breach of the Robins Lake Dam Thursday night.
Fishing lake floods, drains after heavy rain
WLBT
HINDS CO., Miss. (WLBT) - Holmes Lake Dam in Hinds County flooded after hours of heavy rain Thursday.
Hinds County dam collapses
WAPT
The Hinds county emergency management agency says several residents dodged a bullet after a dam around their home failed.
Overturned truck temporarily closes I-55 northbound Friday
Daily Leader
A crash involving one truck on I-55 northbound near mile marker 44 left two miles of the interstate closed for close to eight hours Friday morning. Mississippi Highway Patrol responded to the call at 2:24 a.m. and promptly re-routed traffic off at exit 42.
MDWFP needs hunters to send Chronic Wasting Disease samples
WJTV
JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks collected more than 4,000 samples for Chronic Wasting Disease testing during 2019-2020 hunting season.
State Government
MISSISSIPPI PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSIONERS SWORN IN
MPB
The Mississippi Public Service Commission has sworn in it's newly elected commissioners at a ceremony in Jackson. MPB's Kobee Vance reports on how the leaders want to serve Mississippi.
Reeves makes ethics, education board nominations
Clarion Ledger
Mississippi Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves is nominating a former director of the state Republican Party to serve on the state Ethics Commission.
Regional
Enviva facilities have generated hundreds of tons of air pollution a year, critics say
News & Observer
Every day, Silverleen Alston walks out the door of her Northampton County home and finds a powdery dust everywhere: around the house, on the car.
World’s largest wood pellet maker both welcomed and condemned in US
News & Observer
Tractor-trailer trucks carrying timber arrive one after another at a factory in Northampton County, where logs are piled up to 35 feet high in rows as long as two football fields. Still more trucks come, carrying sawdust and wood chips from lumber mills or from shredded limbs and small trees those mills won’t buy.
Coast forests will be used to fuel East Asia. But will it help solve climate change?
News & Observer
From the outskirts of Selby, a 1,200-year-old former coal-mining town in northern England, you can see the smokestack and the dozen cooling towers of the Drax Power Station, the largest power plant in the United Kingdom.
‘Are forests the new coal?’ Wood pellet plants are a climate change loophole, activists say.
News & Observer
Just over a year ago, people from 196 countries were gathering in Katowice, Poland, for the 24th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference.
We found a chemical in tap water near an air base after SC failed to test for pollutants
Post and Courier
An industrial chemical has infiltrated the drinking water at a trailer park near Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter County, worrying residents, angering elected leaders and forcing state health officials to respond.
Tennessee targets deer disease with $1M carcass incinerator
AP
A $1 million deer carcass incinerator is in the works at a Tennessee landfill to prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease.
National
Are toxins in coal ash posing risks to nearby communities?
PBS
The U.S. each year produces more than 100 million tons of coal ash, a toxic substance made when coal is burned for electricity. Much of that waste is kept in active storage units around the country, where it can potentially leach into the groundwater and major waterways. Ivette Feliciano reports from one of these facilities in Missouri as part of our climate change series, "Peril & Promise."
EPA watchdog says agency underprepared for national emergency
The Hill
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is not adequately managing the equipment needed to respond to emergencies, its watchdog concluded in a Friday report.
Chesapeake Bay Pollution Goals ‘An Aspiration,’ EPA Official Says
AP
Recent comments from the head of the Environmental Protection Agency's Chesapeake Bay Program about pollution limits designed to improve the health of the bay have sparked concern among environmental groups and some Maryland officials.
Opinion
Let’s hope dam holds long enough to fix it
Natchez Democrat
The Miss-Lou had a heavy rainfall on Thursday causing localized flooding on many streets and some small mudslides in some areas.
Press Releases
USACE PROVIDES ADAMS COUNTY WITH PUMPS TO PREVENT DAM FAILURE
January 3, 2020
MEMA
PEARL – The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) provided two pumps to Adams County in response to flash flooding that caused a partial breach of the Robins Lake Dam Thursday night.
