Thursday, January 4, 2018

News Clippings January 4, 2018

State

Legislative task force monitoring Pearl River dam proposal
Times-Picayune

The head of a legislative task force studying the health and management of the Lower Pearl River Basin said she hopes to meet with members of Louisiana's congressional delegation later this month to discuss a controversial flood control project proposed near Jackson, Miss. 

Delinquent Hernando ratepayers could face cutoff
DeSoto Times-Tribune

Residents in eastern Hernando who were formerly water customers of North Mississippi Utility Company and owe back sewer charge payments to the City of Hernando will soon be at risk of having their water service cutoff if they do not pay up.

Can Biloxi recreate its golden age of seafood? Mayor and some councilmen say yes
Sun Herald

Mayor Andrew “FoFo” Gilich laid out his plans Tuesday for a “genuine waterfront experience” at Point Cadet complete with an oyster aquaculture center, an oyster dock, a pavilion to host deep sea fishing tournaments and a seafood marketplace.

Legislator calls for reporting deer, turkey harvests
Clarion Ledger

A bill that calls for mandatory harvest reporting of deer and turkeys is once again making its way through the legislative process.me votes, but I may pick up a few votes more."


State Government

Mississippi lawmakers doing homework for budget process
AP

Mississippi lawmakers are doing their homework as they get ready to write a state budget.
The Legislative Budget Office director, Tony Greer, held a briefing Wednesday at the Capitol to explain the recommendations released in November by top budget committee members in the House and Senate.


Regional

Residents Oppose Frack Waste Water Well in St. Landry Parish
KATC

The St. Landry Parish Government has given residents who are against a proposed hydrofracking wastewater injection well a better chance to voice their dissent and potentially stop construction.

10-year, $125 million study needed of Gulf Loop Current that feeds hurricanes, scientist say
Times-Picayune

A better understanding of the deep, warm water Loop Current Systemof the Gulf of Mexico - which contributed to the rapid intensification of Hurricanes Katrina and Ike - will require a 10-year international research effort costing as much as $125 million, according to a report Wednesday (Jan. 3) by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.


National

Air pollution around conception tied to birth defects
Reuters

Women who breathe polluted air during the month right before or after they get pregnant may be more likely to have babies with birth defects, a U.S. recent study suggests.

New-looking trucks with old, polluting engines could get a pass from Trump
Cleveland.com

WASHINGTON -- Semi trucks with trailers full of potatoes pull out of Sandyland Farms in Howard City, Michigan, on a weekly basis and drive to Ohio, where processors turn the crop into potato chips. 

Families sue school, state, Monsanto over chemical pollution
AP

Families who say they were sickened at a school outside of Seattle have filed a lawsuit against local officials and agrochemical giant Monsanto, claiming they allowed the school site to grow toxic with the use of the now-banned industrial chemicals known as PCBs.

'Raw Water' is the gross new health trend that could kill you
Baltimore Sun

As if raw milk wasn't dangerous enough, people have taken their obsession with all things "natural" to a whole new and absurd level. "Raw water," or water that comes directly from natural water sources without purification or treatment, is the next ridiculous trend to hit the American food scene.

America could become oil king of the world in 2018
CNN

The United States is poised to ramp up crude oil production by 10% in 2018 to about 11 million barrels per day, according to research firm Rystad Energy.


Press Releases

Give Old Electronics New Life through E-cycling this Holiday Season
01/03/2018

PHILADELPHIA (January 3, 2018) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency encourages consumers to donate or recycle their used electronics.  

Holly Greaves Nominated as Chief Financial Officer of EPA
01/03/2018

WASHINGTON – Today, President Donald J. Trump announced his intention to nominate Holly Greaves as chief financial officer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

News Clippings January 3, 2018

State

Get an exclusive look at a toxic waste site in Pascagoula
Sun Herald (video)

Take a tour of the Mississippi Phosphates site that was declared a Superfund site in December 2017. The EPA-on site administrator explains how they monitor the site and treat the wastewater that comes from the giant gypsum stacks that the plant generated as waste.

Partners to buy SC wood pellet plant, build Mississippi port
AP

A company that makes wood pellets and sells them to power plants overseas says it's forming a new joint venture with an insurance company to buy a plant in South Carolina and build a port in Mississippi.


State Government

LEGISLATORS WEIGH-IN ON TOP PRIORITIES AT START OF 2018 SESSION
MPB

Mississippi lawmakers are weighing in on their top priorities at the start of the 2018 legislative session.


Oil Spill

Coast legislators focused on distribution of BP money
WLOX

The 2018 legislative session is underway, once again the legislature is expected to debate how the BP money should be distributed.


National

EPA removes 7 cleaned-up sites from Superfund list
The Hill

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) partially or completely removed seven sites from its Superfund list last year.

Delaware threatens to sue EPA over out-of-state air pollution
The Hill

Delaware’s state government is threatening to sue the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for not approving four requests to crack down on out-of-state air pollution.

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

News Clippings January 2, 2018

State

A toxic waste site near the Sound in Pascagoula is too close for comfort. The EPA has a plan.
Sun Herald
PASCAGOULA 

When the giant gypsum stacks, with the hundreds of millions of gallons of acid water they create, became a Superfund site last month, the head of EPA said it would move quickly to make a difference.
He’s doing it.

Harmontown residents breathe a smelly sigh of relief
Oxford Eagle

Residents of Harmontown have been in a smelly situation for the past two and a half months.
CenterPoint Solutions, a company that mixes an odorant called ethyl mercaptan into natural gas, has a site on County Road 515 in Harmontown, where a spill has left soil contaminated with the undiluted odorant.

UMMC CONSTRUCTION HAS LITTLE IMPACT ON FLOODING IN BELHAVEN NEIGHBORHOOD
Northside Sun

RECENT major construction projects at the University of Mississippi Medical Center have had little, if any, impact on flooding in Belhaven.

Greenville takes out short-term loan for sewer project
AP

A Mississippi city is borrowing money to help pay for improvements to its sewer system.
The Delta Democrat-Times reports that Greenville City Council members voted for the $2 million short-term loan during their final meeting of 2017.

Recycled Christmas trees used to create fish shelters
Oxford Eagle

With the 2017 holiday season of×cially over, it’s just about time to say goodbye to O Tannenbaum — the family Christmas tree.

One Lake Project One Step Closer to Public Input
JFP

JACKSON — The "One Lake" plan and its current proposed footprint may be finally coming to fruition. Or at least into public view.


State Government

Lawmakers to review ways to make public's identifiable data in state hands more secure
Clarion Ledger

Records belonging to the Department of Human Services that contained such items as official birth certificates, bank account statements and Social Security cards were found scattered along a roadway in Hancock County in 2016.


Oil Spill

COASTAL LEGISLATORS LOOK FOR UNITY ON BP SETTLEMENT BILL
MPB

Lawmakers and business leaders along the Gulf Coast are hoping a unified message will help push through a bill that solidifies what will happen with millions of dollars from BP’s economic settlement with the state. MPB’s Evelina Burnett reports.

Can we have better schools, better roads and BP money? The next 90 days will tell.
Sun Herald

By the end of the 2018 legislative session, Mississippi could have a public school funding formula that works, a plan to care for people who can’t afford health insurance or doctor visits, a bill that would bring most of the BP economic damages settlement to the Coast, a plan for roads and bridges, a lottery and a new flag.


Regional

Progress comes slowly at site of defunct Arkansas chemical plant; pollutants linger in flood-risk zone
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Some officials in Phillips County say they aren’t concerned about incomplete cleanup of a chemical site in Helena-West Helena that is located in a flood-risk zone.


National

‘SMOTHERED’ AND
‘SHOVED ASIDE’ IN
RURAL AMERICA
Washington Post

Come on! Come on! Go girls!” Annette Sweeney was on horseback, hollering at her chocolate-colored cows on a perfect Iowa morning, happy that her life is better since Donald Trump became president.

Public left footing bill for cleanup at abandoned mines in the West
AP

CUBA, N.M. (AP) — For decades, yellow- and white-tinged piles of waste from a defunct copper mine have covered the mountainside at the edge of the quintessential New Mexico village of Cuba — out of sight, out of mind and not nasty enough to warrant the attention of the federal government’s Superfund program.

Nebraska students tackle a state-centric environmental problem — cow burps — with award-winning results
Lincoln Journal-Star

Nic Kite grew up on a small farm in Nemaha County, and has fond memories of going to livestock auctions with his grandfather, where they’d survey everything from a heifer's midsection to its gait in an effort to try to size up its potential value.