Wednesday, February 26, 2020

News Clippings February 26, 2020

State

3 men were rescued after passing out in their car during Yazoo Co. gas leak
WLBT

YAZOO CO., Miss. (WLBT) - Tonight, we’re learning more about some heroics during a massive gas leak in Yazoo County this weekend.

OKTIBBEHA BOARD SUPERVISORS ADDRESS FINANCIAL CONCERNS TO FIX OKTIBBEHA COUNTY LAKE
WCBI

OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Oktibbeha County Supervisors have taken the next step in making repairs to a damaged dam at the Oktibbeha County Lake.

Engineer will prepare plans to replace Oktibbeha Co. Lake Dam
Commercial Dispatch
 
STARKVILLE -- Oktibbeha County supervisors voted unanimously to authorize County Engineer Clyde Pritchard to draw up plans for the replacement of the Oktibbeha County Lake Dam after a public hearing in the chancery courthouse Monday night.

Rare snake wins protection under critical habitat lawsuit
AP

A rare snake has won protection in two states under a critical habitat lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday.

Commissioner Brent Bailey & Atmos Energy present check to Jackson Public Schools
WLBT

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Atmos Energy and Public Service Commissioner Brent Bailey made a $5,350 check presentation to Jackson Public Schools for the installation of energy efficient natural combination ovens and condensing water heaters in the cafeterias of elementary schools.

State inmates pick up trash along highway
WTVA

Tupelo, Miss (WTVA) - Highway 45 South may look cleaner to drivers.  State inmates were out picking up trash along the highway on Tuesday.

Homeless could be hired to pick up litter
WTVA

TUPELO, Miss (WTVA)- Tupelo Mayor Jason Shelton proposed the idea of hiring homeless to help pick up litter around the city.


Regional

Company’s request sparks environmental concerns about aquifer contamination
Fox 13

SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. — Environmentalists and members of local government are concerned that clean drinking water is being threatened by a Shelby County company.
The Memphis Sands Aquifer is the primary source of drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people in Shelby County and other parts of the Mid-South.

A Mini Mississippi River May Help Save Louisiana’s Vanishing Coast
NYT

HOLDEN, Mass. — We were standing on the levee of the Mississippi River, about an hour west of Boston.


National

Environmental Groups Sue U.S. Over Lightbulb Energy Standards
WSJ

WASHINGTON—Environmental groups led by the Natural Resources Defense Council sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over its decision to keep energy-efficiency requirements for household incandescent lightbulbs at their current level.

With California nearing drought, reservoir near San Jose ordered to be drained. Here's why
USA Today

Amid the threat of another California drought, federal regulators have ordered that a large reservoir south of San Jose be drained because of concerns that its dam may collapse in an earthquake, leading to a massive release of water that could flood much of Silicon Valley.

Firefighters respond to massive refinery fire after explosion near Los Angeles
AP

CARSON, Calif. (AP) - Los Angeles County firefighters say a large refinery fire that temporarily closed all lanes of the 405 Freeway Tuesday night in the city of Carson has been confined.

Alaska school districts to get new buses from $4M settlement with Volkswagen
KTVA

The Alaska Energy Authority announced eight Alaska school districts will benefit from a settlement with Volkswagen.


Press Releases

EPA Administrator names Local Government Advisors
02/25/2020
Contact Information: 
EPA Press Office (press@epa.gov)

WASHINGTON (Feb. 25, 2020) — Today, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the appointment of 12 new members to the Local Government Advisory Committee (LGAC).



Tuesday, February 25, 2020

News Clippings February 25, 2020

State

Greenwood Wastewater Pipe Collapse
DeltaNewsTV

Greenwood still working on repairs to a wastewater pipeline that caved last week.

Wastewater line collapses
Greenwood Commonwealth

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality issued a notice Friday to avoid portions of theTallahatchie and Yazoo rivers following the collapse of a Greenwood wastewater line.

Residents near the Oktibbeha county lake dam voice concerns over the dam's safety
WTVA

OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss (WTVA) - People living near the Oktibbeha County Lake dam voiced their concerns about the dam's safety during a meeting on Monday night.
County supervisor Marvell Howard told everyone at the meeting tonight that the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality deemed the dam unsafe for the last four years.

ONE LAKE PROJECT GETS ATTENTION AFTER MAJOR FLOODING
MPB

The latest iteration of a plan to widen the Pearl River and provide flood control for areas in and around the capital city is getting more attention after the recent record flooding.

REPORTED OIL SPILL SLOWS TRAFFIC ON HIGHWAY 82
WCBI

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – A reported oil spill slowed traffic on Highway 82 in Lowndes County Monday morning.

Following Yazoo County gas leak, all is back to normal
WJTV

YAZOO COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) – Nearly 48 hours after a CO2 gas line burst in Yazoo County, things are safe and back to normal.
“Denbury, the company that operates the thing, has paid a crew of environmental specialists that’s come in and the Department of Environmental Quality for the state has come in.

Friends of Boley gearing back up
Picayune Item

Friends of Boley, a group that formed about 10 years ago with the goal of cleaning the Hobolochitto Creek, has been on a hiatus as of late, but its members are gearing up to conduct more projects.

Playground mural promotes recycling
DeSoto Times-Tribune

A new recycling mural has been erected at Hernando’s Conger Park Playground.  


State Government

MDOT worker helps deliver baby off interstate
WAPT

BRANDON, Miss. — A Mississippi Department of Transportation employee had an eventful morning Monday. He delivered a baby along on the interstate.


Regional

Water quality rules for Arkansas advance
Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette

The Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality has recommended to Gov. Asa Hutchinson changes to its water quality regulation, but the changes won’t include several major items that continue to be deliberated.


National

Justices grapple with $8 billion pipeline that would cross Appalachian Trail
The Hill

The Supreme Court on Monday heard arguments in a high-profile case that could block construction of an $8 billion gas pipeline seeking to cross the Appalachian Trail.

15-foot shark tagged off Canada shows up near Mississippi River 103 days later
Sun Herald

A huge great white shark fitted last summer with a satellite tag off Nova Scotia has mesmerized researchers by showing up five months later near the mouth of the Mississippi River.

U.S. EPA exploring incentives for improving Great Lakes water quality
Toledo Blade

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to see if market-based approaches — such as the sale of water-quality credits between utilities and farmers to encourage more investment — might prove to be a cost-effective way of combating chronic algae problems in western Lake Erie and other parts of the Great Lakes region.

Where’s My Cup? Offices Find It’s Not Easy Going Green
WSJ

It wasn’t a dignified move, but Philippa Dunjay felt she had no choice.
A strategist at an ad agency owned by Deloitte, Ms. Dunjay, 31, had just sat through a nearly two-hour meeting while visiting the firm’s London headquarters. Another one was beginning shortly, and she was feeling parched.


Opinion

OUR VIEW: Keep public notices in community newspapers
Meridian Star

Bills have been submitted to the Mississippi Senate and House of Representatives that would give local government bodies the option to publish their public notices – legal advertisements – on government-operated websites rather than in local newspapers.


Press Releases

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalizes Critical Habitat for threatened black pinesnake
Over 324,000 acres in Mississippi and Alabama designated to help in species’ conservation
February 25, 2020

Daphne, Alabama — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has finalized critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for the black pinesnake, a non-venomous constrictor found only in Mississippi and Alabama. This native reptile was listed as threatened under the ESA in 2015 following population declines due to habitat loss and degradation.

Graduate Students Find Impacts of Freshwater in Mississippi’s Oysters
UM

OXFORD, Miss. – As Ann Fairly Barnett pulled an oyster dredge up through the shoreline waters of the Mississippi Sound, she was dreading what she was about to find.
“Not a single living oyster,” said the University of Mississippi master’s student in environmental toxicology.




Monday, February 24, 2020

News Clippings February 24, 2020

State

Evacuated families allowed back home after large gas leak in Yazoo Co.
WLBT

YAZOO COUNTY, Miss. (WLBT) - The Mayor of Satartia has confirmed that all evacuated families in Yazoo County affected by a large gas leak have been given the all clear to return home.

Lauderdale County solar farm taints Lake Tom Bailey
Meridian Star

TOOMSUBA — The inspection of a Lauderdale County solar farm site – conducted because of concerns about impacts to Lake Tom Bailey – revealed seven violations of state permit conditions, according to records from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.

Officials consider One Lake project to prevent future floods
WLBT

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - The Rankin Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District held a special meeting Friday, discussing the impacts of the recent flood.

Monticello mayor disagrees with One Lake project as town fights flooding
WLBT

MONTICELLO, Miss. (WLBT) - The One Lake project is predicted to save homes in Hinds and Rankin county, but what about the smaller communities on the south end of the Pearl River?

Hyde-Smith: Money, work moving ahead on backwater pumps project
Vicksburg Post

Money is in place for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin meeting Environmental Protection Agency issues about the Steele Bayou Pump Project, U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith said Friday.

‘Farmers are going broke’, Backwater flood engulfing the Delta again
WJTV

REDWOOD, Miss. (WJTV) – In the Delta, homeowners in Warren and Issaquena counties are being pushed out of their homes because of backwater flooding. Farmers are also seeing their land covered with water.

City of Oxford awarded $1.7 million for sewer and water rehabilitation project
Oxford Eagle

Oxford will soon be able to get a jump start on their sewer and water rehabilitation project.


Oil Spill

Infinity Science Center hosts Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day
WLOX

HANCOCK COUNTY, Miss. (WLOX) - The Infinity Science Center gave young girls the chance to explore a field that is typically male-dominated.


Regional

Cleaner of postal vehicles illegally dumped wastewater
AP

Federal authorities in Tennessee say a woman has pleaded guilty to illegally dumping wastewater into the Mississippi River after washing U.S. Postal Service vehicles.

 
National

EPA moves to limit financial pressure on 'forever chemical' manufacturers under cleanup law
The Hill

A proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would absolve the nation’s manufacturers of cancer-linked “forever chemicals” from broad financial responsibility for cleaning up their product as it leaches into the water supply across the country. 

Scientists Gather to Study Risk From Microplastic Pollution
AP

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Tiny bits of broken-down plastic smaller than a fraction of a grain of riceare turning up everywhere in oceans, from the water tothe guts of fish and the poop of sea otters and giant killer whales.

Glass, Once the King of Packaging, Seeks a Comeback
WSJ

Glassmakers are betting the backlash against single-use plastics can stem a decadeslong decline in the use of their bottles and jars. First they have to boost poor glass-recycling rates that undercut the material’s environmental pitch.

As plastic bag bans go into effect, some question the unintended consequences
ABC

Bans on single-use plastic bags -- one of the most pervasive sources of pollution -- are taking effect in cities and states across the U.S. as efforts to combat global plastic production pick up.