Related Links: Consent decree filed March 5 in federal district court Complaint filed in federal district court by U.S., W.Va., Pa., Ky. In a settlement with the U.S. Dept. of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency, Alpha Natural Resources Inc., a major U.S. coal company, has agreed to pay a record $27.5 million in civil fines and spend about $160 million for projects to curb discharges of pollutants from its mines in five Eastern states.Under a consent decree filed on March 5 in federal district court in Charleston, W.Va., the company, based in Bristol, Va., will settle thousands of permit violations
Photo by Jim Tetro Park amenities include a rain garden, pavilions, an ice-skating rink and a cafe. Related Links: 2013 Best of the Best Projects Winners ENR Mid-Atlantic 2013 Best Projects: Washington Canal Park The team transformed a parking lot for Washington D.C. school buses on the Anacostia Waterfront into a three-acre park that offers aboveground recreational amenities and a belowground stormwater sewer system. Runoff from seven city blocks is diverted to the system, which includes two underground 40,000-gallon cisterns; tree pits also collect runoff. The reused water provides nearly 95% of the park's needs, saving an estimated 1.5 million
NDA Developed since the 1940s, the 4-sq-km complex has been a weapons-making center, the site of the world's first nuclear powerplant, and a fuel-recycling and waste-storage facility. Related Links: British Report Says Sellafield Costs Soaring as Cleanup Lags Facing Tough Competition, URS Lands Huge U.K. Contract U.K.-U.S. Team Picked For $4-Billion Nuclear Waste Cleanup at Scotland Site U.K. officials have slammed the management of the huge U.S.-led cleanup program at the Sellafield nuclear-waste site, located in northwest England, months after it was awarded a five-year contract extension.The consortium, called Nuclear Management Partners Ltd. (NMP), "has failed to provide ... clear
Related Links: Elk River Chemical Spill Triggers Lawsuits, Investigations Toxic Chemical Spill Fouls Drinking Water Supply in Charleston, W. Va. Freedom Industries Inc. has until March 15 to remove all the chemicals from its storage farm that leaked into the Elk River near Charleston, W.Va., shutting down the drinking-water supply for about 300,000 people in January.Meanwhile, the state Legislature is acting on proposed regulations of similar aboveground storage tanks, residents continue to experience water problems, and grants are going to researchers to study water issues.Freedom must start "to dismantle, remove and properly manage the disposition of all aboveground storage tanks,
Related Links: Toxic Chemical Spill Fouls Drinking Water Supply in Charleston, W. Va. No One's Job: West Virginia's Forbidden Waters Following the Jan. 9 toxic spill that shut down drinking-water supplies to 300,000 people, West Virginia regulators have cited Freedom Industries Inc. for numerous violations. Lawyers are filing lawsuits against the company, and state and federal probes are continuing.Water service returned to about 75% of West Virginia American Water customers in Charleston by Jan. 16, though pregnant women were advised by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to continue drinking bottled water because little is known about effects of 4-methylcyclohexane
Related Links: California Bay Delta Plan Undergoes More Changes Review the Full Bay Delta Conservation Plan After years of planning, the state of California released the latest version of its controversial Bay Delta Conservation Plan on Dec. 9. Encompassing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which drains about half the land mass of the state, the $24.75-billion plan aims to balance the goals of helping 56 species of plants and animals to recover while stabilizing Delta water deliveries to agricultural and municipal users.The plan's centerpiece includes $16 billion for three new water intakes outfitted with fish-protection screens at the delta's north end;
U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ricardo R. Guzma U.S. Navy helicopter drops relief supplies on Nov. 14 at Tacloban Airfield in the Philippines. View from relief-effort military helicopter shows breadth of damaged area. One week after Typhoon Haiyan hammered the central Philippines, a key road in one of the hardest-hit areas has been cleared and relief aid is starting to flow. But the damage is severe and extensive, and it is likely to be some time before major cleanup and rebuilding can begin.While it was not immediately clear how involved engineering and construction firms would be in
Photo by AP Wideworld Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Visayan Islands in the central Philippines on Nov. 8 with sustained winds in excess of 148 miles per hour and storm surges estimated between 15 ft and 19 ft.It is reported to be one of the strongest storms to make landfall in history and comes on the heels of a magnitude-7.2 earthquake that hit, on Oct. 15, the central Visayan island of Bohol, destroying and weakening many buildings. The typhoon reportedly wiped out the port city of Tacloban on the island of Leyte. Initial estimates put the death toll at 10,000.Damage
Related Links: Arkansas Spill Zone Residents Await Plan to Return Home; New Leak in Missouri Ruptured Section of Arkansas Pipeline Sent for Lab Tests ExxonMobil Corp. violated federal safety regulations while operating the Pegasus pipeline that dumped about 5,000 barrels of oil in a Mayflower, Ark., neighborhood in March and should pay more than $2.6 million in penalties, a federal regulator determined.The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), in a notice issued Nov. 6, claims ExxonMobil, and its ExxonMobil Pipeline Co., did not pay attention to known problems with pipeline integrity in 1991, 2005 and 2006.“The operator experienced
Related Links: After Dike Failure, TVA Cleans Area Near Kingston Coal Plant Cleanup from TVA Coal Ash Disaster Breaks New Ground The Tennessee Valley Authority should implement a groundwater protection plan to minimize the degradation of aquifers near its coal-fired plants, the Environmental Integrity Project says in a Nov. 6 report. The group credited the federal power producer for its decision to phase out ash ponds and replace them with landfills, which TVA did after about 5.4 million cu yd of wet ash from the 1,456-MW Kingston, Tenn., plant flowed over about 300 acres and into the Emory River in
RSS
