Maintenance and compliance remain the primary drivers for environmental infrastructure projects in the U.S. However, although funding remains a challenge for many communities, sentiments about the sector’s prospects are, on the whole, upbeat. Photo: Arcadis More private firms are outsourcing site remediation oversight. Related Links: View More on Top 500 Sourcebook 2010 View Complete Top 500 Sourcebook 2010 with Data and Analysis “It looks stable and strengthening, even though there aren’t many opportunities for new facilities right now,” observes Dan Batrack, CEO of Pasadena, Calif.-based Tetra Tech, whose firm is designing a $564,000 disinfection facility at the Birmingham Wastewater Treatment
As scientists begin to assess the impact of the first tropical storm of the 2010 hurricane season on a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the fight to seal the leaking well and protect the coastline continues. Image Photo: Courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory Tropical storms are a wild-card factor in predicting the behavior of the oil still gushing from the site of a deeptwater-well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, shown here in a satellite view taken on June 26. Scientists want to improve their predictions of oil-spill behavior when slicks are assailed by major storms like
Three Republican U.S. senators have introduced legislation that would temporarily allow foreign vessels to assist with the oil cleanup effort in the Gulf of Mexico. Related Links: Investigations Expand List Of BP’s Drill-Program Failures The senators are Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), George LeMieux (R-Fla.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas). The June 18th move comes in response to questions raised in Congress about whether the Jones Act, a maritime law dating back to the 1920s that permits only American ships and vessels to transport goods to and from U.S. ports, is impeding progress on the oil spill cleanup. Some lawmakers have called
Congress, engineers and oil industry executives have identified a list of flawed decisions made by BP and others—made under pressure to speed up work and reduce cost—that may be behind the April 20 fatal explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. Photo Courtesy of BP Above, gas and oil is burned off at the site of the April 20 Deepwater Horizon well disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. BP says it is capturing more than 23,000 barrels of oil a day and burning about half of it. The explosion killed 11 workers and led to the eruption of oil
U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman on June 22 ordered an injunction against the federal government’s six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, issued one month after the April 20 explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil platform. The New Orleans-based judge agreed with the plaintiffs, oil services firms and others that the government was “arbitrary and capricious” in implementing the May 28 ban on new wells in more than 500 ft of water. Feldman said the government did not prove that the accident indicates a threat from the 33 rigs operating in the Gulf. The federal
Despite Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s (I) authorization this month of as much as $200 million for a long-term effort to provide upgraded sewer systems for the Florida Keys, the prospects are poor for funding in total the estimated $937-million project. The governor’s action—which also extended the project deadline to 2015 from July 2010—does not provide a timeline for delivery of the Everglades Restoration bonds; it only authorizes the Florida Legislature to initiate the $200 million in bonding sometime in the future. Liz Wood, Monroe County’s senior administrator for sewer projects, says the nine municipalities and utilities that will build the
The Tennessee Dept. of Environment and Conservation on June 15 assessed a $11.5-million fine against the Tennessee Valley Authority in connection with the December 2008 spill that released 5.4 million cu yds of coal ash from TVA’s Kingston, Tenn., coal-fired plant onto surrounding land and into the Emory River. The fine is the first against the federal power-marketing agency since the accident, but TVA will receive a $3-million credit for remediation already performed. Cleanup could cost $1.2 billion. Under the state fine, TVA will perform supplemental environmental projects totaling $2 million. The remainder will be earmarked for the state’s solid-waste
The Shaw Group Inc. is working to pry loose and draw in a large portion of the nation’s dredging fleet―potentially seven cutterheads, five large hoppers and a dozen scows―for the emergency delivery of roughly 45 miles of permitted projects (of 128 miles sought) of barrier berm on the Louisiana coast... that state officials hope will protect inland marshes from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The problem is, a lot of the equipment already is occupied elsewhere. Photo: Courtesy of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. Big dredges operate with their own fleets of as many as 30 support vessels
The beauty of the Web is its ability to build an audience for significant presentations, even after an event has ended. A June 8 panel discussion at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., on the state of seismic building codes, couched in presentations of lessons learned from recent earthquakes in Chile and Haiti, is a fine example. Photo By Tom Sawyer, Enr. In Haiti, building codes are often inadequate or ignored. Related Links: Building Codes Shakedown: Designing for Disaster The presentations—by David Applegate, senior science adviser for earthquake and geologic hazards at the U.S. Geological Survey; Michael J. Armstrong,
President Obama has named Michael R. Bromwich, a former federal prosecutor and Justice Dept. Inspector General, to oversee a restructuring of the Interior Dept.'s Minerals Management Service. In the wake of the Gulf oil spill, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced plans on May 19 to split MMS into three divisions, separating regulatory functions from the job of collecting royalties from oil drilling. Bromwich, whose appointment was announced on June 15, will be in charge of developing the new structure. The White House said he "has a mandate to implement far-reaching change" at the agency. Bromwich, a partner with the law