The Interior Dept. is maintaining its aggressive pace in committing economic-stimulus funds for construction and maintenance projects around the country. Interior’s National Park Service on April 22 released a $750-million list of projects to be funded under the stimulus measure, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The roster contains 766 projects, including work on a wide range of buildings, monuments, trails and water and sewer lines. Plan includes $30.5 million for repairs to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar followed up the park news on April 25 by rolling out the $500-million stimulus plan for the Bureau
Scheduled water deliveries from the Colorado River will be short 60% to 90% of the time by mid-century if human-caused climate change continues to reduce precipitation in the basin, say state researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. “The situation is horrible,” says Tim Barnett, Scripps research marine physicist. “We’re using all the water that is there, and there is going to be less of it.” Coincidentally, on May 15, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, Colo., will publish a report with similar findings from a study of major rivers
Continuing the rollout of federal agencies’ economic-stimulus plans, the Interior Dept.’s National Park Service has released its $750-million list of projects to be funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The list, published on April 22, totals 766 projects, including work on buildings, monuments, trails and water and sewer lines. Photo: National Park Service Jefferson Memorial Related Links: State-by-state park service stimulus projects and funding allotments California receives the largest allocation, $97.4 million for 97 projects, including $16.1 million for work on trails, buildings and water lines in Golden Gate National Park in San Francisco. The District of Columbia
The amount of federal economic-stimulus work continues to grow, with the April 15 announcements that the Interior Dept.’s Bureau of Reclamation has committed $1 billion to projects throughout the West and that the Environmental Protection Agency is dividing $600 million among Superfund projects at 50 sites. Photo: Bureau of Reclamation Red Bluff Diversion Dam to get pumping plant. BuRec included about 30 large projects and an unspecified number of smaller ones that it plans to finance through the stimulus, the title of which is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). California will receive the largest share at $260 million.
Six coastal states will receive nearly $500 million from the U.S. Interior Dept. to help them alleviate environmental impacts of oil-and-gas development, the agency said on April 20. Louisiana tops the list with $121 million, followed by Alaska at $37.5 million, Texas at $35.6 million, Mississippi at $23.8 million, Alabama at $19.7 million and California at $5 million. The agency will distribute the funds in fiscal 2009 and 2010, the final two years of the Coastal Impact Assistance Program, which Congress created in 2005 for states adjacent to oil-and-gas production on the Outer Continental Shelf. Lawmakers authorized the agency to
While it is uncertain exactly how the U.S. will address climate change, it is clear that any regulations aimed at reducing the nation’s carbon footprint will impact construction—for better and for worse. Potential winners are those companies that build powerplants, transmission lines and install energy-efficiency measures. Firms that are leaders in sustainable building and design are also well positioned to profit from carbon regulations. Potential losers, however, will not be as clear until legislation to regulate carbon is finalized. “There are ways that it can have benefits and drawbacks,” says Calli Schmidt, spokesperson for the National Association of Home Builders.
Last week, Webcor Builders and Climate Earth announced a partnership to create the first database of greenhouse-gas emissions from the construction supply chain. The idea is to measure and catalog carbon footprints created when producing building materials, from glass and drywall to steel and concrete. Webcor says the goal is to establish a consistent means for the construction industry to measure the carbon equivalent of its products. Climate Earth will quantify greenhouse gases that are generated, including during mining, manufacturing and transporting. Data from Webcor’s construction projects and Climate Earth’s Enterprise Carbon Accounting system will quantify the emissions in units
The Environmental Protection Agency announced on April 8 that it would distribute $197 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to assess and clean up leaking underground storage tanks. EPA estimates that these funds will contribute to at least 1,600 cleanups around the country and create or save a significant number of jobs. “We’re providing immediate growth opportunities for communities across the nation, as well as long-term protection from dangerous pollution in the land and water,” says EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. The stimulus funds will inject badly needed dollars into EPA’s program to clean up petroleum leaks from
As American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) dollars begin to roll out from the Environmental Protection Agency, states are scrambling to develop and implement their plans to distribute the funds to local communities and utilities. In some cases, money has already been distributed; in others, the agencies responsible for distribution are waiting for EPA to work out the details of how the money will be allocated. Photo: AP/ Wideworld The big boost in DOE nuclear work could overwhelm current DOE staff. Photo: WASA Typical projects include drinking-water rehab work. But while funding may be merely a trickle now, agency and
The 5.8-magnitude quake that hit L’Aquila on April 6 and aftershocks killed over 200, ruined cathedrals and left thousands homeless. Photo: AP / Wideworld
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