As they start work on a new Water Resources Development Act, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee leaders have asked colleagues to submit by May 18 Corps of Engineers projects to be included in the bill. House Republicans have taken a no-earmark pledge, which includes WRDA. But the Senate panel’s top GOP member, James Inhofe (Okla.), supports including projects in authorization bills, such as WRDA.
Marking the New Madrid earthquake’s 200th anniversary, officials are planning two big preparedness exercises. On Sept. 30, James M. Wilkinson, executive director of the Central U.S. Earthquake Consortium, Memphis, told a Senate hearing his group will hold the Great Central U.S. ShakeOut on April 28. Then, in May, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will simulate and study a quake in the New Madrid zone.
The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking tighter standards for airborne emissions of mercury from new and existing sewage-sludge incineration units. Such units often are located at wastewater-treatment facilities. The proposal, announced on Sept. 30, would cut mercury emissions by 75%, EPA says. The agency plan would require many wastewater-treatment facilities to install controls such as high-efficiency scrubbers and fabric filters. The proposal would not apply to incinerators at commercial, industrial and institutional facilities. The proposed rule would take effect in 2015. EPA estimates complying with the requirements would cost $105 million per year for all currently operating units. The agency
Federal agencies will keep operating through Dec. 3 under a short-term spending bill President Obama signed on Sept. 30. The continuing resolution funds programs for about the first two months of fiscal 2011, generally at 2010 levels. One exception is the current Defense Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round, a big multiyear construction program that’s nearing its end. The continuing resolution funds BRAC at the annual rate of $2.35 billion, the amount the White House requested for 2011 but a 68% cut from 2010. The stopgap’s Dec. 3 expiration gives Congress little time to pass regular 2011 spending bills when
Now is the time for the U.S. to update its approach to water treatment, says Bob Perciasepe, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deputy administrator. “[The challenge] is how to get a 20th-century law—the Clean Water Act—appropriate for 21st-century projects,” he said at the Water Environment Federation’s annual meeting, held on Oct. 3-7 in New Orleans. When water-quality standards were first developed during the 1960s, problems such as high nitrogen and phosphorous levels as well as pharmaceuticals and other endocrine disruptors were not considered. Perciasepe said that implementing and enforcing Total Maximum Daily Load standards for contaminants are the best way to
The Obama administration unveiled a long-term restoration plan on Sept. 28 that calls for a dedicated fund to be set up to pay for long-term recovery and restoration of the Gulf Coast. The restoration plan was written by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus at the request of President Obama. Chief among its recommendations is a call for Congress to dedicate a significant amount of any civil penalties obtained from responsible parties for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill into a Gulf Coast Recovery Fund to go toward the long-term cleanup and restoration of the Gulf. The plan also recommends that Congress authorize
As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to begin its fall term on Oct. 4, it has no construction-specific cases on the docket so far. However, it is slated to take up immigration and labor cases that could affect construction and other industries. Oral arguments are scheduled for Dec. 8 on Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting, a challenge to a 2007 Arizona law requiring companies to use the federal E-Verify system to ensure employees are legal U.S. residents. The case centers on whether the federal Immigration Reform and Control Act preempts the state law. Maurice Baskin, Associated Builders and Contractors’ general
The multibillion-dollar, decade-long effort to restore the Florida Everglades has made tangible but slow progress; however, the effort is facing some difficult challenges ahead, says a new report from the National Research Council. Photo: Courtesy of South Florida Water Management District The Picayune Strand project, begun in 2003, was one of two CERP projects to receive ARRA funding to accelerate construction. The Tamiami Trail project also received ARRA funds. Those challenges include finding continued funding and balancing the need for meeting federal water-quality requirements with the restoration plan’s goal of increasing water flows, the study authors conclude in the NRC’s
Senate banking committee members have elicited more information about the Obama Administration’s sketchy Sept. 6 proposal for a new federal infrastructure bank. Testifying at a Sept. 21 committee hearing, Roy Kienitz, under secretary of transportation for policy, conceded the bank proposal was “vague, and deliberately so.” He told reporters that officials hope to release details early in 2011, with the next budget proposal, but added, “Plans could change.” He testified that, although the bank initially would focus on transportation, “It certainly could go more broadly than that.” Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said he feared the bank would be another Fannie
A new survey finds that nearly 80% of the states say they will be ready to implement the Environmental Protection Agency’s new clean-air “tailoring” regulation by the Jan. 2 deadline or within a few months after that. EPA’s final regulation, published on June 3, focuses states’ greenhouse-gas (GHG) permitting on the largest “stationary” sources of such emissions, such as powerplants and industrial facilities. The study, released on Sept. 15 by the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, analyzed letters that states sent to EPA this summer describing progress toward meeting the permitting deadline. Bill Becker, NACAA’s executive director, says states
