Clean Water Act 23 articles

BP oil spill funds intended to aid in the recovery of the Gulf Coast are ready to be invested in Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey said in an announcement Monday. According to Gov. Ivey, the U.S. Treasury Department has approved Alabama’s plan to invest the funds. The $192.4 million injection of cash will be dispersed among 15 projects proposed by Alabama’s Multiyear Implementation Plan for Gulf Coast Recovery developed by the Alabama Gulf Coast Recovery Council. All of the projects proposed by the AGCR are located in Mobile and Baldwin Counties, which together form Alabama’s entire section of Gulf Coast. The ... Read More

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), now headed by Scott Pruitt, an outspoken foe of environmentally friendly measures, signed a proposal last week to repeal a 2015 rule intended to protect the nation’s waterways. The Clean Water Rule was adopted by the EPA and the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers to combat the rising tide of pollution entering larger rivers and other navigable bodies of water via intermittent streams, ponds, and other waterways. The rule, which is often called the “Waters of the U.S.” or WOTUS rule, was stayed in court before it ever took effect due to legal challenges ... Read More

A warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to Texas-based Mahard Egg Farm Inc. about serious violations of federal regulations intended to prevent Salmonella contamination in egg production was just made public. The violations were observed at the company’s Sulfur, Oklahoma, facility last October when company representatives were initially warned. The letter acknowledges an email response from the company, but deemed the response insufficient in addressing the agency’s concerns. Food Safety News summed up the violations as “related to fly control, rodents, evidence of wild birds and animals in poultry houses, sheep too near poultry houses and improper ... Read More

Donald Trump’s executive order granting approval of an easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) through Native American land jeopardizes the water supply for 17 million people and disregards a longstanding treaty between the Sioux Nation and the U.S. government, Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said, vowing legal action to fight the newly elected president’s action. “President Trump is legally required to honor our treaty rights and provide a fair and reasonable pipeline process,” Chairman Archambault said after news broke of the executive order, which he called “politically motivated.” “Americans know this pipeline was unfairly ... Read More

Federal investigators joined Iowa authorities to investigate an underground pipeline breach that released 138,000 gallons of diesel fuel in a farm field and surrounding land in north-central Iowa Jan. 25. The pipeline is owned by Magellan Midstream Partners, a subsidiary of Magellan Pipeline Company, which has been fined several times over the last few years for numerous oil spills, most of which have occurred in the Midwest. “It’s a big one. It’s significant,” Jeff Vansteenburg of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources told the Des Moines Register. According to a safety plan Magellan submitted to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the 2-inch ... Read More

An oil pipeline break released more than 176,000 gallons of crude oil into a Western North Dakota creek, about 150 miles from where the Standing Rock Sioux and their allies continue to face off against developers of the Dakota Access Pipeline. True Companies of Casper, Wyo., said that electronic monitoring equipment it uses to detect leaks failed to find the break in its Belle Fourche pipeline. Instead, the leak was discovered by a landowner on Dec. 5, but only after most of the oil flowed into the Ash Coulee Creek near Belfield, N.D. A spokesperson for the company told the ... Read More

Two South Carolina environmental groups have taken preliminary steps to sue a major oil pipeline operator over a 2014 spill that released nearly 400,000 gallons of oil into the Savannah River Basin in the northwest corner of the state. According to The State, the Savannah Riverkeeper and Upstate Forever accuse Kinder Morgan Energy Partners Inc. and subsidiary Plantation Pipeline of having done almost nothing this year to clean up the 18-month-old spill and stop ongoing pollution in the waterways around the spill site. The Southern Environmental Law Center, which is representing the environmental groups, says the streams around the December 2014 ... Read More

The Senate passed a waterways bill Thursday authorizing nearly $9.5 billion in emergency funding to repair and improve water infrastructures across the U.S. in communities like Flint, Mich., that have lead-contaminated water supplies. The bi-partisan Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) passed the Senate 94-3 after the White House put pressure on Republican legislators to do something to help the people of Flint, the flood victims in Louisiana, and others throughout the country at risk of contaminated drinking water, failing levees, and other water-related infrastructures in disrepair. The American Water Works Association (AWWA) applauded the Senate for pushing the urgently needed bill through. ... Read More

An Ohio federal jury last week returned a harsh verdict against DuPont by awarding $5.1 million to a plaintiff who claims the company’s chemical dumping caused his cancer. The jury also found DuPont liable for actual malice, prompting the second bellwether trial to enter a punitive damages phase that could signal heavier damages on the horizon for the company. Plaintiff David Freeman, an Ohio college professor, claims that chemical manufacturer DuPont led in the production of ammonium perfluorooctanoate, known as PFOA, a chemical compound used in the production of Teflon, Stainmaster, and Gore-Tex fabric, and that the company dumped its ... Read More

Pennsylvania beer maker Yuengling has agreed to spend about $7 million to upgrade and improve its environmental protection measures and pay a $2.8-million penalty for allegedly discharging environmental pollutants into a municipal wastewater treatment plant and contaminating the water supply. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly announced the consent decree with G. Yuengling & Son, which operated two large-scale breweries in the Greater Pottsville, Penn., area. Most of the $7 million Yuengling agreed to invest will be spent on implementing an environmental management system to bring its operations into compliance with Clean Water Act ... Read More