Utilities group petitions EPA head to upend coal ash rule.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A utilities group asked the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday to sweep away rules governing the disposal of the poison-laden ash left behind when coal is burned to generate electricity.
The EPA chief has expressed his willingness to gut environmental regulations finalized under the Obama administration, especially if doing so aids the fossil fuel industry.
Since his appointment, Pruitt has repeatedly moved to block or delay rules aimed at curbing air and water pollution from coal-fired power plants.
Like President Donald Trump, Pruitt denies the consensus of climate scientists that manmade carbon emissions are the primary driver of climate change.
The nation’s coal-fired power plants produce tens of millions of tons of coal ash each year that contain such toxic heavy metals as arsenic, lead and mercury.
Much of the ash is in wastewater pumped into massive unlined pits near lakes and rivers potentially used as sources of drinking water.
"These dumps should have been cleaned up decades ago," said Lisa Evans, a lawyer with the environmental advocacy group Earthjustice.
Cutting back protections at this point would be reckless and would put people’s health at risk."
Follow Associated Press environmental writer Michael Biesecker at http://Twitter.com/mbieseck

EPA and New Mexico Partner to Prevent Water Pollution EPA Awards $217,660 to New Mexico Environment Department.
Dakota Access Pipeline Has Already Leaked 84 Gallons Of Oil.Union of Concerned Scientists: NEW YORK (April 21, 2017)—Over 100 scientists from across New York State sent a letter urging New York Atto Report on lead testing near Quemetco plant in City of Industry delayed until June.Allen Waldman, a geologist for WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff, contracted by the Department of Toxic Substance Control, collects soil to test for signs of arsenic and lead in the front yard of a home near Transforming Technology Pro Bono: New Tool for Nonprofits Released by Taproot Foundation and VMware Foundation.The median technology budget of nonprofits is less than 2% of each organization’s total operating budget, and most nonprofits are not confident that they have enough skilled staff or training to Los Angeles Olympic dreams might be delayed to 2028.In an atmosphere of uncertainty, International Olympic Committee leaders began three days of meetings and site visits Wednesday to weigh LA’s plans for the 2024 Games in its showdown with rival Paris.
Tesla Selling Solar Tiles, Says They Look Like Traditional Roof.Electric carmaker Tesla has added another product to its lineup: Solar roof tiles.
As of Wednesday, customers worldwide could order a solar roof on Tesla’s website.
Installations will begin next month

French Creek stench from rotting herring roe.
Regional District says it’s fielding complaints from people who think odour is coming from nearby water pollution control centre.
The herring spawn in March on the east side of Vancouver Island was one of the largest in recent memory and now two months later, those rotting eggs on local beaches are a daily reminder.
“You wouldn’t want to be on the beach” said a local resident.
“Almost like a treatment plant.” So it’s no surprise then that the Regional District of Nanaimo has been fielding numerous complaints from residents wondering if the smell is coming from the nearby French Creek Water Pollution Control Centre.
So you have a large area of organic matter on the beach.
It’s been cooler than normal meaning the eggs haven’t decomposed as quick as in other years.
“hydrogen sulphide is rotten eggs and that’s exactly what what you have on the beach is eggs, tiny eggs rotting” added De Pol.
“Now hydrogen sulphide is associated with the breakdown of other organics and we happen to have a wastewater treatment plant on the opposite side of the road that does from time to time produce that same odour.” Some residents of the French Creek area say it’s actually worse there because of a breakwater at the marina that results in more seaweed and eggs being left on the beach.
“They’re extending the breakwater and the more they extend the breakwater, the bigger a catch basin is formed.”

Pollution in romania essay.
Romania.
However, 2012 indoor air pollution essay on environment as in romania essay on environment.
Water Pollution Solutions.
Persuasive essay on effect of environment on person; Persuasive Essay on Effect of Environment on Person We know how difficult it is to write an essay.
Air Pollution.
Despite significant improvements over the last decade, air pollution in New York City is still a significant environmental threat.
What Is Air Pollution?
Air and Water Pollution.
Water pollution essays – Reliable Essay And Research Paper Writing Help.

Boil water advisory issued for Park City & Bel Aire.
The boil water advisory remains in effect for Park City and Bel Aire.
The cities are waiting on test results to come back before it can be lifted and those results are expected sometime Saturday.
— The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has issued a boil water advisory for the Park City and the city of Bel Aire public water supply located in Sedgwick County.
Customers should observe the following precautions until further notice: >Boil water for one minute prior to drinking or food preparation, or use bottled water.
>Dispose of ice cubes and do not use ice from a household automatic icemaker.
>Disinfect dishes and other food contact surfaces by immersion for at least one minute in clean tap water that contains one teaspoon of unscented household bleach per gallon of water.
Water used for bathing does not generally need to be boiled.
Supervision of children is necessary while bathing so that water is not ingested.
Persons with cuts or severe rashes may wish to consult their physicians.

The city of Dayton stopped pumping water at a Huffman Dam well field in April after a Wright-Patterson Air Force Base monitoring well near the dam showed tainted groundwater above a federal environmental threshold for contaminants found in firefighting foam, officials say.
The Dayton production well field will remain closed until the city and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency “are comfortable that operation of these wells will not cause the migration” of groundwater contaminants from the base into the city’s well field, according to Michelle D. Simmons, a city water department environmental manager.
However, city and base environmental officials say drinking water in both the city of Dayton and at Wright-Patterson is safe to consume.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a threshold health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion for drinking water from contaminants found in Aqueous Film Forming Foam, a fire suppressant.
Base will reopen closed wells Wright-Patterson tentatively expects to reopen two closed contaminated drinking water wells next week in Area A when a new $2.7 million water treatment facility starts operations.
The Ohio EPA has cited concerns a contaminated groundwater plume could potentially reach other drinking wells on base and the seven city of Dayton production wells at Huffman Dam.
The two contaminated wells in Area A at Wright-Patterson posed “a continued threat to public health from the potential plume emanation to the city of Dayton well field,” the state agency reported last summer.
Since then, water had been cycled through one pump each day at Huffman Dam and sent to a treatment facility to keep the pumps in operation, Simmons said.
Additional tests for contamination None of the city’s monitoring wells at the Huffman Dam well field sampled in December showed contamination levels above the EPA threshold nor has it been detected in the water distribution system, according to Simmons.
In addition to the new $2.7 million water treatment facility, the base has spent about $1.5 million on groundwater testing-related costs, according to Bashore.

NZC meeting: Rajnath advises CMs.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday advised all the Chief Ministers to ensure “comfortable environment” for Kashmiri students and workers in their states as there have been incidents of their harassment at some places.
The advisory came after a group of Kashmiris studying at Mewar University in Rajasthan’s Chhittorgarh district were last month allegedly thrashed by a group of unidentified locals.
The accused were arrested a few days later.
Secretary of the Inter-state Council Secretariat, Sanjeevani Kutty, while talking to the mediapersons here on Friday said, “The Union Minister has advised all the Chief Ministers and Chief Secretaries at the NZC meet that they should take care of the youth of Kashmir, wherever they are studying and they should be treated well and should be made feel welcomed.” “The Home Minister has told the State authorities that the Kashmiris should be provided comfortable environment wherever they are…
They may be working or studying, they should be extended warmth.
This was an important message he gave to all the representatives present from different State Governments in the meeting,” she said.
She added, “The Minister stressed that all youth of India from Kashmir to Kanyakumari are our own children and should be treated accordingly.” Punjab Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh, said, “A lot of Kashmiris are studying outside the state of Kashmir, especially in the northern region.
There have been some incidents which the central government was very concerned about and sought the support of CMs on this issue.” Besides Rajnath Singh, those who attended the meeting included Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnore, who is also Chandigarh’s Administrator, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Punjab Chief Minister Capt.
In a major step forward, all the member states unanimously agreed to jointly tackle the problem of water pollution under the guidance of Central Pollution Control Board, she said.

They are called mayflies, caddis and stoneflies.
They are unique among insect orders in having a fully winged terrestrial adult stage, the subimago, which molts into a sexually mature adult, the imago.
Fly fishermen make use of mayfly hatches by choosing artificial fishing flies that resemble the species in question.
One of the most famous English mayflies is Rhithrogena germanica, the fisherman’s “March brown mayfly.” The brief lives of mayfly adults have been noted by naturalists and encyclopaedists since Aristotle and Pliny the Elder in classical times.
Reports have indicated that sulphurs are now emerging throughout many areas of the state.
I recall fishing the famous Kettle Creek, when both Sulphurs and Green Drakes were coming off at the same time.
I was fishing the catch and release area of the Kettle, and despite fishing the best patterns I could muster of the drake, the trout would snub them.
I tied on my best spinner pattern, and cautiously waited for a trout to begin sipping.
Another trout inhaled the fly as soon as it landed on the water.
To make a long story short, I was able to hook and land 13 trout that day, and lost another 5.

EPA partners with New Mexico to prevent water pollution; awards $217,660 to New Mexico Environment D. epartment DALLAS – (May 12, 2017) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently awarded $217,660 to the New Mexico Environment Department to support the state’s water pollution control program.
The grant will help prevent, reduce and eliminate water pollution through monitoring, standard setting, enforcement and compliance activities.
“New Mexico has some of Nation’s most important environmental resources, and its citizens know and value those resources better than anyone,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.
“That’s why grants that empower states to protect their environment are so important.” “This grant will help New Mexico protect its waterways from water pollution,” said Acting Regional Administrator Sam Coleman.
“Ensuring clean water is fundamental to not only our mission at EPA, but our state partners as well.” The Clean Water Act provides funding to water pollution control programs to build and sustain effective water quality programs that ensure the health of our nation’s water bodies.
The funds are awarded under section 106 of the Clean Water Act.
The objective of the Clean Water Act is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters.
Programs under the act support monitoring, assessment, protection, and prevention of polluted runoff in waterways.
Connect with EPA Region 6: On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eparegion6 On Twitter: https://twitter.com/EPAregion6 Activities in EPA Region 6: http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/region6.htm # # # ______________________ If you would rather not receive future communications from Environmental Protection Agency, please go to http://USEPA.pr-optout.com/OptOut.aspx?518041x25799x122305x3x1707742x24000x6&Email=epa%40feeds.newsroomamerica.com.
Environmental Protection Agency, Fountain Place 12th Floor, Suite 1200 1445 Ross Avenue, Dallas, TX 75202-2733 United States

Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) has been fined $430,000 by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) for environment pollution violations.
The eight violations all occurred during the first seven weeks of construction of the $4.2 billion Rover natural gas pipeline project that will move 3.25 billion cubic feet per day from Pennsylvania to Michigan, according to Nasdaq.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is now involved.
On Wednesday, FERC sent a letter to Energy Transfer Partners, the Rover pipeline operator, ordering it to not begin construction on any new locations, stop construction at the site of the major wetlands spill, as well as to hire an independent contractor to investigate what went wrong there, reports Inside Climate News.
The phrase "inadvertent returns" is an industry phrase that describes a certain type of spill or release of construction material.
It should be noted that on the day the OEPA reached out to the pipeline builder, they also asked FERC to step in.
According to the Ohio EPA, there has been a total of 18 spill incidents since the construction of the Rover pipeline began in mid-February that included mud spills from drilling, open burning, and storm-water pollution.
Some of the major incidents included the public water system in one community being affected, 50,000 gallons of bentonite mud being released into a protected wetland area about 30,000 square feet in size in Mifflin Township, as well as a release of 200 gallons of mud in another county.
What the ETP spokesperson failed to mention was the Ohio EPA’s fact sheet issued by the Division of Water in 2013 that specifically gives directions for the "Disposal of Horizontal Directional Drilling Wastes and Protection of Water Resources."
But the worst thing that Energy Transfer Partners is alleged to have done was to tell Ohio regulators that the state lacks the “authority to enforce violations of its federally delegated state water pollution control statutes.” Now that’s brazen, wouldn’t you think?