DOH fines Big Island Dairy for water pollution violations.
The state health department has issued a notice of violation to Big Island Dairy for the unlawful discharge of wastewater from the dairy’s animal feedlot operations in O’okala on the Big Island.
DOH has ordered Big Island Dairy to immediately cease discharging wastewater, pay a penalty of $25,000 and take corrective actions to prevent future unlawful discharges in state waters.
“Big Island Dairy will immediately cease illegal discharges and pay a penalty fee for violating environmental laws,” said Keith Kawaoka, DOH deputy director of Environmental Health.
“Food production and environmental protection are not competing interests, and through this enforcement action and future permitting efforts, DOH will seek mutually beneficial results for the dairy, O’okala community, and greater State of Hawaii.” On March 28 and 29, the DOH conducted an inspection of the dairy and Kaohaoha Gulch based on information provided by community leaders.
During the inspection, DOH found clear evidence of an unlawful discharge of wastewater from the dairy’s field irrigation practices.
The discharge was composed of animal wastewater, biosolids and dirt.
Big Island Dairy, LLC may contest the Notice of Violation and Order and has 20 days to request a hearing.

Would anyone want to eliminate a regulation requiring hard-hats?
EPA regulations require all major industries to install the best practicable treatment for wastewater, before discharge into the waters of the U.S.
We could and do argue about the level of treatment required, trying to measure the costs against the benefits of each regulation.
Doubtful, but in this case the link between the costs (measurable) and the benefits (the health of our population) is not as easy to see.
More importantly, they have forgotten that every major Federal regulation (cost over $100 million per year) must have a detailed cost-benefit analysis before adoption.
Here is a good example: the mercury and air toxics rule.
EPA’s cost-benefit analysis estimates that for every dollar of cost, there will be around four to nine dollars of health benefits.
Plus, the rule may create over 40,000 short-term construction jobs, and 8,000 long-term jobs at the power plants.
(4) Taking $5 million and multiplying by 11,000 premature deaths gives a figure of $55 billion a year as the worth of the lives saved.
If Trump abandons the MATS rule, will he be saving jobs or killing people?

Flood near coal-fired power plant raises concerns about water contamination.
(KMOV.com) – There are concerns that chemicals from a coal-fired power plant could be getting into the water supply in Labadie, Mo.
The Labadie Environmental Organization is concerned that coal ash is seeping into ground water near Ameren’s plant on the Missouri River.
Those tests are conducted by Ameren and are turned over to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
Schuba worries that contaminants are being leached from coal ponds into groundwater and could ultimately mix with flood water, and then drinking water used by hundreds of thousands of people.
Arora says more testing will be conducted and future data will be released on Ameren’s website.
Missouri American Water said drinking water was tested for boron and sulfate before the floods and no issues were found.
Schuba said she hopes the ash is moved to a place that isn’t in danger of flooding.
However, Ameren said it feels the current location is safe and will do a full inspection after the water recedes.
Copyright 2017 KMOV (Meredith Corporation).

A recent writer says some of us weren’t ready for a “strong leader” like the current president.
Here are some reasons: Under this fledgling president, restrictions on air and water pollution are out; protection of workers from cancer-causing substances is out; selling consumer internet information without permission is in.
Limiting student loan fees is out; levying hefty fees is in.
Killing bear or wolf cubs in national wildlife refuges is in; keeping accurate workplace injury records is out, as is disclosure of safety and labor violations by federal contractors.
Publicly traded companies won’t have to disclose payments to foreign governments, and financial advisers will no longer have to reveal conflicts of interest when advising clients.
This one is unbelievable: mentally ill people judged incapable of handling their own money are now considered capable of owning and handling firearms.
This is only part of the list, but it is enough.
What you can clearly see is that the deregulatory agenda is totally business-friendly, pro-corporation, and not pro-worker.
The promise to support and enrich the middle and lower classes is hollow and disingenuous.
The writer believes the president is putting the interests of the American people first.

LDEQ to participate in "Kids to Park" day in Zachary May 9.
Using EnviroScape, LDEQ staff will demonstrate a variety of scenarios involving non-point source pollution to fifth and sixth grade students from Copper Mill Elementary School in Zachary.
The school was awarded a “Kids to Park” grant through a nationwide contest administered by the National Park Trust.
EnviroScape is a series of portable models used to demonstrate water pollution concepts and their prevention.
At “Kids to Park” day, the models will be used to show examples of non-point source pollution, such as rainfall, that moves over and through the ground, carrying natural and man-made pollutants which are subsequently deposited in our waterways.
The grant awards schools with funding to promote student interest in exploring history, nature and science at their neighborhood parks.
Classes can receive funding for a “Kids to Park” event to be held in their community, and students are responsible for the research and writing of the proposal, with encouragement and support from teachers and local park staff.
Seventy schools were winners in the contest, totaling around 4,000 students in grades Kindergarten through 12 across the United States.
Copper Mill Elementary was the only school in Louisiana to receive the grant.
For more information, visit the National Park Trust website at: www.parktrust.org/kids-to-parks-day/.

USDA Shuts Off Continuous Enrollment Option for Conservation Reserve Program.
The Conservation Reserve Program, which pays landowners to take fragile land out of production, is so close to its enrollment limit of 24 million acres that the USDA will not admit high-priority land that ordinarily could be enrolled at once.
In a notice to local offices, the USDA said there was one exception to the shutdown: the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), a state-federal partnership often aimed at preventing water pollution from farm runoff.
Some 23.5 million acres are currently enrolled in the CRP, the largest long-term U.S. land retirement program.
The enrollment cutoff went into effect at close of business on Wednesday.
Last year, a record 1.39 million acres entered the program via continuous enrollment, an option for shelter belts, buffer strips along waterways, wellhead protection, and other practices that cover comparatively small amounts of land but have high value in preventing erosion, runoff, or water pollution.
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition said the USDA has already accepted several hundred thousand acres of land through the continuous sign-up option this year, putting a squeeze on the program.
The 2017 total for continuous enrollment “will be well less than half of last year’s record,” said the NSAC.
Contracts on 2.5 million acres of land in the reserve expire on September 30, so there will be an opportunity this fall for new land to enter the program.
Landowners will be given the chance to re-enroll expiring land before new land is accepted.

The Environmental Protection Agency implements the Clean Water Act, the Nation’s primary tool to prevent pollution of our waterways and to clean up ones that are too polluted.
Unfortunately, at the direction of President Trump and longtime EPA opponent/current EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, EPA hatched a scheme to roll back clean water safeguards and other environmental rules.
To the contrary, clean water and other environmental and public health rules deliver huge benefits to Americans.
It’s sad and maddening that the Trump administration needs to be reminded of this fact, but they do, because they seem hellbent on attacking public safeguards despite their benefits and despite the strong public support for environmental rules.
On behalf of NRDC’s more than two million members and supporters, please end this attack on public protections.
But that value is there every day, as we use water for drinking, irrigation, and industrial supply, to say nothing of swimming, fishing and boating.
EPA rules under the Act provide significant benefits.
While polluting industries have deregulatory wish lists handy, citizens can’t meaningfully participate.
EPA allowed only four-and-a-half weeks for public input on the value of all the agency safeguards adopted in its 46-year-plus history, and today’s session allows only a few of us to very briefly address agency staff.
Americans strongly support protections for clean water and did not vote to make it easier to foul the nation’s waterways.

Divestment protest kicks off at fracking facility.
Environmentalists have today staged a protest at the gates of a controversial fracking site in Lancashire.
Local community members and environmental campaigners met outside the gate of Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road facility, which is intended to be home to the first full-scale fracking operation in the UK.
The action marks the start of the Global Divestment Mobilisation, a global wave of protests running from the 5th-13th of May with the aim of pressuring institutions to stop investing in oil, coal and gas companies.
The 350 divestment group has helped organise some of the 40 events planned to take place in the UK.
In total, protests will be staged in 42 countries.
It has been the site of regular protests since the government overruled opposition by the Lancashire County Council in October 2016.
Local resident Nick Danby said: “Living in Lancashire, we see firsthand how fracking affects our community and we’re worried about the impacts of noise, air and water pollution on our farming, tourism and health.
“Already climate change caused by activities like fracking is destroying people’s lives and livelihoods around the world, people who did the least to cause this problem but are paying the price.
We’re standing up for them too.” The site was blockaded by Greenpeace supporters earlier this week.

Recent sanitation and health research.
Evidence-based approaches to childhood stunting in low and middle income countries: a systematic review.
Nutrition education and counselling, growth monitoring and promotion, immunisation, water, sanitation and hygiene and social safety net programmes appear to be the most commonly included interventions of an effective package in most low and middle income countries settings.
Single interventions reduced stunting only in countries with specific disease burden.
Tropical Medicine International Health, May 2017.
Lack of water near the food preparation area, longer storage duration, storing food uncovered, temperatures >25 °C in the food storage area, flies captured in food preparation area and hand contact with food while serving were all factors that significantly contributed to high levels of E. coli contamination throughout the year, independent of season.
The presence of animals in the compound was associated with an increase in E. coli counts.
Impact of the Integration of Water Treatment, Hygiene, Nutrition, and Clean Delivery Interventions on Maternal Health Service Use.
(Abstract/order) American Jnl of Tropical Med & Hyg, May 2017.
This evaluation suggested that hygiene, nutritional, clean delivery incentives, higher education level, and geographical contiguity to health facility were associated with increased use of maternal health services by pregnant women

Omnibus spending bill funds clean water sector.
NACWA finds that several of the investment priorities of its membership — which includes public clean water utilities throughout the U.S., representing millions of consumers — are supported through maintained funding levels (from the previous year’s budget), and on some priorities, investment has even increased.
"Considering the significant FY18 cuts which had been proposed for EPA by the Trump Administration and supported by some in Congress, the near-level support for EPA through the second half of FY17 is a positive sign for clean water funding as legislators and water stakeholders move toward FY18 negotiations" says Adam Krantz, CEO of NACWA.
"We need to build on this agreement as a model for the FY18 budget to ensure that critical municipal clean water priorities are funded for next year as well."
Specifically, the Omnibus bill provides: $1.394 B for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (equal to FY16) $171 M for nonpoint source control grants (increase of $6 M) $231 M for state clean water grants (equal).
$34.4 M for Title XVI Water Reclamation & Reuse Program (significant increase) The Omnibus also funds EPA geographic programs at or above FY16 levels: $300 M for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (equal to FY16) $73 M for the Chesapeake Bay Program (equal) $8 M for Long Island Sound Programs (nearly doubled) $8 M for Gulf of Mexico Programs (nearly doubled) Other Issues The Omnibus bill also strongly supports integrated planning efforts and urges EPA to work with communities to develop integrated plans.
Additionally, it includes a directive to EPA related to the Great Lakes CSO notification requirement that originally arose in the FY16 bill.
The Omnibus includes language reminding EPA that the CSO notification language was to be specifically limited to the Great Lakes for purposes of public notice requirements, and did not require immediate notice.
The bill recommends EPA give utilities flexibility, to ensure that ratepayers are not severely impacted by the cost of implementing the CSO public notice requirement.