Mansa farmers making stubble-burning calls from gurdwaras.
In a clear violation of state government orders, members of the farmer union have now taken to making announcements in gurdwaras, before stubble burning in Mansa villages.
Members of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Dakounda) have been encouraging farmers to defy government orders by making announcements from gurdwaras.
“We have been gathering farmers by making announcements at villages like Aklia, Makha, Khyala Kalan, Ralla before burning stubble in around 100 acres.
The government has issued gag orders against stubble burning but no alternatives have been provided to us,” said leader of BKU (Dakaounda) Mohinder Singh.
Slamming the government for not imposing fine on industrialists for adding to water pollution, one of protesting farmers Jiwan Singh said, “They have put satellite mapping to track offenders who burn the agricultural residue, but the industrial wastes released in the water bodies invite no such punishment.” Even after the district administration issued over 40 challans against farmers for stubble burning in the district, the practice continues to be followed across villages.
HT earlier highlighted that the district administration claimed that it had failed to receive alerts about fire incidents in the agricultural fields from the satellite mapping centre in Ludhiana.
Speaking to HT, deputy commissioner Dharam Pal Gupta initially denied incidents of stubble burnig, but later said stern action will be taken against the members of farmer union for instigating people to burn stubble.
“This is getting common in villages where there is a strong presence of farmers union.
Strong action will be taken against offenders.” However, despite the video of farmers burning stubble going viral, no one has been booked.

Donald Trump’s plan to allow coal plants to poison rivers faces legal challenge.
A coalition of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, the Waterkeeper Alliance, and Clean Water Action, filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in Washington DC, arguing the EPA’s action was “arbitrary and capricious” as well as illegal.
These required coal power stations to cut the amount of toxic waste they pump from their plants into rivers and other waterways used for drinking water.
“When finalising the Effluent Limitation Guidelines … in 2015, EPA found that power plants generate more toxic wastewater than the next two-largest polluting industries combined.
“Power plant wastewater contains toxic metals such as mercury, arsenic, and selenium, as well as non-conventional pollutants such as nitrogen and dissolved solids that contaminate drinking water and harm ecosystems.” It quoted research which found such pollutants could cause “severe health and environmental problems in the form of cancer and non-cancer risks in humans, lowered IQ among children, and deformities and reproductive harm in fish and wildlife”.
Mary Anne Hitt, director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, said the legal action was a “firm declaration that we will not stand idly by as Trump’s Administration tries to steer America back to an era where rivers caught on fire and polluters dumped their waste into our waterways with impunity”.
“With the drinking water of millions of Americans at stake, we will fight tooth-and-nail to protect safeguards that restrict coal plants from dumping toxic heavy metals into our drinking water supplies and putting thousands of families at risk of poisoning each year,” she said.
“Though these irrational attacks against basic science and public health are horrifying, we are confident that common sense will win the day and the American people will prevail over polluter greed in the courts and in the streets.” The lawsuit urged the court to issue an order overturning the indefinite stay and compel the EPA to reinstate all the Effluent Limitation Guidelines.
It’s indefensible.
“The EPA didn’t even pretend to seek public input before ploughing ahead with this rollback that could allow millions of pounds of preventable toxic pollution to go into our water.” Reuse content

Lowrance The city of Marshalltown is sponsoring a spring clean-up initiative on May 20 from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at 909 S. 2nd St., the future home of the joint Police and Fire Headquarters.
“A successful event will be one which results in neighbors helping neighbors to collect and drop off items that are difficult to get rid of,” he said.
Items not accepted include tires, trees or other compost items, recyclables, regular household trash, hazardous wastes and appliances.
Residents should plan to unload their own vehicle.
To volunteer or for more information, contact city administrator Jessica Kinser, 641-754-5799.
This annual event provides a safe way for Marshall County residents to safely dispose of hazardous items.
Call Metro Waste Hazardous Waste, 1-888-603-CREW for more information.
Local business Gervich and Sons is accepting appliances free of charge until May 31 at 901 E. Nevada St.
TV’s, computer monitors, and water softeners will not be accepted.
Metal items can also be dropped off at the business during regular business hours year round in large Dumpster near the entrance.

Thousands of Flint, Mich., residents have been warned that they could lose their homes if they don’t pay outstanding water bills — even as the city has just begun replacing lead-tainted pipes after a contamination crisis linked to a dozen deaths.
Warning letters were mailed to 8,002 residents in April, according to the city, a few weeks after state officials ended a program that was paying the majority of their water bills.
“I’m not going to give them one penny,” a resident who owed $822.62 told the Toronto Star in March, shortly before letters warning of tax liens were mailed out.
And the city called the 8,000 letters “routine” in a statement — though no one got one last year, in the aftermath of the lead poisoning crisis.
More than a dozen state and local officials have since been charged with crimes after corrosion from the new water source allowed rust, iron and lead into the water supply.
They’re accused of ignoring warnings and knowingly putting the industrial city’s 95,000 residents in danger.
“And water contamination also has been linked to the deaths of a dozen people from Legionnaires’ disease.” The city has since started paying Detroit for tap water, and earlier this year, state officials said lead in the water had fallen to safer levels.
Under the settlement, the state must also keep distributing free bottled water to residents who want it, and ensuring every home has a working water filter.
Mays, one of many who still doesn’t trust the water system, refused to pay.
Moore, Flint’s spokeswoman, said officials had no choice under a city law but to send out the letters.

“This is one of many measures the central government has approved to shift the supertanker to green,” says Sean Kidney, chief executive of the Climate Bonds Initiative, which works closely with the People’s Bank of China to develop green bonds.
A planned opening of the domestic bond market to foreign investors via Hong Kong this year will increase the flow of money into Chinese green financing instruments.
There is less transparency, however, on how the money raised through green bonds is being used.
Two Chinese banks topped the list for issuing green bonds last year.
Much of the money raised through green bond issuance appears destined to refinance existing work, although some banks are targeting new projects.
Most green bonds in China have a three- or five-year tenure.
Regulators want a more sustainable way to develop,” says Ricco Zhang, Asia-Pacific director for the International Capital Markets Association.
“There is an appetite for more information about how the proceeds are used,” the foreign expert says.
Some of that missing detail could come this year as banks begin to publish reports on the application of their bonds, including which projects are funded.
Kanika Chawla, senior programme lead at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, says: “In India we have an over-reliance on bank debt, and a lot of developers are now looking at alternative sources such as the bond market.” For developers, issuing green debt reduces their reliance on banks.

Farmer sues oil companies over alleged water contamination.
CBS San Francisco reports that some farmers, like Mike Hopkins, suspect that wastewater might be what’s killing their crops, and impacting our food supply.
The problem began about eight years ago when the leaves of his newly planted cherry orchard started turning brown, Hopkins said.
His irrigation water contained the very same salty compounds found in the wastewater produced by dozens of nearby oil wells.
According to the lawsuit, abandoned injection wells reach into the same area deep underground where dozens of other active wells are injecting wastewater.
“Nobody is testing the water wells nearby, even though the Division of Oil and Gas knows there are multiple farmers complaining,” Oliver said.
In an email to CBS San Francisco, one of the oil companies involved, San Joaquin Facilities Management, blamed the drought and Big Ag irrigation practices for the problem: “There is no evidence that San Joaquin’s injected water escaped the zone into which it was injected.” Three other oil companies said they can’t comment because of pending litigation.
Jonathan Bishop, the department’s chief deputy director, is assisting the Division of Oil and Gas in a federally mandated review of hundreds of injection wells that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined could potentially be contaminating California’s drinking water supplies.
Back at the farm, attorney Patricia Oliver predicted things are just going to get worse.
Meanwhile Mike Hopkins has planted pistachios on the field where his cherry trees once blossomed.

Nearly One-Quarter of Americans Are Drinking Contaminated Water.
The study — which analyzed thousands of water samples from across the nation — has found that there were safety violations in 18,000 public water systems in 2015.
The report blames crumbling infrastructure and the failure to adhere to the standards of the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act.
The worst offenders were found to have water systems polluted by arsenic, nitrate, lead, and radionuclides.
“America is facing a nationwide drinking water crisis that goes well beyond lead contamination,” said co-author Erik Olson, health program director at NRDC.
“The problem is twofold: There’s no cop on the beat enforcing our drinking water laws, and we’re living on borrowed time with our ancient, deteriorating water infrastructure.
We take it for granted that when we turn on our kitchen tap, the water will be safe and healthy, but we have a long way to go before that is reality across our country.” The states listed below have the worst and highest number of safety and hygienic violations, based on population: Texas Pennsylvania Washington California Wisconsin The Natural Resources Defense Council predicts that President Trump’s proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency would exacerbate the problem and create a health crisis nationwide, especially for rural America.
“Americans have a right to safe, clean drinking water, but President Trump is killing that right with a meat axe,” said Jamie Consuegra, a legislative director with NRDC.
“Our tap water should not poison us or make us sick.
We can’t play politics with our health or our children’s future.”

Mass transit projects increasing air pollution in Lahore.
Even after its implementation, one can see no amelioration in terms of incessant traffic congestion in Lahore or air pollution — hence it can be equated to a white elephant!
Basically undertaking massive-scale projects such as the construction of rapid transit systems, if marred by loopholes, result in heavy socio-ecological costs that are borne by marginalised groups and communities.
This can be clearly observed with the ongoing construction of the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train Project.
There is no doubt that Lahore is one of the largest metropolitan cities of Pakistan with a population of 18.5 million and escalating migration rates from rural and peri-urban areas.
This triggered the Punjab government to undertake another mass transit project, Orange Line Train, to curb traffic congestion in the city, but you can clearly see that the situation has aggravated in terms of increasing pollution.
If cleared, Orange Line may be delayed by a year Similarly these emissions are negatively influencing human health resulting in serious lung damage, respiratory diseases, heart attacks due to lack of oxygen in blood, dizziness, headaches and nausea.
In a similar way, for the construction of Orange Line train 620 trees were uprooted and massive vegetation cleared.
Tunnel boring technology is used across the globe — London, Paris, Delhi are a few examples — because cut and cover technology demolishes everything on the surface which is very risky and dangerous to environment as well as to the people.
Apparently the government wants to complete the project before the next general election to garner more votes.

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) – Environmentalists and public health advocates are going to court to fight the Trump administration’s move to rewrite Obama-era rules limiting water pollution from coal-fired power plants.
A coalition of about a dozen groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The action challenges the decision by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt last month seeking to rewrite the 2015 water pollution regulations.
Arsenic, lead and mercury and other potentially harmful contaminants leach from massive pits of waterlogged ash left behind after burning coal to generate electricity.
"These standards would have tackled the biggest source of toxic water pollution in the country, and now the Trump EPA is trying to toss them out.
It’s indefensible," said Pete Harrison, an attorney for Waterkeeper Alliance.
"The EPA didn’t even pretend to seek public input before plowing ahead with this rollback that could allow millions of pounds of preventable toxic pollution to go into our water."
In addition to the Waterkeepers, Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, Clean Water Action and the Environmental Integrity Project are among the groups filing suit.
President Donald Trump has pledged to reverse decades of decline in coal-mining jobs and has questioned the consensus of climate scientists that man-made carbon emissions are to blame for global warming.
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BAR HARBOR — The town’s debate about managing cruise ship visitation moved to Augusta Friday, where the legislature’s transportation committee heard testimony on LD 1400, An Act to Create the Bar Harbor Port Authority.
A port authority is a legal entity that the town may elect to form to own and/or operate a maritime facility at the former international ferry terminal site.
This bill in the legislature gives the town the option of a future vote on the matter.
“Right now, these passengers arrive in the most congested part of town.
The idea is to develop a pier to eliminate tendering so passengers can land more safely and have more time to spend here.” “I believe there’s some confusion that this is the only vote held,” the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Brian Langley (R-Hancock) said.
Committee members asked him to explain the arguments against that plan.
Knight said some residents would prefer to keep Bar Harbor as a cruise ship tendering port and not have a docking facility.
Paradis also addressed some of the concerns about the cruise ship pier plan in his testimony.
“There are only conceptual plans for a pier, and none are a half-mile long.
Bar Harbor has monitored water quality around cruise ships for years and found no problems.” He said all financial analysis done to date has been done using current passenger limits.