Environmental protection

PHILADELPHIA, June 24, 2008 -- The Delaware Estuary has been selected by EPA as one of six estuaries to be case studies for local action to protect sensitive coastal ecosystems and economies from the potential effects of climate change. This is the first step in EPA’s new “Climate Ready Estuaries” effort to build local ability to adapt to climate change.

“EPA’s Climate Ready Estuaries work will help coastal communities understand and adapt to climate change,” said Assistant Administrator for Water Benjamin H. Grumbles. “Our aim is to build capacity for local decision makers and resource managers to help take pro-active, practical steps for bays at risk.”    » read more »

06/24/2008 -- For the 13th straight year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is recognizing chemical technologies developed by leading researchers and industrial innovators that are making significant contributions to pollution prevention in the United States. The awards will be given out this evening, June 24, at the awards ceremony in Washington, D.C.

The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards are given in five categories: Academic, Small Business, Greener Synthetic Pathways, Greener Reaction Conditions and Designing Greener Chemicals. The 2008 award-winner technologies are:

* A novel method to make complex molecules cleanly and efficiently developed by Professors Robert E. Maleczka, Jr. and Milton R. Smith, III of Michigan State University, Lansing, Mich.    » read more »

Kansas City, Kan., June 23, 2008 -- EPA Region 7 is dispatching two three-person water emergency response groups to Iowa to assist the Iowa Department of Natural Resources with assessing public water treatment facilities damaged in the Iowa floods.

EPA groups will provide technical expertise to assist communities in assessing the need for repair of local drinking water systems and wastewater systems.

The teams will work directly with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to provide technical assessments. The technical assessments allow IDNR and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide assistance to communities with repairs to their water treatment systems.

EPA groups will be working with the IDNR field offices in Manchester and Washington.    » read more »

Kansas City, Kan., June 23, 2008 -- Flood water samples taken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency within the city limits of Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Hamburg, and Burlington, Iowa, showed numbers of fecal coliform bacteria exceeding the health-based level of concern. The level of concern is 200 colony forming units (cfu) per 100 milliliters (ml). The sampling results ranged between 270 cfu/100 ml and 68,000 cfu/100 ml. The highest end of the range was found only in the Cedar Rapids area and it is believed to be associated with the fact that the wastewater treatment plant is not operating.    » read more »

PHILADELPHIA, June 23, 2008 -- To protect our nation’s water supply for future use, the Environmental Protection Agency is promoting and enhancing the market for water efficient products through the WaterSense program. The latest is a draft specification for water-efficient new single-family homes. The specification will create standards that new homes must meet to be certified and labeled as WaterSense homes.

“WaterSense is a common sense ethic of efficiency for protecting water, America’s most important liquid asset. WaterSense certified homes will help homeowners save water, money and energy, and communities will have an important new tool for sustainable growth and water efficiency,” said Donald S. Welsh, regional administrator for EPA’s mid-Atlantic region.    » read more »

Boston, Mass., June 23, 2008 -- The pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. has agreed to pay a $975,000 civil penalty to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act at its former manufacturing plant in Groton, Conn., the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today. Today’s settlement is the first of its type in federal court under regulations that are designed to control the emissions of hazardous air pollutants from pharmaceutical manufacturing operations.    » read more »

New York, N.Y., 06/23/2008 -- A momentous agreement between EPA, Occidental Chemical and Tierra Solutions calls for the most significant removal of contaminated material from the Passaic in history. The settlement, announced today at a park overlooking the river, involves the removal of nearly half of the dioxin that has contaminated sediment in the Passaic. It requires Occidental and Tierra Solutions to remove 200,000 cubic yards of dioxin-laden material from the portion of the river directly in front of the Diamond Alkali Superfund site in downtown Newark.    » read more »