Environmental Insider News articles from August 2001

Environmental Insider News archives from August 2001

Bush's Green Power Partnership.
August 1, 2001... The Bush Administration is taking advantage of the Sixth Annual Green Power Marketing Conference in Portland, Oregon, to announce a new voluntary Green Power Partnership, which aims to boost the market for power alternatives that reduce the...

Austin Gets "Energy Champion".
August 1, 2001... In other Austin green power news, the city has been designated by the U.S. Department of Energy as one of its "Communities of the Future." The Communities of the Future Initiative is designed to meet national objectives of reducing negative...

The Future of Poultry Waste?
August 1, 2001... EPA last Saturday announced it has awarded a $4,989,000 grant to the Gas Technology Institute of Des Plaines, Illinois, to support development of a demonstration food processing facility for use by the Butterball Turkey Co., Carthage, Missouri,...

NAS Panel Wants Higher Gasoline Taxes.
August 1, 2001... According to a panel commissioned by the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) program would get big boosts from a spike in gasoline taxes and from allowing automakers to sell fuel...

Episode Initiative Nets Results.
August 2, 2001... The results are in from the 18-month Episodic Release Reduction Initiative (ERRI), and the good news is that participating Texas and Louisiana industrial facilities reduced reportable air releases of hazardous chemicals by 28% last year from...

Sustainable Products Training in Austin.
August 2, 2001... The Texas Recycling Market Development Board, Texas Department of Transportation, TNRCC, and the city of Austin are cosponsoring a workshop in Austin on September 10-11 on purchasing sustainable products - with a special focus on clean vehicles...

Cornyn Slaps Water Quality Zones.
August 3, 2001... In a decision particularly affecting Travis County, Attorney General John Cornyn on August 2, via letter opinion No. JC-0402, shot down the Legislature's 1999 attempt to revitalize prior legislation, aimed at helping FM Properties Operating Co....

Garza Wants Full EIS on Brownsville Weir.
August 3, 2001... Stating that, "I am more certain than ever that the [Brownsville Public Utility Board's] dam project is - quite simply - bad public policy," Railroad Commissioner Tony Garza has asked Interior Secretary Gale Norton and other public and private...

Yellow Sub in Town Lake?
August 3, 2001... A mysterious yellow submarine was seen docking on Town Lake just behind the Four Seasons Hotel on Thursday morning, and hundreds of members of Sgt. Pepper's Band were soon found inside the building, swaying to the music of the Fab Four. When...

Population Growth To End?
August 3, 2001... According to a newly published report in Nature, there is an 85% chance that global population will peak before the year 2100, and a 60% chance that this peak will be less than 10 billion, compared with today's population of about 6 billion....

The Cooke-Huston High.
August 6, 2001... The dozen previous years of the Texas Environmental SuperConference had lots of highlights - from the 1991 announcement by Jim Haley that "environmental racism" could be the No. 1 environmental issue of the 1990's to the 1997 event at which...

Environmental Business in Mexico.
August 6, 2001... After lunch, attorney Nelly Rocha presented a very encouraging report on U.S.-Mexico relations, and in particular on the status of environmental protection South of the Border. In a nation with 74% of its aquifers either "seriously" or...

Border Environmental Conferences.
August 6, 2001... Two upcoming events will address environmental issues along the U.S.-Mexico border. Rocha's firm, Baker Botts, is sponsoring the 5th Annual Latin America Environmental Law Seminar on October 18 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Houston. One...

Will OTA Rise Again?
August 6, 2001... Six years after the Republican Congress, led by House Speaker Newt Gingrich, killed the then 23-year-old Office of Technology Assessment, a group of Democrats - including Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D, Austin) - and moderate Republicans in Congress...

Win One, Lose One?
August 8, 2001... Shortly after Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams announced he was effectively killing a Risk-Based Decision Making (Rebecca) proposal, initiated by Commissioner Tony Garza, to establish procedures for handling oil spills in...

Flexible Foam NESHAPs - and More.
August 8, 2001... EPA has proposed national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP's) for flexible polyurethane foam fabrication operations, which have been identified as potential major sources of emissions of methylene chloride, hydrochloric...

EPA Says TMDL's Could Cost Billions.
August 8, 2001... Several weeks after the release of the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council study of the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that implementing the program could cost...

High Times at Times Beach.
August 8, 2001... The nation's scariest Superfund site, whose discovery forced the death of an entire town, will soon be history. EPA on August 7 announced that, barring unlikely complaints, it intends to delete the Times Beach Site near St. Louis, Missouri,...

Solid Waste Panel Takes Five.
August 9, 2001... At a time when public participation in environmental rulemaking, permitting, and enforcement has gotten a major boost from the Texas Legislature, not a single individual took the time to apply for a vacancy on TNRCC's Municipal Solid Waste...

Diamond Shamrock Fined $1.2 MM.
August 9, 2001... Under terms of a proposed consent decree lodged on July 25 with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Diamond Shamrock Refining Co., LP, has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1.2 million, obtain required permit coverage...

John Baker Goes "Home" to BRA.
August 10, 2001... TNRCC Commissioner John Baker announced today at a work session that he is leaving his post at the end of August to take a job as Manager, Central Basin Region, with the Brazos River Authority. BRA General Manager Phil Ford announced today...

State Inspectors on the Warpath.
August 10, 2001... It wasn't quite, "Hell, No, We Won't Go," but TNRCC's Commissioners were beset at their August 10 work session with a group of unhappy campers who told them that without changes, the proposed vehicle inspection and maintenance program would...

Water Board Has Two "Firsts".
August 15, 2001... At their August 15 agenda, the Texas Water Development Board approved the first ever loan to a private entity under the Privately Owned Water Systems Program of the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, and the first facility planning grant for...

GRBA Gets Water Rights Permit.
August 15, 2001... Perhaps, but not very likely, ending a long-running argument, the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority on August 14 received a water rights permit from TNRCC that authorizes it to pump an additional 40,000 acre-feet of water per year from Canyon...

EPA Follows NGA's Lead on Energy, NSR.
August 15, 2001... Riding behind protection from the National Governors Association, EPA Administrator Christie Whitman on August 14 announced that her agency would soon propose a comprehensive strategy to significantly reduce air pollution and protect public...

TNRCC Relocates Region 4 Office.
August 15, 2001... TNRCC has announced the relocation of its Region 4 office from Arlington to Fort Worth, effective August 20. The new office will be at 2301 Gravel Drive in northeast Fort Worth off Loop 820 and Highway 121 near Northeast Mall. The new telephone...

HARC Gets Fuel Cell Grant.
August 16, 2001... It's only $10,000, but the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) will take the money from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to promote the use of fuel cells to help improve air quality in the Houston metropolitan area. HARC is working...

Three Texas Superfund Cases.
August 16, 2001... Under an agreed final judgment announced recently by the Texas Attorney General, certain responsible parties will pay $188,362.67 in response costs and $15,000 in attorney fees to the State of Texas for response costs incurred at the Sonics...

UH Gets $2 MM for Ozone Study.
August 17, 2001... It is a lot more than $10,000 this time, as the University of Houston scored nearly $2 million in EPA funding for a study to determine how air pollutants, coupled with weather conditions that exist in the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria area,...

Bush Picks a Winn-er.
August 17, 2001... Yet another Texan is headed to Washington, DC, to join the Bush team. The President today announced his intention to nominate Morris X. Winn as Assistant Administrator for EPA's Office of Administration and Resource Management. If confirmed,...

Hazardous Waste Combustors.
August 17, 2001... In other EPA news, the agency has announced the extension of the comment period on its proposed amendments to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for hazardous waste combustors. On July 3, 2001, EPA proposed potential...

Pipeline Risk Management Project.
August 17, 2001... The U.S. Office of Pipeline Safety today announced its intention to approve project modifications and an environmental assessment of modifications for the Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America (NGPL) pipeline risk management demonstration...

EPA Doles Out Another $6 MM.
August 23, 2001... Administrator Christie Whitman on Thursday announced that EPA will provide $4 million in financial assistance to clean up contamination from leaking underground storage tanks and another $2 million to provide training for residents in...

Taking the Houston Toad in Bastrop.
August 23, 2001... Six more Bastrop County families are getting an education on the Endangered Species Act this month because the homes they want to build could result in "incidental takes" of the Houston toad. Five of this group of applicants must pay $2,000...

Paper Industry Wins One.
August 23, 2001... In other EPA news, the agency has announced a proposed settlement agreement in a lawsuit filed by the American Forest & Paper Association, Inc. [No. 00-1218 (D.C.Cir.)], filed under section 307(b)(1) of the Clean Air Act. The lawsuit concerned...

NWI Suit Gets a Boost.
August 23, 2001... The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the water treatment business for the Nation's Capital. Unlike almost every other wastewater discharger, the Corps has been getting a pass from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on total suspended...