Environmental Insider News articles from March 2000

Environmental Insider News archives from March 2000

EPA at Fault for Texas Clean Water Backlog.
March 14, 2000... It is easy to misreport the news if you do not understand all the facts. On March 13, the Wall Street Journal committed sins of ignorance, as well as sins of omission, in its reporting (by reporter John J. Fialka) of the latest statistics on...

Style Over Substance?
March 14, 2000... The EWG-FoE report is to be praised for its revelation that EPA has been extremely lax in its own administration of the NPDES program, and that only after an audit did the agency begin to address its backlog problem. Indeed, in the seven states...

Utilities Upset by Controls.
March 14, 2000... TNRCC's proposed regional control strategy for controlling emissions from electric power plants is a recipe for brownouts and blackouts, say the state's leading electric utilities. Both TXU Electric and Reliant Energy say they welcomed the...

Sierra Raises Uranium Scare.
March 14, 2000... The Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club on March 9 unleashed a new report aimed at discrediting TNRCC's uranium mining permitting program, but agency staff said the report, "New Radioactive Superfund Sites: TNRCC Failure To Regulate Uranium...

Recent TNRCC Initiatives.
March 14, 2000... TNRCC staffers have trotted out a bevy of new policy initiatives, including some wrinkles for its enforcement and penalty policies that will soon be available for public comment. One change is the addition to the monthly enforcement report of...

Texas Tidbits.
March 14, 2000... *** Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams recently announced the agency is seeking bids (a prebid meeting will be held on April 4-5) for the final phase of the Lonestar-Mariposa mining reclamation project in the...

TNRCC and the Septic System Wars.
March 28, 2000... Problems with TNRCC's rules governing on-site sewer (septic) systems have cropped up in recent weeks. At least one lawsuit has already been filed, and according to the Texas Manufactured Housing Association, several others are possible over the...

Oakstar's Lawsuit.
March 28, 2000... The alleged lack of clarity in the OSSF cluster system rule [at 30 TAC 285.6] is the focus of Oakstar's lawsuit against TNRCC, Bandera County, and Springhills Water Management District, whom Bandera hired to oversee its OSSF program. In what...

The TMHA OSSF Petition.
March 28, 2000... Without any knowledge of the Oakstar case, TMHA petitioned TNRCC's Commissioners for their help in ending what their attorney portrayed as an assault on the industry by local governments that plan to misuse delegated authority for the state's...

Water Rights or Wrongs?
March 28, 2000... When TNRCC's Commissioners on March 22 [see EI Compliance Report, March 28] chose to uphold the staff position that an accounting plan was the right way to ensure proper allocation of water rights in Lake Grapevine among Dallas County Park...

TPPF Challenges VIA in SA.
March 28, 2000... Texas Public Policy Foundation president Jeff Judson has formally challenged VIA Metropolitan Transit, San Antonio's transit operator, to a debate VIA's cost projections for the city's proposed light rail system, which is slated to cost $2.88...

Cherry Blossoms.
March 28, 2000... *** A new report from the General Accounting Office says EPA officials have misled the public with claims they have reduced the paperwork burden on businesses and governments. GAO said that, despite an order by Congress to shrink paperwork, the...