Super Bowl Prepares For Super Trash Flow
At the Super Bowl in New Orleans this year, the National Football League has incorporated a series of environmental initiatives that affect nearly every Super Bowl related event. For example, solid waste recycling will be a key component of waste management at the Louisiana Superdome, the New Orleans Arena, and the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center -- three facilities that host most of the NFL-sponsored events. Another NFL project, materials donation, matches the needs of local nonprofits with all types of leftover materials or equipment including decorative materials and building materials. Finally, a ``Litter Free'' campaign, tested by the NFL five years ago when Super Bowl was last in New Orleans, will be run again at the NFL Experience Football Theme Park. Volunteers reward kids and adults with NFL temporary tattoos for keeping the area clean. Since 1993, the NFL's Environmental Program has expanded greatly from its initial efforts at solid waste recycling. The program has now developed into a comprehensive campaign to reduce all types of waste...Read More »
Congressional Members Urge EPA To Keep Air Pollution Rule
More than 50 members of Congress late last week urged the Environmental Protection Agency not to bow to pressure from US utilities for weaker air pollution standards. In a letter to EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, the 45 Democrats, 7 Republicans and 1 Independent said the agency should maintain a rule requiring aging coal-fired power plants to install air pollution equipment when a plant is expanded or refurbished. Northeastern states are especially concerned about the air pollution rule because most of the power plants affected are located in the Midwest and their emissions are blown across state lines by prevailing winds. The EPA has been working on an overhaul of the Clean Air Act's so-called ``new source review'' rules, which were strictly enforced by the Clinton administration. The rules exempted electric power plants, oil refineries and other industrial plants built before 1977 from installing expensive air pollution equipment unless they made significant modifications or repairs to the facilities. The industry and the Bush administration claim the regulations prevent more refineries and power plants from being built or expanded, which in turn reduces available energy supplies...Read More »
EPA Official Questions Senate Anthrax Cleanup
An Environmental Protection Agency internal watchdog says the Hart Senate Office Building cleanup could have been done cheaper, and safer. The building reopened last week after being shuttered since October, when an anthrax-laced letter was opened in Senator Tom Daschle's office. Chlorine dioxide gas was pumped through its ventilation system and work surfaces were cleaned with chemical agents, all in an effort to kill lingering anthrax spores. But EPA National Ombudsman Robert Martin recently told the Washington Times the building could have been cleaned using less expensive, non-chemical methods. He added the chlorine dioxide may pose a long-term health threat to people working at Hart. The Senate Finance Commitee is probing the $14 million price tag for the Hart Building cleanup...Read More »
EPA, N.J. Utility Reach Settlement On Air Pollution
The government and a New Jersey utility reached a settlement last week in which the company agreed to pay $1.4 million in penalties and spend more than $340 million to reduce air pollutants from two power plants by tens of thousands of tons annually. The settlement is only the second of its kind under new environmental rules adopted in the mid-1990s and could prompt similar agreements to resolve lawsuits seeking pollution reductions at aging coal-fired plants throughout most of the eastern United States. It requires Public Service Enterprise Group Fossil LLC to install new pollution controls to curb sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from coal-fired plants in Jersey City and Hamilton, N.J...Read More »
Peoria Considers Allowing Yard Waste Into Landfills
More than a decade after Illinois banned tossing yard waste into the garbage to conserve space in landfills, Peoria wants to temporarily lift the landscape waste ban to save money. The decision would make the central Illinois town one of the first municipalities in the state--and the nation--to challenge a law that prohibits commingling yard refuse with household garbage. Opponents say dumping landscape waste back into landfills could reverse that decade of progress and harm the public's perception of the value of recycling. Though the city has not yet found the necessary legislative support, critics are unnerved by the mere idea. If it plays in Peoria, they fear, it could set a national precedent. The city of Peoria spends $1 million a year collecting yard waste from 36,000 homes. The Peoria County recycling rate, which includes mandatory commercial recycling, is 37 percent, well above the state goal of 25 percent. But last year, the City Council found it could save an estimated $200,000 if the same garbage truck collected both the yard clippings and the regular trash, and then dumped it into the same cell at the Peoria City/County Landfill...Read More »
Study Links Landfills To Increased Birth Defect Risk
Living near a landfill can raise the risk of having a child with birth defects such as Downs Syndrome by as much as 40 percent, researchers have said, though they admitted they are not sure why. Researchers in the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine indicated it could be due to hazardous chemicals from the landfill or other factors, and called for further research to explain her findings. The researchers studied 245 cases of children born with chromosomal defects and 2,412 healthy babies who lived near 23 landfill sites in five European countries, to determine if the abnormalities could be linked to where they lived. In a report in The Lancet medical journal, they said people living within 1.8 miles of a landfill had a higher chance of having a child with a chromosomal defect than couples living further away. The research followed an earlier study in 1998 which showed a 33 percent increased risk of birth defects which were not caused by chromosome disorders, such as spina bifida andcleft palate, in children whose mothers lived near a hazardous-waste landfill...Read More »
Honolulu Mayor Pushes For Recycling
Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris has proposed a huge expansion of the city's garbage-to-energy H-Power plant during his annual "State of the City" address. The plans would save money in the long run but would cost millions and take years, Harris said. He proposes increasing the H-power plant's capacity by 50 percent to cut down on the amount of trash going into landfills: "That way, solid waste that used to go to the landfill will now be recycled or used to generate electricity," Harris said. The mayor also wants the city to build a waste separation facility at H-Power to take out un-recyclable materials to further reducing landfill needs. Harris also wants to acquire land at H-Power to create a recycling technology park where waste will eventually be turned into construction materials...Read More »
Enviro-Energy Announces Acquisition, Market Inroads
Enviro-Energy Corporation (OTCBB:ENGY) is preparing for an intended acquisition of Colvico, Inc, an electrical/energy services company bonded and licensed throughout the Pacific Northwest. Revenues were $17 million for 2001, and Colvico is expected to bring a restated net book value of $3.5 million to Enviro-Energy. Colvico's current backlog of $10 million includes contracts for renovating and updating electrical power generation systems. Colvico gives the company the ability to install, service and maintain its bio-waste-to-electrical generation plants. Further, using Colvico's in-house electrical assembly and manufacturing plant, the Company will now have the ability to fully manufacture and assemble its skid-mounted plants internally, significantly increasing deliverables and profit. In other news, the company's Enviro-Energy Bio-Waste-Energy Systems are being promoted in several foreign markets where typical farm sizes are much smaller than U.S. dairies, and water and farm waste problems are extreme...Read More »
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