House Votes To Approve Nevada Nuclear Waste Landfill
The U.S. House of Representatives has endorsed President George W. Bush's decision to bury nuclear waste from across the country in Nevada's Yucca Mountain. On a vote of 306-117, the Republican-led House approved a bipartisan resolution to override Nevada's veto of the project to build the nation's first permanent nuclear waste storage facility 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The House sent the measure for needed concurrence to the Democratic-led Senate. Senate Republican leaders predict their chamber will also approve the $58 billion project with the help of Democrats from states with nuclear reactors and mounting radioactive waste sometime in July. The proposed site would permanently hold 77,000 tons of radioactive material and would open in 2010...Read More »
EPA Plans To Release New Dioxin Tracking Data
The US Environmental Protection Agency will soon release new pollution data that for the first time tracks emissions of the cancer-causing chemical dioxin. The dioxin data will be included in the agency's toxic release inventory, released annually in the spring. The inventory tracks emissions of more than 600 toxic compounds by U.S. industrial facilities into the air, water and land. Since 1995, the EPA has imposed regulations on major dioxin emitters, including municipal-waste incinerators, cement kilns and pulp and paper mills. Dioxin has been fingered as the toxic component in Agent Orange, and dioxin pollution caused the 1983 evacuation of the town of Times Beach, Missouri, and the 1978 evacuation of the Love Canal site in Niagara Falls, New York. Dioxin builds up in living tissue over time, so even small exposures can accumulate to dangerous levels...Read More »
Dyncorp Wins Air Force Environmental Contract
DynCorp Systems & Solutions LLC has been awarded a five-year indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract to provide environmental and information technology consulting services to Air Force units at locations around the world. In addition to providing personnel to help Air Force installations achieve compliance with federally mandated environmental standards, DSS consultants will aid Air Force units in becoming compliant with the Joint Technical Architecture, the U.S. Department of Defense's common standard for IT systems...Read More »
EMS Reports Results For D'Addario
Environmental Management Solutions Inc. has reported first quarter financial results for D'Addario Environmental Management Solutions Inc. D/EMS had earnings for the first quarter of 2002 at $403,441, or 31% of gross revenues, $21,120 higher than budget. Actual gross profit margins earned were 57% compared to budget of 53%. These earnings reflect a 98% increase from first quarter 2001. Based on its current total backlog, its largest since inception, D/EMS is on track to achieve $11 million in revenues, an increase of 79% from 2001, and $2.8 million for 2002 exclusive of any acquisitions...Read More »
Versar Wins Carcass Disposal System Contract
Versar, Inc. has been awarded a Rapid Contaminated Carcass and Plant Disposal System contract valued at approximately $3.5 million to develop a mobile system capable of destroying large volumes of chemically or biologically contaminated livestock or plant material. This project will be performed by Versar's wholly-owned subsidiary, Geomet Technologies, Inc., which will design, build and test an environmentally safe bio-destruction system which is transportable by highway or aircraft that can be deployed to respond to bio-terrorism threats anywhere in the United States. The initial award for approximately $470,000 is to complete a Phase I design effort...Read More »
EPA Will Remove Asbestos From Montana Homes
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to begin immediately removing asbestos-laced insulation from hundreds of homes in the small town of Libby, Mont. While the EPA has agreed to strip the hazardous insulation from attics and from behind the walls of about 800 homes in Libby, EPA officials said they do not believe such action will take place elsewhere. The EPA has been cleaning up asbestos-contaminated sites around the former mining town in western Montana on an emergency basis since 1999. The agency had expressed reluctance to take on the task of cleaning contaminated insulation from homes, at an estimated $3,000 to $20,000 per house, out of concern that it might set a precedent for homes elsewhere. Nationwide, the EPA estimates as many as 35 million homes may contain Zonolite insulation, which has the same harmful tremolite asbestos as the vermiculite ore, which has contaminated Libby. The contamination comes from now-defunct vermiculite mine operated first by Zonolite Corp. and later byW.R. Grace & Co. Lingering contamination from the mine is being blamed for nearly 200 deaths and health problems of hundreds of other area residents. Libby, population 6,000, is being considered for addition to the Superfund list as the most significant hazardous site in Montana...Read More »
Waste Holdings Names Perry CEO
Waste Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: WWIN) has announced that Jim W. Perry, who currently serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of the company, will succeed Lonnie C. Poole, Jr. as the company's Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2002. Poole will remain as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Perry joined Waste Holdings in 1971 as the company's first employee. Waste Holdings provides services to states in the Southeast United States...Read More »
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