Hawaii Must Keep Honolulu Landfill Operational Longer
The Hawaii Department of Health has said it has no choice but to allow the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill near Honolulu to be filled above its legal capacity, concerning nearby residents. The landfill in Nanakuli is expected to reach legal capacity in the coming months. Honolulu city officials want to raise the legal height by 30 feet so they can buy some time and devise another disposal plan. City officials said the additional height will buy them another eight months. The state said the landfill was supposed to hold several more years worth of trash, and has not yet determined the reason for the sudden capacity shift...Read More »
Ohio EPA Considers Possible New Landfill
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is considering plans for a new landfill in northern Tuscarawas County that would be one of the largest in Ohio. The proposed Ridge Landfill is drawing opposition from a number of grass-roots groups, which have collected more than 13,000 signatures on petitions to Ohio Gov. Bob Taft and the Ohio EPA to block the 350-acre landfill near Dundee. The landfill is being proposed by Norton Environmental Inc., and has won preliminary approval from the Ohio EPA. The new landfill would be authorized to accept up to 3,100 tons a day and would have a life span of 52 years. It would be capable of handling 74.3 million cubic yards of trash...Read More »
Justice Department Seeks Cleanup Funds From Kmart
The U.S. Department of Justice wants $150 million from bankrupt Kmart to help pay for clean up of waste from the retailer's automotive centers. A Kmart sub-contractor hauled away hundreds of thousands of gallons of waste oil in past years from the auto centers. That waste oil found its way into facilities from Illinois to Tennessee to New England. Four of the sites the sub-contractor used were placed on the Superfund list, and the cleanup cost is estimated at $150 million. Kmart is one of five companies that the EPA is going after for reimbursement. But the government will have to stand in line with the retailer's other creditors while it tries to work its way out of bankruptcy. Kmart Corp. said in May that it lost $2.4 billion last fiscal year, more than 10 times what it reported the previous year. The retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Jan. 22, and has begun closing stores nationwide...Read More »
Pennsylvania DEP Announces Plans For New Online Help Program
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has unveiled a new and improved website for DEP's EnviroHELP program, a free and confidential service to help small businesses understand and comply with local, state and federal environmental regulations. The website can be accessed through the PA PowerPort at www.state.pa.us, PA Keyword: "EnviroHELP." EnviroHELP not only helps small-business owners understand the regulations, but also assists the owners in complying with them. This new and improved website makes it easier for small- business owners to take advantage of the various services that EnviroHELP offers, state officials noted...Read More »
EPA Begins Work on WTC Asbestos Cleanup
Almost a year after the World Trade Center collapse coated much of lower Manhattan in asbestos-laced dust and debris, federal environmental officials have announced plans to clean and test up to 38,000 residences. The Environmental Protection Agency said it agreed to the unprecedented indoor cleanup, free for any downtown resident who wants it, mostly to calm lingering fears. The EPA and other government agencies have downplayed any health risk from the dust, saying tests have shown the asbestos did not reach hazardous levels. Critics have complained that the EPA has taken too long to begin the cleanup, and that residents and others have already been exposed to the asbestos for nearly a year. They attacked the latest plan as inadequate...Read More »
New York Announces Plans For Export of Waste
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said the city would start shipping its trash away on barges instead of by truck, but acknowledged it would probably not save the cash-strapped city any money. The mayor's long-awaited report comes as the city faces escalating costs to transport 14,000 tons of residential garbage out of the city each day -- a task that became necessary after the Fresh Kills landfill shut down last year. Since it began phasing out Fresh Kills in 1997, the city has watched its disposal costs rise from $179 per ton to $263 a ton by last year, when it began relying on out-of-state landfills...Read More »
PricewaterhouseCoopers Attests To Allied's Financial Statements
Allied Waste Industries, Inc. (NYSE: AW) has announced that its new independent auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP provided the company with an unqualified opinion dated August 12, 2002. Such financial statements covered by PWC's report are unchanged from those financial statements that were previously issued and filed by Allied with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In a move to secure investor confidence, PWC replaced Arthur Andersen, which also provided an unqualified opinion on Allied's financial data...Read More »
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