Weekly News Bulletin: May 11-17, 2004

 

Wisconsin PCB Sludge May Have Found A Home

From the 1950s to the 1970s, seven paper mills released PCBs into Wisconsin's Fox River during the manufacture of carbonless copy paper. A cleanup plan for the PCBs has worked its way through various levels of state and federal bureaucracy, and plans are now afoot to bury the PCB-tainted sediment near the Town of Chilton. Even with the new agreement, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle has announced plans to investigate melting the sludge rather than burying it...Read More »

 

 

EnCap Breaks Ground On $1B

EnCap Golf has announced groundbreaking on the $1 billion project to transform more than 700 acres of New Jersey landfills into golf courses and upscale offices and residences. The remediation project will include hundreds of acres of landfills, brownfields, and wetlands in Lyndhurst, Rutherford, and North Arlington in Bergen County. EnCap Golf recently closed on the acquisition of the property from the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, and has posted a $148 million bond for the remediation and closure of four landfills...Read More »

 

 

Bank of America Commits To Environmental Financing

Like Citigroup before it, Bank of America has begun tightening its financing standards to take into account possible environmental risks. The company announced its plans in a joint statement with the Rainforest Action Network, which has pushed several large banks to strengthen their lending standards. The company has agreed not to fund projects that entail oil and gas exploration, mining, or logging activity in old-growth tropical rainforests or "intact" forests as defined by the World Resource Institute. The standards took effect on May 15...Read More »

 

 

Oakleaf Waste LLC Acquires Integrated Process Technologies

Integrated Process Technologies Holding Company LLC, a newly formed LLC comprised of Oakleaf Waste Management and other parties, has acquired the assets of Integrated Process Technologies, a facilities repair and maintenance services provider with revenues of $120 million. IPT has spent an estimated $25 million to develop an extensive system for facility management solutions...Read More »

 

 

EPA May Grant Air Pollution Amnesty To Factory Farms

The federal EPA may grant amnesty from air pollution laws to certain factory farms that volunteer for a U.S. program to gauge feedlot emissions. Such farms have long been the source of complaints about odor and dust. The federal government is preparing a plan that would exempt large hog, poultry, and dairy farms from air pollution lawsuits. Feedlot operators volunteering for the monitoring program could receive amnesty from suits for at least four years, and possibly much longer. In 2002, the federal government issued regulations that would require 15,000-plus feedlots to control manure runoff; those rules were estimated to cost the industry $335 million a year...Read More »

 

 

Dell Plans To Increase Computer Recycling By 50 Percent

Dell has announced plans to increase recovery of used computer products by 50 percent over the amount it collected in fiscal 2004, which ended on Jan. 30. During that period, Dell's U.S. operations recovered approximately 35 million pounds of computer products. The company hopes to motivate employees with the campaign "5-0 in '05." Dell also hopes to develop global reporting methods that permit it to track increases in product recovery across the world...Read More »

 

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