Environment | WPN World People News

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has agreed to implement a statewide compliance program and to pay a $750,000 civil penalty to settle alleged violations of the Clean Water Act at two road construction sites. The sites are Highway 54 in Osage Beach, and on Highway 67 between Coldwater and Silva.

Six Greenpeace climbers have intercepted an Arctic-bound Shell oil rig in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 750 miles north-west of Hawaii and have scaled the 38,000 tonne platform.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a settlement with four Texas-based recreational vehicle importers and an affiliated Chinese vehicle manufacturer on April 7, for the illegal import and sale of more than 4,000 uncertified off-road recreational vehicles sold under the brand name Hammerhead between 2007 and 2011. The settlement, approved by EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board, alleges that the companies violated numerous Clean Air Act provisions governing how vehicles must be manufactured, tested and certified before they can be sold in the United States. The companies will pay a total of $560,000 in civil penalties.

Integrated Environmental Technologies (IET), a South Carolina based pesticide registrant, and Seriously Clean, Ltd., of Nixa, Mo., a firm that served as an authorized distributor of IET’s product under a different brand name, have agreed to pay civil penalties of $87,344 and $91,829, respectively, to settle alleged violations of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

A breathtaking view of a beaver pond in the Sunset Roadless area.

Grizzly bear in Grand Teton National Park.

“Right now [California] has only about one year of water supply left in its reservoirs, and our strategic backup supply, groundwater, is rapidly disappearing. California has no contingency plan for a persistent drought like this one (let alone a 20-plus-year mega-drought), except, apparently, staying in emergency mode and praying for rain.”

On April 2, the Asian Institute of Technology and international development partners established a Vietnam Learning Center on Environmental and Social Sustainability to foster knowledge exchange and capacity building relating to environmental and social safeguards and standards in Vietnam.

The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors approved a total of US$100 million in budget support for the Government of Burkina Faso to reduce agriculture and transport costs, improve transparency and accountability in mobilizing public resources, and minimize the country’s vulnerability to shocks on April 2.

Crop damage caused by Super Cyclone Pam on the Pacific Island of Vanuatu.