Environment | WPN World People News

Forest landscape restoration in Northern Thailand

EPA Region 7 has reached an agreement with Griffin Pipe Products, LLC, to settle violations of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and Clean Water Act (CWA) at its Council Bluffs, Iowa, facility that will require Griffin Pipe to lower lead emissions and pay a civil penalty of $950,000.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that Suncor Energy has agreed to pay $230,400 in penalties to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) at its Commerce City, Colo. refinery. The agreement resolves alleged violations of the risk management planning requirements of the CAA and Toxic Release Inventory reporting requirements under EPCRA.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finalized a plan to address soil, sediment and surface water that is contaminated with hexavalent chromium and heavy metals by past industrial operations at the Shieldalloy Metallurgical Corp. site in Newfield and Vineland, New Jersey. The EPA is requiring a combination of cleanup measures at portions of the site including capping of the soil, excavating and removing contaminated sediment and prohibiting future residential use of the facility.

The International Energy Agency has concluded that the various forms of solar power could provide more than half of the world's electricity by 2050, according to a new publication released. Solar and wind technology already accounted for one-third of all new power plants worldwide built in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a legal settlement with Losurdo Foods Inc. of Heuvelton, New York that will reduce the amount of pollutants the company discharges to the municipal water treatment plant. Losurdo has agreed to upgrade its cheese manufacturing equipment, resulting in a 16% reduction in the amount of nitrate compounds and a 50% reduction in the amount of wastewater it sends to the treatment plant each year. The Heuvelton water treatment plant discharges the water it treats into the Oswegatchie River.

Police in central Japan say they have found the bodies of five more hikers near the summit of Mount Ontake, a volcano that erupted Saturday.

The Bristol Bay watershed.

Coral at Jarvis Island National Wildlife Refuge.