Environment | WPN World People News

On June 25, The Wilderness Society, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Izaak Walton League of America, represented by Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Washington, D.C., to prevent sulfide-ore mining at the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota. The organizations joined nine Minnesota businesses that filed a separate lawsuit last week to protect this cherished recreation area from mining.

U.S. officials in California say thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes as wildfires burned through an area in the state’s north still recovering from several fires in recent years.

Earthjustice, on behalf of three conservation groups, on June 21, sued the Trump administration for failing to complete a legally required consultation about offshore drilling’s harms to threatened and endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico.

The court found that Germany allowed an excessive use of manure as a fertiliser, in violation of the limits set out in the EU’s nitrates directive, which aims to reduce water pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources.

The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) gave a final rejection to SoCalGas’s Pipeline 3602 Project, after indicating that the pipeline ran contrary to California’s energy future. The decision is one of several made by state agencies in the last year that point to a state engaged in planning its future beyond dirty energy.

Burundian refugee boy collects firewood outside Nyarugusu Refugee Camp in western Tanzania.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reached a settlement with Taylor Farms Retail, Inc. over Clean Water Act (CWA) violations at its refrigerated warehouse and food processing facility in Salinas, Calif. Under the terms of the settlement, the company will take steps to prevent pollutants from discharging in industrial stormwater and pay a penalty of $67,640.

A new 32.5% energy efficiency target for 2030 and a new instrument to help member states deliver on energy and climate goals were agreed by the EP and Council.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced an agreement with Herzog Wine Cellars over violations of the federal Clean Water Act. The settlement requires the company to pay a $70,000 penalty after an EPA inspection found the company was discharging wastewater that violated local and federal standards from its production operations into the City of Oxnard’s sanitary sewer.

An early tally shows more than 680,000 people across the United States voiced opposition to leasing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas drilling. With 23 organizations reporting and several others yet to be counted, a total of 686,751 comments were recorded in opposition to fossil fuel development in the iconic Alaskan wilderness area. The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) 60-day public scoping period, on a proposal to lease 400,000 acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain, came to a close on June 19.