Environment | WPN World People News

The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) on December 23 unanimously approved two rulings that advocates say will help clear the way for rooftop and utility-scale solar development in NV Energy’s Sierra Pacific Power Company service territory of Northern Nevada.

On December 22, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a Clean Water Act compliance order to the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority to address an ongoing sewage spill from pipes leading to the Shiprock Wastewater Treatment Facility. The sewage spill is discharging around, under, and directly into the San Juan River.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a legal settlement with the Puerto Rico Land Authority that resolves alleged violations of the Clean Water Act. In 2013 and 2014, the Land Authority filled and cleared land and vegetation in wetlands in Guánica, Puerto Rico, causing sediment to wash into adjacent waters, which include the Lajas Channel and the Rio Loco, damaging the wetlands and water quality. Both the Lajas Channel and the Rio Loco flow into Guánica Bay. The Land Authority will pay a $87,000 penalty.

On December 20, President Barack Obama announced that he is withdrawing most of the Arctic Ocean and important areas in the Atlantic permanently from future oil and gas leasing under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. Scientists, environmental leaders and hundreds of thousands of citizens across the country had urged the president to take action to protect critical habitat from oil spills, to aid the transition to a clean energy future and to help the United States meet the carbon reduction goals necessary to avert the worst effects of global climate change.

Mr. Robert Paul Rice Jr, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have reached a settlement regarding Mr. Rice’s Clean Water Act violation for the unauthorized discharge of pollutants to the South Fork Clearwater River. The discharges were a result of Mr. Rice’s operation of a suction dredge in the South Fork of the Clearwater River on July 22, 2015. Mr. Rice agreed to pay a $3,600 penalty as part of the settlement.

In a second partial settlement announced on December 20, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the State of California, automakers Volkswagen AG, Audi AG, Porsche AG and related entities (collectively referred to as Volkswagen), have agreed to recall 83,000 model year 2009 through 2016 3.0 liter diesel vehicles sold or leased in the U.S. that are alleged to be equipped with “defeat devices” to cheat emissions tests, in violation of the Clean Air Act and California law.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has assessed Weston Solutions, Inc. a $25,000 fine for violating an order issued in 2010, when Weston committed to clean up the former Chem-Wood wood treatment facility located in the Kapolei area of Oahu.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has filed a complaint alleging that Syngenta Seeds, LLC violated numerous federal pesticide regulations meant to protect agricultural workers at its crop research farm in Kekaha, Kauai. EPA is seeking civil penalties of over $4.8 million for the violations.