Environment | WPN World People News

A low pressure system bringing strong winds to southern Britain has been named Storm Imogen

A combination of gales, high tides and heavy showers will lead to an increased flood risk. On Sunday night and into Monday storm force winds are expected to lead to overtopping waves and spray for south-west and south of England, particularly the Devon and Cornwall coasts, the Bristol Channel, and parts of the Kent and Sussex coastline.

Community and environmental groups, represented by Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit on Feb. 1, 2016, against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, charging the agency with allowing unlawful regulatory loopholes that will expose communities to unnecessary levels of cancer-causing pollution. Eleven groups also filed a petition urging EPA to take formal reconsideration action to remove the problems in the Final Rule that were added after the comment period closed. The following is a statement from these groups.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Justice, and the State of Utah have reached an agreement with Salt Lake County to resolve alleged Clean Water Act violations associated with the county’s stormwater management program. This agreement, lodged Tuesday as a consent decree in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, requires the county to take specific measures to reduce illegal stormwater and non-stormwater discharges to Jordan River Valley surface waters by thoroughly implementing the requirements of its municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) permit. The county will also pay a civil penalty of $280,000.

Cleveland Dam, one of seven new sites designated for conservation under the Ramsar convention.

An EPA Region 7 compliance evaluation inspection of Diamond-Vogel Paint Company in Burlington, Iowa, revealed violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) related to the storage and handling of hazardous waste. In a settlement filed by EPA in Lenexa, Kan., the company will pay a $21,700 civil penalty to the United States.

The public comment period for a hotly contested environmental assessment of an industrial hog facility in the Buffalo River watershed ended on January 29. This assessment prepared by two federal agencies—the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA)—was required by a federal judge who found in a lawsuit filed by the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, Arkansas Canoe Club, National Parks Conservation Association, and the Ozark Society (the Buffalo River Coalition), that the agencies had failed to adequately consider C&H Hog Farm’s impacts on the environment. The agencies’ reevaluation, however, repeats the initial “finding of no significant impact” (FONSI) about C&H’s impacts.

The unsettled weather continue with Storm Henry forecast to bring severe gales in places later on Monday and into Tuesday

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a EUR 100 million financing deal with wastewater operator Aquafin. The operation is the second part of a EUR 200 million facility agreed in December 2014 and is the ninth operation with this counterpart.

While the IAEA may be best known for its work in helping to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, its mandate and impact go beyond non-proliferation, Director General Yukiya Amano said at the University for Peace in San José, Costa Rica, 27 January.