Environment | WPN World People News

Unified Grocers has settled with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for alleged chemical release reporting, risk management, and emergency planning violations at its warehouse facility in Seattle, Washington and will pay EPA a $110,200 penalty. The company will also complete a Supplemental Environmental Project which includes ammonia release detection improvements valued at over $180,000. The facility, located at 3301 South Norfolk in Seattle, Washington, is a distribution center for grocery products.

Belize's Mesoamerican Reef waters are under threat from oil.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. (DuPont) has agreed to pay a fine of $724,000 in settlement of Clean Air Act violations relating to a fire and explosion at its chemical plant in Tonawanda, N.Y.

Three weeks after Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior busted Taiwanese tuna longliner Shuen De Ching No.888 (順得慶888號) fishing illegally in the Pacific, the European Commission has yellow carded Taiwan for failing to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The yellow carding highlights significant failings in Taiwan fisheries management, especially in the oversight of its distant water fleet.

The Delaware City Refining Company will pay a $73,113 penalty to settle alleged violations of federal environmental regulations for failing to immediately notify the National Response Center and state and local emergency planning agencies about the release of hazardous substances that exceeded reportable quantities into the environment on two separate dates.

In Samoa, rising sea levels and storms affect the country’s fragile agricultural sector, and the Red Cross Society runs a vegetable garden project to teach communities agriculture best practices. Photo: IFRC/Benoit Matsha-Carpentier.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a settlement with East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) for improper management of hazardous waste at its Oakland wastewater treatment plant. The public utility agreed to pay a $99,900 penalty.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on September 30 finalized a rule that will reduce the discharge of toxic pollutants into America’s waterways from steam electric power plants by 1.4 billion pounds annually, as well as reduce water withdrawal by 57 billion gallons per year, resulting in an estimated benefit of $463 million per year to Americans across the country. Toxic pollutants include mercury, arsenic, lead, and selenium, which can cause neurological damage in children, lead to cancer, and damage the circulatory system, kidneys, and liver.