Environment | WPN World People News

The World Bank Board Tuesday approved a $250 million Jhelum and Tawi Flood Recovery Project for reconstruction and recovery support to flood-affected areas in which public infrastructure and livelihoods were impacted severely. It will also strengthen the capacity of the state government to respond to and better manage natural disasters in the future.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Tuesday announced a final settlement with Millard Refrigerated Services that resolves alleged violations of the Clean Air Act, Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act for an airborne release of ammonia from Millard’s Theodore, Alabama, facility in 2010. Millard will pay a $3 million penalty for the violations that sickened 152 people responding to the BP oil spill.

Walrus hauled out on Bering Sea ice.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Hawaii State Department of Health (DOH) announced a proposed agreement with the U.S. Navy and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) requiring the military to take measures to minimize the threat of future leaks at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility near Pearl Harbor, Oahu, the site of a major fuel release last year. With 250 million gallons of capacity, Red Hill’s underground storage tanks are the largest of its kind in the world.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Justice, and Hecla Limited, owner of the Lucky Friday Mine and Mill, have reached a settlement concerning water pollution violations near the headwaters of the South Fork Coeur d’Alene River. The South Fork Coeur d’Alene River runs through the heart of North Idaho’s “Silver Valley,” ambitiously recovering from a century of mining pollution. Hecla will pay a $600,000 penalty as part of the settlement.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a plan to clean up contaminated soil from residential properties at the Sherwin-Williams/Hilliards Creek Superfund site in Gibbsboro and Voorhees, New Jersey. The site includes a former paint manufacturing plant and the waters of Hilliards Creek which flow into Kirkwood Lake. The soil and the groundwater beneath the former paint manufacturing site are contaminated with lead, arsenic and volatile organic compounds. Sediment in and near Hilliards Creek are contaminated with lead and arsenic.

The Great Barrier Reef has thousands of kinds of fish and hundreds of types of corals.

Jack Smith compels the Port of Seattle commissioners on March 24 to reverse their lease agreement with Foss Maritime.

The population of the Amur tiger in Russia has increased to as many as 540 individuals over the last ten years, according to figures released by the Russian government.