Clean Water Act

 

NWPR & WOTUS

 

Trump WOTUS Rewrite Could Backfire, Lawmakers Warned. According to E&E News, “A top water regulator from New Mexico yesterday warned senators that hardrock mines, wastewater facilities and other industrial entities could face stricter environmental oversight as the Trump administration’s Waters of the U.S., or WOTUS, rule takes effect. That’s because entities may no longer require a permit to discharge pollutants into nearby waterways that no longer fall under WOTUS. The Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule took effect in June, pulling back federal protection for millions of miles of streams and acres of wetlands. But those same facilities could now fall under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which regulates the release of hazardous and nonhazardous solid waste into waterways, said Rebecca Roose, director of the New Mexico Environment Department’s Water Protection Division, during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing. Roose pointed to EPA’s rule that any facility covered by a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit isn’t subject to RCRA. With fewer wetlands and streams covered under Trump’s WOTUS rule — and fewer permits required — facilities may now face RCRA scrutiny, said Roose, a situation that creates more work for state and federal regulators, increases compliance costs and may generate confusion. ‘[The new WOTUS rule may] remove an exemption for some of these industrial facilities that discharge directly to water bodies and municipal wastewater treatment plants through a pre-treatment plan, that they could now be subject to RCRA requirements, Subtitle C, hazardous waste,’ Roose said.” [E&E News, 9/17/20 (=)]

 

Corning Farmer Touts Benefits Of Trump WOTUS Replacement In Senate Testimony. According to KMA-Radio, “‘The EPA wrote a rule that threatened my farm with jaw-dropping penalties and even criminal prosecution for tilling, spraying or disturbing a Water of the U.S.’ advertisement Implemented in 2015, WOTUS was developed to address issues over clarity with federal waterways. Following years of court battles, the Trump Administration suspended the rule in September 2019 and implemented a new rule this spring. Gaesser says the new rule allows flexibility for farmers to manage conservation on their land. ‘Our landscapes are diverse, so there is no perfect model,’ said Gaesser. ‘Instead, we need the ability to make the best decisions possible to successfully manage and mitigate what’s out of our control.’ Gaesser says farmers and ranchers care about having clean water and preserving their land, because it is how they feed their family and the nation. ‘This rule brings certainty and predictability into focus, giving farmers like me and my son Chris the freedom to farm all while achieving important regulatory oversight,’ said Gaesser. ‘This new rule does not change who oversees permanent waterways. Instead, it ensures states can enforce their own environmental laws to position farmers and rural communities for long-term success.’” [KMA-Radio, 9/16/20 (-)]

 

Permits & Certifications

 

Trump Echoes Pebble Mine-Backed Ad Campaign. According to Politico, “Trump late last night tweeted about the Pebble Mine — using almost the same language as an ad paid for by the developer shortly after it aired during Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program. ‘President Trump, continue to stand tall, and don’t let politics enter the Pebble Mine review process,’ the narrator says over an image of Trump boarding Air Force One, with ‘Paid for by Pebble Limited Partnership’ written at the bottom. Less than two hours after the Pebble-backed ad aired during Carlson’s show — on which the Fox News host has at least twice dedicated segments in the past month to opposing Pebble Mine — Trump tweeted: ‘Don’t worry, wonderful & beautiful Alaska, there will be NO POLITICS in the Pebble Mine Review Process. I will do what is right for Alaska and our great Country!!!’ It’s hard to say what this means for Pebble Mine. It’s unclear whether Trump was merely echoing the ad’s rhetoric or actually endorsing the developer’s viewpoint. It’s the first time Trump has substantively weighed in on the issue since his eldest son and other prominent conservatives started publicly lobbying him to block the massive copper and gold project because of potential threats to Bristol Bay’s critical salmon fishery. As with all things Trump, it ain’t over til it’s over.” [Politico, 9/17/20 (=)]

 

NOAA Grants Permit To Imperiled Alaska LNG Project. According to Politico, “What: The Trump administration approved a federal permit on Wednesday for a proposed liquefied natural gas export terminal in Alaska, a key regulatory step for long-planned project that’s struggled to attract customers or financial backers. The details: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration granted developers of the Alaska LNG terminal authority to incidentally disturb or kill marine mammals, the last step before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission can decide whether Alaska Gasline Development Corp. can proceed with construction. The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, an independent federal council, said in a statement the project would support up to 19,000 permanent and temporary jobs. Context: The Trump administration has been quickly approving the permits needed for Alaska LNG to build the LNG export terminal and natural gas pipeline. But the $38 billion, 807-mile pipeline project that would deliver fuel across Alaska to the state’s North Slope has been dead in the water since last year, when major investors abandoned the project after costs skyrocketed because of the steel tariffs imposed by the Trump administration and trade tensions with China that reduced the number of potential investment partners. What’s next: Project developer Alaska Gasline Development Corp. has not said when it will announce a final investment decision on whether to try to proceed to build the project.” [Politico, 9/16/20 (=)]

 

Federal Judges Reject Bid To Rehear Alaska Drilling Dispute. According to E&E News, “A federal appeals court has declined to reconsider whether environmental groups acted too late to challenge a pair of oil and gas lease sales in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request from the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups calling for a full panel of judges to rehear their case. ‘The full court has been advised of the petition for rehearing en banc and no judge requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter en banc,’ a three-judge panel wrote in an order yesterday. The challengers had opposed the Bureau of Land Management’s decision in 2016 and 2017 to hold oil and gas lease sales in the 23-million-acre reserve. They argued that the agency violated the National Environmental Policy Act by not directly analyzing the environmental effects of the planned lease sales. Instead, BLM had maintained that a 2012 environmental review document also applied to the agency’s subsequent lease sale decisions. … ‘If left uncorrected, the rule adopted in reliance on this flawed premise would unfairly bar future judicial review of agency compliance with NEPA, not just in the Reserve but in any setting where an agency prepares a programmatic EIS which addresses a potential future implementing action and that action is not taken until after the applicable statute of limitations expires,’ the groups wrote in their petition for rehearing last month.” [E&E News, 9/16/20 (=)]

 

43,000 Signees Opposed To MVP Extension. According to Kallanish Energy, “Opponents of the stalled Mountain Valley Pipeline have submitted 43,000 signatures urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission not to grant more time to complete the $5.7 billion pipeline, Kallanish Energy reports. The petitions were submitted to the federal agency on Monday. The signatures and comments were collected by the Sierra Club, Appalachian Voices, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Food and Water Watch, Friends of the Earth Action, Beyond Extreme Energy, 198 Methods and the North Carolina Alliance to Protect Our People and the Places We Live. The signatures were all from residents of West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. On Aug. 25, Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC has asked FERC for an additional two years to complete the natural gas pipeline. It wants to extend the deadline from Oct. 13, 2020, to Oct. 13, 2022. The company has publicly said it expects to complete the pipeline in 2021. The Sierra Club and several allies also moved to intervene in the FERC consideration of that extension request. Virginia’s U.S. senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner also asked FERC to extend the public comment period to 30 days, calling the 15 days inadequate.” [Kallanish Energy, 9/16/20 (=)]

 

TMDL & Nutrients

 

Municipal Groups, Montana Push Back On Environmentalists’ Nutrient Suit. According to InsideEPA, “Municipal and industry groups, along with Montana officials, are pushing back on environmentalists’ challenge to EPA’s approval of a controversial state water quality nutrient criteria provision, telling a federal district court the approval was consistent with the agency’s authority under the Clean Water Act (CWA). ‘This case is about one simple act: Defendant EPA’s approval of the State of Montana’s regulations making general variances non-severable from numeric nutrient criteria . . . [and] EPA’s decision was permissible under the CWA and supported by the record’ the Montana League of Cities and Towns says in a Sept. 11 brief to the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana in Upper Missouri Waterkeeper v. EPA, et al. The league of cities is an intervenor-defendant in the case, along with the state of Montana and Treasure State Resources Association (TSRA), which represents industry, labor, agriculture and recreation groups concerned about regulatory decisions in the state. The litigation is part of a long-running dispute over how to set nutrient water quality standards (WQS) that are both protective of waterbodies’ designated uses and feasible for dischargers to meet.” [InsideEPA, 9/16/20 (=)]

 

Water Pollution

 

Drinking Water

 

Op-Ed: From Sewage Sludge, A New Perspective On The Flint Water Crisis. According to Undark Magazine, “Our early studies of lead levels in Flint residences helped expose the water crisis. Now, in complementary studies published in Water Research and Environmental Science: Water Research and Technology, we’ve found that lead levels in the water were not as bad as first feared: Water lead levels did increase sharply during the first few months of the water crisis, but for most of the time the city was receiving its water from the Flint River, the average levels of lead in drinking water were indistinguishable from those before the switch. In fact, our research shows that the Flint water crisis wasn’t even the city’s worst lead exposure event of that decade. The conclusions are based on data collected from the routine monitoring of the city’s sewage sludge, or biosolids. Well before taking samples at sewage plants became a popular way to track the surge of the novel coronavirus, scientists actively analyzed sewage to monitor aspects of public health, including viral disease markers, illicit drug consumption patterns, and human gut microbiome shifts. In Flint, officials have been sampling biosolids monthly for over 25 years. We showed that lead levels in the biosolids were strongly correlated with lead levels from our citywide sampling of Flint’s drinking water, which allowed us to use the biosolid measurements to estimate average lead levels in the city’s drinking water over the period from 2010 to 2019. Due to consistency in the sampling methodology and the capture of all lead released from plumbing, the biosolids measurements in Flint’s case provide a much more reliable picture of citywide water lead levels than the residential water tests, which were both infrequent and used questionable methods.” [Undark Magazine, 9/17/20 (+)]

 

PFAS

 

List Of Potentially Contaminated Military Sites Tops 700. According to E&E News, “The Department of Defense is now investigating more than 700 military installations that are potentially contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The department has added 34 new military installations that may be contaminated because of the military’s use of aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF, the Environmental Working Group said today. AFFF is used to extinguish unconfined fires. Some of the newly added sites include Fort Chaffee in Arkansas and several ammunition plants in Texas, Tennessee, Minnesota and Kansas. In March, DOD had identified more than 600 military sites with known or suspected PFAS contamination (Greenwire, March 17). ‘Why is it the case in 2020, that we still don’t know the full scope of the PFAS contamination crisis and have no plan to confirm the presence of PFAS, much less clean up legacy PFAS contamination,’ said Scott Faber, EWG’s senior vice president for government affairs. Faber called PFAS contamination and exposure to service members a ‘crazy failure by DOD’ and blamed President Trump for DOD’s ‘failure to treat PFAS with a seriousness it deserves.’ He said Trump ‘failed’ to designate PFAS as hazardous, direct DOD to clean up the chemicals and identify places where contamination in water is likely. Jared Hayes, a policy analyst at EWG, pointed to DOD’s slow pace in testing as the number of possible contamination sights increase.” [E&E News, 9/16/20 (=)]

 

EPA Officials Eye ‘Other Opportunities’ For Burn Test Of PFAS Surrogates. According to InsideEPA, ‘After a high-profile setback last month, EPA is continuing to search for an incineration facility to test destruction of per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) surrogates to determine the technology’s effectiveness in destroying the compounds, the agency’s PFAS research leader says, adding that officials would also like to expand testing to a range of different types of incinerators. Andrew Gillespie, executive lead for PFAS research at EPA’s Office of Research & Development, told the Air & Waste Management Association’s virtual conference, ‘The Science of PFAS,’ Sept. 16 that the agency is ‘exploring other opportunities’ to test incineration of PFAS surrogates. Gillespie signaled that EPA would also like to broaden testing to include other types of thermal facilities. ‘Ideally, we’d like to look at a range of facilities. We’d like to look at sewage sludge incinerators,’ as well as hazardous waste incinerators and granular activated carbon (GAC) regenerators, he said, ‘because, really, many of these facilities right now are incinerating PFAS to some degree.” [InsideEPA, 9/16/20 (=)]

 

Coal Ash

 

Witness: Proposal To Make Duke Energy Share Coal-Ash Costs Could Force 'Billions' In Earnings Write-Off. According to Charlotte Business Journal, “Rebuttal witnesses for Duke Energy Carolinas argued on financial and regulatory grounds Tuesday against a proposal to make the company pay half of its $490 million coal-ash cleanup costs. That meant much of the afternoon session of the hearing on Duke’s requested rate hike was held in closed session. The N.C. Utilities Commission closed the session as attorneys for the Public Staff challenged the propriety of spending on specific projects involved in cleaning up coal-ash operations. Before the closed session, Duke presented four witnesses who largely focused on reasons they contend the commission should reject all of the proposals made by the Public Staff, the state’s utility customer advocate. Sean Riley, a partner with consulting and accounting firm PwC (formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers), testified that he is aware of no regulators elsewhere in the nation that have approved or considered the kind of ‘equitable sharing’ of coal costs the staff proposes. He noted that utilities and regulators across the country are facing the question of how to recover significant coal-ash costs imposed by recent changes to federal requirements for the handling and disposal of ash at coal-fired power plants. He said the way that is generally being handled is through the process the commission adopted for Duke in a 2018 rate case.” [Charlotte Business Journal, 9/16/20 (=)]

 

Toxic Algae

 

Harmful, Bioluminescent Algae Bloom Causes Fish Kill In Indian Creek In Hampton. According to WAVY-TV, “An ongoing harmful algae bloom is believed to have caused a fish kill in Indian Creek in Hampton over the weekend as the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality investigates the incident. Based on the intensity of the bloom from the sampling in the creek on September 10 by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) and VDH, experts believe the fish kill was related to the depletion of dissolved oxygen by bacteria decomposing the dying algae. This algal species called Alexandrium monilatum is also known to have the potential to produce a toxin which can kill large numbers of fish in the vicinity of the bloom. This toxin is not well understood, but it does not typically affect humans. Alexandrium monilatum is an annual marine bloom species in the Chesapeake Bay, as well as its tributaries of the James and York Rivers, and to a lesser extent in the Rappahannock River. The bloom is bioluminescent at night, producing a blue glow when the water is disturbed and during the day, the algae bloom may appear as a ‘red’ or ‘brown tide.’ Officials say the bloom is likely to continue and may appear elsewhere in the bay and along the Atlantic oceanfront until environmental conditions no longer support the bloom’s proliferation.” [WAVY-TV, 9/16/20 (=)]

 

Wastewater

 

In A Dry State, Farmers Use Oil Wastewater To Irrigate Their Fields, But Is It Safe? According to InsideClimate News, “For decades, farmers in California’s Kern County have turned to wastewater from oil production to help irrigate their crops during extended dry spells. The wastewater provides an alternative to groundwater, which has become increasingly scarce as farmers have pumped more than they could replenish. But the use of the recycled water, a byproduct of oil and natural gas extraction that is mixed with surface water for irrigation, has stirred controversy. Because the water, known as oilfield produced water or oilfield brine, contains chemicals like salt, boron, arsenic and radioactive elements, scientists and environmentalists worry that it poses a risk to human health. California water officials have argued that the water from the east side of the county is safe to use because of its low salinity levels. Other experts have said further testing of the water is needed and contend that the state should impose tighter restrictions on its use. A study released earlier this year has added to the debate. Conducted by a team of California and North Carolina researchers, the study found that the concentrations of boron, salt, radionuclides and other chemicals in samples of water and soil in Kern County’s Cawelo Water District met safety standards for irrigation water. … But in the study, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, also called for further testing of the chemicals in the water, testing in other locations and investigation of the long-term effects on human health of consuming crops irrigated by oilfield wastewater.” [InsideClimate News, 9/16/20 (+)]

 

Stormwater

 

Natural Gas Production In Pennsylvania Hits Record High. According to StateImpact Pennsylvania, “The state’s more than 70,000 conventional wells produced about 71 billion cubic feet of gas in 2019. There are about 8,400 active unconventional wells. The latest report also documents nearly 12,000 abandoned wells. DEP estimates there could be as many as 200,000 of them, many of which predate regulatory oversight. The orphan wells can leak methane into the air and possibly contaminate groundwater or surface water. DEP and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources are now working to measure methane leakage from identified orphan wells in the Cornplanter State Forest ‘We know there are thousands of old, abandoned wells in Pennsylvania, but we don’t know how to quantify the threat these wells pose to our environment, especially from a climate change angle,’ said McDonnell. ‘This research will help us put that into perspective and help guide how to prioritize well-plugging in the future.’” [StateImpact Pennsylvania, 9/14/20 (=)]

 

DEP Releases 2019 Oil And Gas Annual Report. According to Tri-County Independent, “Natural gas production in Pennsylvania increased while new well drilling decreased in 2019, according to the 2019 Oil and Gas Annual Report released by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The report also notes improved permit review efficiency. DEP is also exploring new partnerships to address orphan wells, identifying better restoration practices, and developing better ways to manage stormwater on well sites. Production from natural gas wells continues to increase. More than 6 billion Mcf of natural gas was produced, continuing an upward trend from previous years. Other details from the annual report: ‒ 1,705 drilling permits were issued; 1,475 unconventional and 230 conventional ‒ There were 787 wells drilled; 615 unconventional and 172 conventional ‒ DEP conducted 35,324 inspections and found 5,496 violations ‒ DEP collected $4.1 million in fines and penalties in 2019” [Tri-County Independent, 9/16/20 (=)]

 

Plastic Pollution

 

Most Plastic Will Never Be Recycled – And The Manufacturers Couldn’t Care Less. According to The Guardian, “Plastic recycling is a scam. You diligently sort your rubbish, you dutifully wash your plastic containers, then everything gets tossed in a landfill or thrown in the ocean anyway. OK, maybe not everything – but the vast majority of it. According to one analysis, only 9% of all plastic ever made has likely been recycled. Here’s the kicker: the companies making all that plastic have spent millions on advertising campaigns lecturing us about recycling while knowing full well that most plastic will never be recycled. A new investigation by National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) reports that the large oil and gas companies that manufacture plastics have known for decades that recycling plastic was unlikely to ever happen on a broad scale because of the high costs involved. ‘They were not interested in putting any real money or effort into recycling because they wanted to sell virgin material,’ Larry Thomas, former president of one of the plastic industry’s most powerful trade groups, told NPR. There is a lot more money to be made in selling new plastic than reusing the old stuff. But, in order to keep selling new plastic, the industry had to clean up its wasteful image. ‘If the public thinks that recycling is working, then they are not going to be as concerned about the environment,’ Thomas noted. And so a huge amount of resources were diverted into intricate ‘sustainability theatre’.” [The Guardian, 9/16/20 (=)]

 

Western Water

 

Risk Of Colorado River Shortage Is On The Rise, Could Hit Within 5 Years, Officials Say. According to Arizona Republic, “The risks of water shortages continue to grow along the Colorado River, which supplies about 40 million people from Wyoming to Arizona. Federal water managers released projections Tuesday showing higher odds of shortages occurring within the next five years. The Colorado River is in the 21st year of a severe drought that’s being compounded by hotter temperatures influenced by climate change, and the river’s flows have increasingly been insufficient to meet all the demands of cities and farms across the region. Last year, representatives of seven states and the federal government met in a ceremony overlooking Hoover Dam and signed a set of agreements aimed at reducing the risks of reservoirs dropping to shortage levels that would require major cutbacks. But following a hot and extremely dry spring and summer, the Bureau of Reclamation’s latest projections show that in a scenario of continuing drought between now and 2025, the chances of Lake Mead falling into a shortage has increased to nearly 80%. The odds of the reservoir dropping to critically low levels by 2025 under this scenario was estimated at nearly 20%.” [Arizona Republic, 9/17/20 (=)]

 

AP | Water Shortages In West Likelier Than Previously Thought. According to E&E News, “There’s a chance water levels in the two largest man-made reservoirs in the United States could dip to critically low levels by 2025, jeopardizing the steady flow of Colorado River water that more than 40 million people rely on in the West. After a relatively dry summer, the Bureau of Reclamation released models yesterday suggesting looming shortages in lakes Powell and Mead — the reservoirs where Colorado River water is stored — are more likely than previously projected. Compared with an average year, only 55% of Colorado River water is flowing from the Rocky Mountains down to Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona line. Due to the below-average runoff, government scientists say the reservoirs are 12% more likely to fall to critically low levels by 2025 than they projected in the spring. ‘This is a pretty significant increase over what was projected in April due to the declining runoff this year,’ hydrologist Carly Jerla said. The forecast could complicate already-fraught negotiations between Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Mexico over future shares of the river that supplies their cities and farms. Those talks will draw up new agreements by 2026 over use of the river that’s under siege from climate change and prolonged drought.” [E&E News, 9/16/20 (=)]

 

Environmental Justice

 

Trees As A Civil Right: 'All We Have Is Cement And Pavement'. According to E&E News, “As the climate changes, Boston is expecting to get steamy. The city’s climate action plan says that by 2050, Boston summers may be as hot as Washington, D.C., today. By 2100, the summers may become comparable to those of today’s Birmingham, Ala. Already hotter than the rest of the city, Roxbury is expected to take the brunt of that heat, the climate plan says. The neighborhood is home to ‘a high percentage of community members who may be more at risk of heat stroke, including low-income individuals, older Bostonians and children, and those dealing with medical illnesses.’ Roxbury isn’t alone within Massachusetts, where low-income residents are 60% more likely to live in nature-deprived areas, with Black and brown residents roughly six times as likely to be affected as white residents. … Overall, the project would require cutting down 124 of the 500 trees that still line Melnea Cass Boulevard. Roots of another 200 trees would be cut or damaged during construction. While Boston intends to plant 205 new trees to compensate for those losses, tree experts argue that swapping new trees for mature, 40-year-old ones is not a fair trade. Meshoulam, at Speak for the Trees Boston, said that by his calculations, the city would actually have to plant more than twice as many new trees to account for all the carbon stored, air quality improved and stormwater intercepted by the trees already lining the boulevard. ‘We have to stop in the city thinking about trees as a commodity,’ he said. ‘We can’t just willy-nilly cut down trees and say, ‘Oh, we can replace them.’ They are an asset, and we have to plan around them, not through them.’” [E&E News, 9/16/20 (=)]

 

Flooding

 

Committee Approves Flood Bill, Transportation Nominees. According to E&E News, “The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved flood prevention legislation yesterday, along with a roster of transportation nominees. The ‘Flood Level Observation, Operations, and Decision Support (FLOODS) Act,’ S. 4462, would establish a national integrated flood information system within NOAA to improve flood damage predictions. It passed by voice vote, with the backing of committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.).” [E&E News, 9/17/20 (=)]

 

Misc. Waterways

 

Some Of Glacier National Park's Glaciers Have Lost As Much As 80% Of Their Size In The Last 50 Years. According to CNN, “Glacier National Park, one of America’s original 10 national parks, could lose its glaciers completely within decades. What would the park look like in the next century then, without the glaciers that feed the wildlife, farms and people who depend on it? Officials at the Montana park are asking the public about the its future on Twitter with the hashtag #GlacierMovingForward. Glacier National Park is over 100 years old now, but its terrain is rapidly changing -- and park officials want allies to support its future for the next 100 years. When the park was founded in 1910, it had over 100 glaciers, mammoth masses of ice that covered about 25 acres and moved under their own weight. Now, ‘a couple dozen’ are large enough to be considered glaciers, and all of them have suffered tremendous melt, according to the park. … The park provides cold freshwater to people who live in the state and neighboring areas and the crops they farm -- but if global temperatures continue to climb and conditions get hotter and drier more often, the demand for water will, too. With fewer glaciers, that demand can’t be met. Glaciers’ waters also generate electricity, according to the National Park Service, as it passes through hydroelectric dams. And the wildlife that depend on the glacier’s cool climate to survive may find themselves without sources of food, at risk of becoming prey or in uninhabitable terrain.” [CNN, 9/16/20 (+)]

 

Portland And South Portland Release Ambitious Climate Action Plan. According to Portland Press Herald, “The report lays out ‘six big moves,’ which Thibodeau said represent the policy areas that need to be addressed in each community. Those include stronger sustainability measures in building codes; encouraging higher density housing on transportation corridors and better connecting neighborhoods with trails and public transit; switching to renewable energy sources, such as solar; ‘growing a circular economy,’ which seeks to reuse waste, such as composting organic waste to improve soil health; protecting open spaces and treating polluted storm-water runoff; and fostering more collaboration between municipalities, regions and the state, particularly around data collection and sharing. Some key milestones include more than doubling the use of public transit and ensuring the city’s housing stock meets the needs of its workforce by 2035; replacing natural gas and oil heat with electric and solar by 2050; reducing organics in the waste stream by 70 percent by 2030; achieving zero waste by 2050; and converting 15 percent of the hard surfaces in the city to a type of surface that can absorb rainwater.” [Portland Press Herald, 9/16/20 (=)]

 

 

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