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Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Environment - Stories on CAFOs, Pines coal ash, Asian Carp, Biomass plants [Updated]
A number of Indiana environmental stories today:
- "Randolph megadairy files for bankruptcy", from the Richmond Palladium-Item.
- "EPA to update Pines residents about coal ash contamination", from the Gary Post-Tribune.
- "U.S. Officials Plan $78.5 Million Effort to Keep Dangerous Carp Out of Great Lakes", a story by Monica Davey in the NY Times. A quote:
The plan, which would be paid for mostly with federal money already promised to Great Lakes restoration efforts, calls for new barriers to prevent flooding that might allow the spread of the fish. It also seeks completion of a third electric barrier aimed at preventing the fish, which have already made homes in the Mississippi River system, from traveling through the waterways that lead to the Great Lakes.
The plan suggests that navigational locks along those waterways, which connect to Lake Michigan and are crucial to commercial barge traffic in the Chicago area, could be opened less often than they are now as a way to slow the carp.
Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan, a Democrat who attended the meeting, said the measures were inadequate, particularly the notion of opening the locks less frequently. “They just need to shut the locks down, at least temporarily,” Ms. Granholm said in a telephone interview after the meeting.
She added that some type of modified schedule for closing the locks would hardly stop the fish from swimming.
- "State extends comment time on biomass plants", a story today in the Louisville Courier Journal, reported by Grace Schneider. The story begins:
Indiana environmental regulators have agreed to provide another three weeks for public comment about air-quality permits for two proposed biomass power plants in Scottsburg and Milltown.
The decision by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to accept comments until Feb. 24 came after several Scott County residents urged agency officials last week to allow time to review new information about smokestacks and other plans submitted by Liberty Green Renewables, the company that is developing the two power stations.
On Monday, agency spokesman Rob Elstro said a “significant number of requests” convinced officials to extend the comment period. Regulators also are still evaluating technical details about the planned smokestacks for the facilities and emissions from switch grass, which may be burned as one of the fuels for the facilities, Elstro said.
What follows is a report on the efforts to get some legislation that requires responsible operation of the confined animal feeding operations in Indiana.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 9, 2010 09:24 AM
Posted to Environment