Tag Archives: EPA
EPA fines American Seafoods nearly $1 million for Clean Water Act violations
American Seafoods Company is the world’s largest at-sea processor of Alaska pollock and holds the largest allocation of Wild Pacific Hake. The company operates a fleet of seven vessels in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. The EPA cited the company and the owners of its vessels for hundreds of violations along the Oregon and Washington coasts, including discharging waste in a protected area, failure to monitor discharges and reporting inaccurate information in required annual reports, according to a Thursday statement. “Discharge of seafood processing waste in prohibited areas and within the 100-meter depth contour of Washington and Oregon exacerbates already existing low-oxygen conditions which negatively impact most fishes, crabs and other marine life,” the EPA said. >>click to read<< 10:46
Alaska leaders petition the US Supreme Court for reversal of EPA ban on Pebble Mine
The Dunleavy administration on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to block the controversial Pebble copper and gold mine. Gov. Mike Dunleavy, in the statement, echoed arguments made in the brief assert the EPA action effectively confiscates state property and clashes with the Alaska constitution’s mandates. “Our constitution is clear: Alaska is responsible for utilizing, developing, and conserving all of the State’s natural resources for the maximum benefit of its people,” Dunleavy said in the statement. “Bureaucrats in Washington D.C. are exercising unbridled and unlawful power to choke off any further discussion on this important decision affecting so many Alaskans.” >click to read< 18:09
Chesapeake Bay blue crab population improves after all-time low in 2022
This year, the number of spawning age female crabs and adult male crabs both increased substantially, but the number of juvenile crabs only increased by about 15%, according to the winter dredge survey, which is completed from December to March by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. “We are encouraged by the increases in adult crab abundance, but we need to be vigilant given the ongoing low recruitment numbers,” said Lynn Fegley, acting director for Maryland Department of Natural Resources’s Fishing and Boating Services, in a statement. “We haven’t seen a strong year class since 2019 despite maintaining the spawning stock at a level capable of producing one.” Video, >click to read< 12:56
The Clean Water Act, passed into law 50 years ago, has fallen well short of its goals
Nearly half of the rivers and streams across the U.S. are considered too polluted to meet quality standards for swimming, recreation, aquatic life, fish consumption or as drinking water sources. The Environmental Integrity Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit formed by former Environmental Protection Agency attorneys, published a report that found alarming results of water quality tests in all 50 states. More than 700,000 miles of waterways, about 51 percent of assessed river and stream miles, are impaired by pollution. That’s in addition to another 55 percent of lake acres and 26 percent of estuary miles. >click to read< 16:49
Holtec says it won’t dump radioactive water in Cape Cod Bay in 2022
The company in charge of decommissioning Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station announced Monday that it would not discharge radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay in 2022. “We wanted to share that in the near term the decision at Pilgrim has been made that the processed water will remain on site, safely stored, and that we will not discharge any processed water in 2022 while this evaluation (of alternative disposal options) is undertaken,”,,, The email said the company appreciated and understood the public’s questions and concerns, and “remain committed to an open, transparent process on the decommissioning of Pilgrim Station focused on the health and safety of the public, the environment, and on-site personnel.” >click to read< 11:19
The U.S. is hungry for seafood, but more industrial aquaculture is not the answer
An often cited statistic to prove the need for industrial aquaculture is that as a country, we import as much as 90% of the seafood we consume. A lesser-known fact is that U.S. seafood exports have grown to record levels over the past decade. Rather than allowing destructive fish farming practices that can pollute our environment and displace commercial fishing in our markets, we should support our domestic fishing communities, so they can sell more of the higher-quality wild-caught seafood we produce here at home. Right now, megacorporation’s are pushing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies to gut existing regulations and fast-track permit approvals to build new floating factory fish farms and control even more of the seafood market. >click to read< 14:11
EPA Blocked Bristol Bay’s Proposed Pebble Mine
After two decades of legal wrangling, the EPA asked a court to restore environmental protections to Alaska’s Bristol Bay last week, shutting down a proposed gold mine that environmental activists contended would wreak havoc on an important salmon run and pollute an important watershed on the state’s southwestern coast. The agency made the ruling in response to a lawsuit brought by the mine’s opponents, including commercial fishermen, several Bristol Bay Native villages, and environmental organizations, putting an end to a controversy that dates back to the discovery of minerals in the region in the late 1980s. >click to read< – To read more about everything leading up to this, click here for Search Results for “Pebble Mine” – fisherynation.com 13:26
Nature is not a Whore!!!
We have incredible fishing grounds on our East Coast!!! Why destroy a renewable sustainable Resource??? Molesting these grounds by dumping massive amounts of construction materials on them is insane!!! Keep in mind the many rules the EPA has against ocean dumping!!! Not to mention the likely hood of them turning into a Dumping Ground after they become useless… Out of sight out of mind!!! What wonderful habitat the Turbine bases will make for the Green Crabs ocean Locust!!! We can’t forget about the Whales… The European Wind Farms do not see a significant Whale migration… What aren’t they saying??? >click to read< 09:41
Disposal of Hazardous Waste: The dark side of ‘green energy’ and its threat to the nation’s environment
Wind farms and massive arrays of solar panels are cropping up across public and private landscapes, (offshore, also),,, President Joe Biden, in fact, has directed the Interior Department to identify suitable places to host 20 gigawatts of new energy from sun, wind or geothermal resources by 2024,, But how green is green? Although countries are feverishly looking to install wind and solar farms to wean themselves off carbon-based, or so-called “dirty” energy, few countries, operators and the industry itself have yet to fully tackle the long-term consequences of how to dispose of these systems, which have their own environmental hazards like toxic metals, oil, fiberglass and other material. >click to read< 12:37
Trump set to block controversial Pebble Mine
The Army Corps of Engineers office in Alaska is planning to hold a conference call on Monday with groups connected to the proposed mine discuss the decision,,, Corps officials will say outstanding technical issues with a key permit remain, the people said, adding they anticipate Trump will then follow with a public statement opposing the project. The people said they’re not entirely sure what form Trump’s disavowal will take, although they said it is more likely to come as a rejection of the Army Corps of Pebble’s water permits rather than a veto from EPA, which earlier this year indicated it would not exercise that power. >click to read< 06:30
WTF?!!! A mile wide toxic waste site sits on the ocean floor near Stellwagen Bank
About 19 miles east of Boston Harbor, beside a national marine sanctuary that’s home to one of the world’s richest fishing grounds, lies one of the nation’s largest offshore dumping sites of radioactive waste.,,, David Wiley, the sanctuary’s research coordinator, led a seminal study of the area in the early 1990s. His report, which found that the federal government kept few records of what was dumped there, estimated that there could be as many as 80,000 barrels of toxic waste, most from hospitals, universities, and companies throughout the region. At least 4,000 of them were thought to contain radioactive waste, from the same sources >click to read< 09:11
Plan for fish farm off Florida’s Gulf Coast raises environmental concerns
A Hawaiian fish farming company wants to expand into the Gulf of Mexico near Sarasota, Fla., prompting opposition from some fishing associations and environmental groups.,,, Although it’s only proposed as a demonstration project, such a plan pits the company’s desire to increase the local seafood supply against commercial fishing interests and some environmental groups, which believe industrial fish farms do more harm than good in the long run.,, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has green-lighted the Florida project,,, Other groups that oppose Kampachi’s project include the Louisiana Shrimp Association, Friends of the Earth and the Recirculating Farms Coalition >click to read< 10:44
EPA kills proposed Obama-era Pebble mine ‘veto’
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday it will reverse an Obama-era decision to block a controversial Alaska mine project. “After today’s action EPA will focus on the permit review process for the Pebble Mine project” Region 10 Administrator Chris Hladick said in a statement. While the EPA is withdrawing the 2014 determination, which it wrote “was issued preemptively and is now outdated,” the withdrawal does not constitute an approval of the permit application or a determination in the permitting process. “Instead, it allows EPA to continue working with the Corps to review the current permit application and engage in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process,” the statement reads. >click to read< 19:19
Toxic lobsters? – Long Island Sound dumping dispute nears tipping point
Connecticut says the new underwater dump site is needed to maintain the state’s economic development effort – including its lucrative submarine construction business at Electric Boat’s shipyard,,, New York says the site will be harmful to its ecology and tourism, and Connecticut could, and should, dump the material it dredges up somewhere else.,,, Toxic lobsters? Lobstering is still done in Long Island Sound, though there are far fewer lobsters than in the past. >click to read<10:08
Seafood Giant Agrees to $23M in Upgrades to Reduce Coolant Leaks, EPA Says
Trident Seafoods Corporation, one of the largest seafood processing companies in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, will spend up to $23 million to reduce coolant leaks from refrigerators and other equipment and to improve compliance; the company will also pay a $900,000 fine. Trident agreed to the settlement with the EPA and the US Department of Justice to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act. The EPA says Trident violated the Act by failing to promptly repair leaks of the refrigerant R-22, an ozone-depleting hydrocholorofluorocarbon (HCFC). This allowed its appliances to leak refrigerant at high rates for thousands of days, releasing over 200,000 pounds,,,, Trident will retrofit or retire 23 refrigeration appliances used on 14 marine vessels to use an alternative refrigerant that does not harm the ozone layer compared to typical refrigerants. >click to read<18:12
Pebble mine opponents at Dillingham meeting hammer EPA for changed course
In close to four hours of public testimony, dozens of people told EPA staffers that large-scale mining threatens a fishery and way of life in Bristol Bay. The unanimous opinion given during Wednesday’s meeting in Dillingham, held in the middle of the work day, was that the EPA should finalize preemptive Section 404(c) Clean Water Act restrictions, not withdraw them and wait for an environmental impact statement. click here to read the story 09:30
Pebble rising?
Once thought to be on the verge of death, Alaska’s proposed Pebble prospect copper and gold mine seems to be taking on a new life. First came the July announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency of President Donald Trump that it planned to lift a proposed ban on the mine ordered by the EPA of President Barrack Obama.,,, The Pebble Limited Partnership sued the Obama administration and the EPA of Trump – taking a page from the playbook of enviromental organizations fond of filing lawsuits to leverage legal settlements – in this case negotiated an agreement allowing Pebble to apply for the necessary permits. click here to read the story 09:37
It’s good business to keep Bristol Bay protections
Regulations are in the crosshairs in Washington, D.C. these days. Those elected officials and appointed agency leaders have been clear in their goal to get rid of regulations they say are blocking jobs and economic activity. I humbly suggest that in this flurry to slash red tape, one Environmental Protection Agency protection should stay in place: the one protecting the Bristol Bay fishery in Alaska from the controversial Pebble Mine. I guarantee you the EPA’s plan to restrict mine waste disposal in Bristol Bay waters protects jobs and economic activity: those of my family and the 14,000 others who rely on our nation’s most valuable salmon fishery. In fact, we Alaskans call the sockeye salmon that return to Bristol Bay in their annual spawning runs “red gold.” Bristol Bay is the largest wild salmon fishery remaining anywhere in the world. For thousands of years, those fish have represented not just survival, but wealth. continue reading the op-ed here by Kim Williams 09:08
UNNAMED SOURCE: Career EPA Staffers will undermine Trump, will leak info to enviro groups and the media
An unnamed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) source warned that agency employees will leak information about “actions they deem ill-advised or illegal” to environmental groups and the media, Politico reports. The unnamed career staffer, whose identity Politico keeps anonymous, warned EPA employees “who stay to fight actions they deem ill-advised or illegal by quietly providing information of what is happening inside their agencies to advocacy groups and the media,” Politico reported. Employees are likely to leak to environmental groups and sympathetic media outlets critical of President Trump’s agenda. Trump plans to repeal EPA regulations aimed at tackling global warming and may cut the agency’s budget. Trump is also expected to sign an executive order freezing hiring across federal agencies, including the EPA. Politico reports that the plan is already angering many federal employees. Read the rest here 15:28
Decision Will Allow Disposal Of Dredged Materials In Long Island Sound
Federal environmental officials Friday dismissed protests from New York and issued a final ruling that will allow operation of an open-water site in eastern Long Island Sound for disposing of dredged materials from harbors and ports. The EPA decision drew applause from Connecticut’s congressional delegation and state officials who argued that halting dredge disposal in the eastern Sound would be a damaging economic blow for shoreline communities in this state. In its ruling, the EPA shifted the location of the new open water disposal site to place it entirely within Connecticut waters. New York officials and environmentalists fear the open water disposal of muck dredged primarily from Connecticut harbors could pollute the waters of the Sound and harm commercial and recreational fishing. Read the story here 12:34
Cuomo: New York will take legal action to block EPA L.I. Sound dredge dumping rule
New York State will take legal action against the United States Environmental Protection Agency to prevent the designation of new permanent open water disposal sites off the coast of eastern Long Island, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced today at a press conference at Sunken Meadow State Park. The governor today released a letter signed by more than 30 federal, state and local elected officials, providing notice to President Barack Obama and EPA officials that the state will take necessary steps to block the EPA from issuing a rule allowing dredged materials from Connecticut to be dumped in the eastern region of the Long Island Sound. “The Long Island Sound is one of New York’s greatest natural treasures and a vital component of Long Island’s tourism industry,” Cuomo said. New York has spent “billions and billions of dollars” to clean up and protect the Sound, Cuomo said. (So. Lets just fill it up with wind farms!) Read the rest here 09:49
Hubbs-SeaWorld is partnering with private investment firm to create the largest fish farm in America
Don Kent peers into a water tank about the size of a backyard swimming pool and watches as a school of 10 yellowtails swim by, each about 4 feet long. “There are some big guys in there. There they come,” he said. “That’s a big fish right there.” I ask if he has names for them. “I try not to have names for things I eat,” he said. Kent won’t be eating these fish, but he hopes we’ll all be chowing down on their offspring in a few years. Kent is president and CEO of the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, a research nonprofit partially funded by SeaWorld. Hubbs-SeaWorld is partnering with a private investment firm to create the largest fish farm in America. The proposed aquaculture project would be built 4 miles off San Diego’s coast. Video, Read the rest here 22:21
EPA’s Gina McCarthy should be fired for Western waterway mess
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy’s career of administrative neglect, malfeasance and outright incompetence has been capped by her Agency unleashing one of the worst environmental disasters of the 21st century. EPA clean-up crews breached a waste storage dam that produced a torrent of heavy metal-laden toxic waste, potentially fouling an entire western river system and impacting the drinking water of tens of millions of people. Read the rest here 09:00
EPA causes a major environmental disaster, the question is: will it fine itself and fire those involved?
The 
often justifies its own existence by noting that corporations, who see profit as their goal rather than environmental protection, are ill-equipped (or at least, ill-prioritized) to care for America’s natural resources. It turns out that, perhaps, the EPA might also be ill-equipped to handle toxic waste when it comes to preventing large-scale pollution of our nation’s waterways. In fact, they may have caused, on its own, one of our nation’s greatest environmental disasters. Read the rest here 17:45
Salmon Vs. Gold Splits Alaska GOP
There’s gold in them thar…. swamps. A lot of gold, in fact—up to $120 billion of it, lying within the Bristol Bay watershed in Alaska. Which is why a Canadian company, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., wants to dig one of the world’s largest open-pit mines to get it. Naturally, there’s a fight. Mines are messy, and this one—the —could threaten delicate salmon spawning grounds. But this fight is different—because there are Republicans on both sides. Read the rest here 09:26
EPA regs hit fishing industry, unless Congress meets deadline
If the rule goes into effect, the EPA estimates it would apply to as many as 138,000 smaller vessels around the country, and about half them are commercial fishing boats. The rules would apply to, among other liquids, fish-hold effluent, bilge water, grey water, and, Curry points out, deckwash. Even runoff. Read the rest here 11:13
Mine waste storage and salmon runs, what could go wrong?
In a Northern Dynasty submission to the EPA, Knight Piesold, the firm which engineered the 
, weighed in. “Modern dam design technologies are based on proven scientific/engineering principles, and there is no basis for asserting that they will not stand the test of time.” Well, I guess the test of time was a pop quiz and Knight Piesold flunked it. They also engineered the failed dam at Northern Dynasty . Read the rest here 11:00
The Observer Program. Expanded
The US Fishing industry is the most scrutinized industry in the Nation. In another article today regarding the Mount Polley mine tailings pond dam breach, a fishermen’s representative laments, “We have fleets of boats with observers or cameras watching our every move to fish sustainably, and nobody is watching these folks as they destroy our ecosystem,” I would like to expand the conversation regarding oversight of the regulators,,, <Read more here> 19:50
Alright Fishermen. Listen up! How a Club of Billionaires and Their Foundations Control the Environmental Movement and Obama’s EPA
Think NOAA/NMFS! How a Club of Billionaires and Their Foundations Control the Environmental Movement and Obama’s EPA A new report was released today by the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, and it is damning. All this time that climate skeptics are accused of being in the employ of “big oil” is nothing more than a projection of their own greed. Read more here Read the Senate.gov report 17:25
Environmental Group Says Lobster is “Poor Choice” for Pregnant Women – “Them’s fightin’ words!”
Later this summer, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) plans to raise concerns about mercury levels in lobster within the context of a draft update to federal consumer guidelines for seafood consumption. As a Maine resident (and someone who has been covering mercury in seafood more than a little recently), I immediately sat up and took note at the mention of . Read more here 20:01
