Ameren Missouri, an electric and gas provider, said that it will comply with the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule by entering into a long-term contract with Peabody Energy for the purchase of 91 million tons of ultra-low sulfur coal through 2017. Warner Baxter, company president and CEO, said this strategy will help the company minimize its environmental expenditures, defer installation of costly clean air filtration equipment, meet sulfur dioxide emission reductions and avoid rate increases.
The European Photovoltaic Industry Association is opposing regulation of the the disposal of PV panels under the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) directive, ENDS Europe reports. Instead, EPIA wants the European Union to recognise a voluntary take-back initiative run by the PV industry.
The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District has agreed to make extensive improvements to its sewer systems and treatment plants, at a cost of about $4.7 billion over 23 years, to eliminate illegal overflows of untreated raw sewage, including basement backups, and to reduce pollution levels in urban rivers and streams, the Department of Justice and the U.S Environmental Protection Agency have announced.
Water utility firm American Water Works Company is part of a team that has received a $124,834 grant from the WateReuse Research Foundation to develop guidance on water reuse's role in achieving LEED status. Alliance Environmental and Hazen and Sawyer are also working on the project, which aims to produce planning tools to help engineers, policy makers, planners and developers make decisions on how to incorporate reclaimed water projects into new buildings and developments.
The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment at the California Environmental Protection Agency says that its carcinogen identification committee will discuss whether to prioritize 39 chemicals when drawing up hazard identification materials. The discussion will take place at a committee meeting October 12 and 13, Lexology reports.
A fishermen's alliance has urged the Philippines’ Department of Environment and Natural Resources to recall an environmental compliance certificate that was given to Taiwan Cogeneration International Corporation, which is expected to build two 150-megawatt, coal-fired thermal plants inside the former U.S. Naval Base in Central Luzon in the Philippines, AllVoices.com said. The alliance has 100,000 members who want to stop the project “that will destroy practically everything,” according to its chairmen.
Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant lowered its power generation to 50 percent in all three reactors last week to comply with regulations covering the temperature of the Tennessee River, the Huntsville Times said. Downstream water temperatures of 90 degrees or higher threaten fish and wildlife, according to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. The Tennessee Valley Authority is nearing completion of a cooling tower that should discharge cooler water to the river.
NSF International has verified a BASF Corporation report detailing the methods and findings of its "Micro Surfacing Eco-Efficiency Analysis," according to ForConstructionPros.com. The report found that, when compared to the environmental impacts and costs of a two-inch mill and fill asphalt overlay, a cold mix, polymer-modified asphalt emulsion-based micro surfacing has the lowest overall material and labor costs.
