Regulatory
Could Enemies Target Undersea Cables that Link the World?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Russian ships are skulking around underwater communications cables, causing the U.S. and its allies to worry the Kremlin might be taking information warfare to new depths. Is Moscow interested in cutting or tapping the cables? Does it want the West to worry it might? Is there a mo..
Water Resources Plan for Southeastern Michigan Adopted
DETROIT (AP) – The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments general assembly has adopted a plan aimed at protecting the region’s water resources. The plan emphasizes the importance of integrated management of water resources to advance tourism, recreation, economic development, protection of natur..
Michigan City Works to Deal with Disinfection Byproduct in Water
CASEVILLE (AP) — Michigan officials say a community along Lake Huron is working to make its drinking water meet government standards. WNEM-TV reports recent tests found that the city of Caseville’s water system had levels of a disinfection byproduct called trihalomethane that slightly exceeded st..
New York Municipalities Receive $615,000 in in Lake Ontario Flood Relief Funds
New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the Town of Newfane and the Village of Barker in Niagara County have been awarded $615,083 in Lake Ontario Flood Relief funds to support restoration resiliency efforts following last year’s flooding and to protect the community from the damage of fut..
Report: California’s Regulated Water Utilities Invested More than $645 Million on Infrastructure in 2017
According to an analysis by the California Water Association (CWA), the state’s largest regulated water utilities invested more than $645 million in 2017 into improving and upgrading the infrastructure that delivers water to the communities they serve. CWA represents 100 water utilities regulated b..
US Government, Montana County Make Deal over Water System
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The U.S. government has asked a judge to approve an agreement with Beaverhead County to upgrade a small Montana community’s drinking water system after years of finding excessive contamination and numerous monitoring failures. The Department of Justice filed the proposed agreem..
Lake Erie Monitoring Study Shows High Phosphorous Levels
The Ohio EPA today released its Spring 2017 Western Lake Erie Tributary Water Monitoring Summary, which shows high levels of phosphorous are still headed to Lake Erie. Exacerbated by wet weather, the total phosphorus load in the Maumee River was elevated to more than twice the required reduction tar..
Teen Rescued After Fall into Drainage Pipe at Los Angeles Park
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 13-year-old boy who fell into a drainage pipe during an Easter outing at a Los Angeles park was rescued alive early Monday after an overnight search of the underground system, authorities said. The boy spent at least 12 hours in the system before he was found. “We located Jesse..
Court Denies Hawaiian County's Plea to Reverse Wastewater Ruling
WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) — An appeals court denied Maui County’s request for a full-panel review of its Feb. 1 decision that the county pumped treated wastewater into injection wells at its Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility for more than three decades, thereby violating the Clean Water Act. “We’r..
New York Governor: Maintain or Increase Lake Ontario Outflows
New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo issued a letter to the U.S. Chair of the International Joint Commission (IJC) requesting that the entity maximize outflows from the Lake Ontario system to reduce the flooding risk for New Yorkers living and working along the shoreline. The letter was issued in advan..
FERC Denies Pipeline’s Request for More Time to Cut Trees
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A federal commission denied a request Wednesday from developers of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline to continue cutting down trees along the project’s route beyond an initial deadline designed to protect birds and bats. Dominion Energy, leading percentage owner of the natur..
Kentucky Auditor Examining Troubled Broadband Project
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky’s auditor is investigating the state’s troubled broadband project, but the report won’t be finished before lawmakers must decide whether to keep funding a venture that is years behind schedule and costing taxpayers millions of dollars in delays. Auditor Mike Har..
Vermont Gas Agrees to Independent Review of Pipeline
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont Gas Systems has agreed to an independent review of a pipeline project to address allegations of safety shortcuts. The company says it is confident in the integrity of the Addison Natural Gas Project pipeline, which was completed last year, but wants an outside expert ..
Minnesota Town Shuts Down Well, Water Tower
LAKE ELMO, Minn. (AP) — The Washington County community of Lake Elmo has shut down a municipal well and one of its water towers because of elevated levels of a chemical once discharged by the 3M Company. City officials say new information from state health officials about excess levels of perfluoro..
New York City Completes $71 Million Sewer and Water Infrastructure Upgrade Project
New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Vincent Sapienza and Department of Design and Construction (DDC) Acting Commissioner Ana Barrio today announced that construction has been completed on a $71 million infrastructure upgrade project in Flushing, Queens, that will ..
Atlanta to Receive Funding to Address Flooding, Improve Combined Sewer System
During Atlanta’s 17th annual Parks and Greenspace Conference, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms today announced that the city will be the first municipality in the country to be awarded a publicly-offered Environmental Impact Bond (EIB) for green infrastructure projects. Through a creative-financing op..
ETP Mariner East Liquids Pipe Spills More Fluid in Pennsylvania
(Reuters) – Pennsylvania environmental regulators on Monday issued another notice of violation to Energy Transfer Partners LP’s Sunoco Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids pipeline for releasing drilling fluids into a wetland. The company told the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (..
Virginia Regulators OK Key Mountain Valley Pipeline Step
OANOKE, Va. (AP) — Virginia environmental regulators have approved a key step forward for the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline. The state Department of Environmental Quality announced late Monday that it has approved erosion, sediment and storm water control plans for the natural gas pipeline..
FERC: Rover Pipeline Restoration Activities Not Completed by Deadline
Because of a failure to satisfactorily complete restoration activities at two compressor stations associated with the Rover Pipeline Project, FERC today ordered Energy Transfer Partners to file an account within the next two days detailing why such activities were not finished within the committed t..
Lawmakers Wary of Cost to Fund Kentucky Broadband Project
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Sending inmates to private prisons and building a high-speed internet network dominated the second day of budget talks Monday as lawmakers sought to resolve initial disagreements on how to spend more than $70 billion in public funds over the next two years. Lawmakers agreed to..
New Administrator Chosen for Louisiana Utility Commission
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s state utility regulatory agency has a new top administrator, chosen from within the agency’s ranks. The Louisiana Public Service Commission chose Brandon Frey to be its executive secretary, a position that oversees the day-to-day operations of the agency. Frey h..
Equipment Failure Causes Oregon Sewer Spill
MONMOUTH, Ore. (AP) – Officials say about 1.3 million gallons of partially treated sewage went into the Willamette River after an equipment failure at the city of Monmouth’s waste water treatment facility. The Statesman Journal reports that the city of about 10,000 people located near Salem waited ..
NTSB: Dallas Natural Gas Leaks Reported Some 2 Months Before Fatal Blast
DALLAS (AP) — A preliminary federal report indicates natural gas leaks were first detected in a Dallas neighborhood nearly two months before another leak led to a house explosion that killed a 12-year-old girl. The report released Friday by the National Transportation Safety Board says leaks in the..
Records: Virginia State Police Spent Nearly $50K on Pipeline Hearings
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Documents show Virginia State Police spent nearly $50,000 on personnel and equipment during public meetings on state permits for two controversial natural gas pipelines. The documents, obtained through a public records request and provided to The Associated Press, outline the a..
President Trump Signs Bill Preserving WaterSense Funding
In a victory for consumers, water utilities and water conservation advocates, the EPA’s WaterSense program will be funded at fiscal year 2017 levels until Sept. 30, 2018, as part of a $1.3 trillion government spending bill passed by Congress and signed today by President Donald Trump. Reflecting a ..
New York Awards $500,000 in Funding to Study Ice Jams and Flooding on Mohawk River
New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today directed the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to undertake a $500,000 flooding and ice jam study of the main-stem Mohawk River corridor. The study will analyze storm and ice-jam flood mitigation needs in high-risk areas and include recomm..
Draft EIS Released for Northeast Supply Enhancement Project
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today released the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Northeast Supply Enhancement Project proposed by Williams, which would deliver approximately 400,000 dekatherms per day of natural gas to end-use residential and commercial customers..
North Dakota State Broadband Network to Be Upgraded
As part of a contract extension with the North Dakota Information Technology Department, the Dakota Carrier Network (DCN) and its 15 owner companies will upgrade the internet service of all North Dakota K-12 schools, higher education institutions and government to one gigabit by August 2019. The upg..
Ohio EPA Issues Latest Water Quality Report
The Ohio EPA today released its draft 2018 water quality report that outlines the general condition of Ohio’s waters and includes a list that identifies impaired waters that are not meeting their federal or state water quality goals, as well as waters that have improved to meet federal standards. T..
New York City Residents Encouraged to Repair Water Leaks as Part of Fix a Leak Week
In support of Fix a Leak Week, March 19-25, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is encouraging New Yorkers to identify and fix residential water leaks. DEP offers a full range of information on how to detect leaky pipes and toilets including leak detection tablets and a Ho..
- OSHA cites Florida contractors for trench safety violations at sewer and excavation sites
- Biden-Harris administration invests $849 million in aging water infrastructure, drought resilience
- Cadiz to reuse steel from terminated Keystone XL pipeline for California groundwater project
- Texas contractor penalized by OSHA for repeated trench safety violations
- West Virginia approves $67 million for water, sewer projects