Waste management

August 4, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Senate last week passed legislation authored by U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) to allow states to regulate solid waste processing facilities along rail lines. It was included as part of larger rail safety legislation also sponsored by Lautenberg.

The rail waste legislation is based on Lautenberg’s Clean Railroads Act of 2007, which targets a loophole in federal law that prohibits states from enforcing environmental, health and safety regulations at these rail sites. This loophole has allowed railroad companies to pile trash, largely consisting of construction debris, at times two stories high that can cause serious health and environmental risks to residents who live near these sites.    » read more »

May 13, 2008 -- LANSING - Lt. Governor John D. Cherry, Jr., representing Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm, today announced that the city of Flint and alternative energy leader Swedish Biogas International (SBI) will undertake a project to produce alternative energy from waste removed from the city's wastewater treatment plant.

The plant will produce biogas - an alternative energy that can fuel vehicles and generate heat and electricity. Granholm called the announcement of the plant "a major building block in creating the state's alternative energy industry" and said that it will lay the groundwork for creating jobs in the industry.    » read more »

Governor signs two bills brought forward by West Branch Middle School Students

May 12, 2008 -- (Des Moines) – Today, Iowa Governor Chet Culver signed two bills into law brought forward by West Branch Middle School Science teacher Hector Ibarra and his students who were looking at ways to take hazardous materials out of landfills and the environment. House File 2668 focuses on recycling used oil filters and House File 2669 addresses recycling mercury thermometers.    » read more »

April 14 , 2008 -- Chicago – Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan today said that a Normal, Ill. construction company has pleaded guilty to its role in burying 55-gallon drums containing concrete sealer, hazardous waste and waste oil on property it leased in 2003.

Isaacson Construction, Inc. pleaded guilty on Thursday in McLean County Circuit Court to Reckless Disposal of Hazardous Waste and Criminal Damage to Property, both Class 4 felonies.

Waste drums: Photo by smitys (CC)    » read more »

Change to Win Unions Urge Senate Subcommittee: Greater Oversight Needed for Waste Management, Inc. and Other Companies with Dangerous Pattern of Safety Violations

April 1, 2008 -- (Washington, D.C.) –The Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety heard testimony today from unions in the Change to Win partnership on the need for greater oversight by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of companies with a history of serious, ongoing safety violations—including waste hauling giant Waste Management, Inc (NYSE: WMI).    » read more »

March 18, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today released an Engineering and Technology Roadmap (Roadmap), which details initiatives aimed at reducing the technical risks and uncertainties associated with cleaning up Cold War era nuclear waste over the next ten years. The Roadmap also outlines strategies to minimize such risks and proposes how these strategies would be implemented, furthering the Department’s goal of protecting the environment by providing a responsible resolution to the environmental legacy of nuclear weapons production.

DOE Savannah River site workers carefully maneuver a spent nuclear fuel cask, October, 2005: DOE Photo    » read more »

BEIJING, March 12, 2008 – The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a loan of $100 million to the People’s Republic of China to help improve the water supply and manage wastewater in a major urban area of Anhui Province – around 400 kilometers west of Shanghai in the east of the country.    » read more »