EPA Will Require Security Testing For Environmental Facilities
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to begin requiring each of the nation's 15,000 chemical facilities to judge its vulnerability to terror and criminal attacks and take steps to reduce the risks, according to the Associated Press. The EPA wants mandatory "vulnerability assessments" from each facility, including chemical manufacturing plants, storage containers, water and waste treatment plants. All those facilities already are required under the Clean Air Act to submit a risk management plans against accidental releases of toxins. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman has been developing the plans as part of an interagency group chaired by the White House's Office of Homeland Security...Read More »
Jacksonville Discovers Two More Ash Dumpsites
Two additional dumping grounds of potentially dangerous ash have been discovered in Duval County, part of an ongoing Department of Environmental Protection investigation into old ash dumpsites. The ash was dumped in several places between the 1890s and the early 1970s, a few of which were previously identified. The city of Jacksonville ran several solid waste incinerators, and disposed of the ash from them in scattered locations. Federal officials are trying to track down those sites...Read More »
IESI, Penn. Township Trade Accusations on Landfill Expansion
As IESI Corp. and Lower Saucon Township, Penn. prepare for hearings on the company's landfill expansion application, IESI officials publicly are expressing concern that their landfill will run out of space before the process is completed. Nearly two years after IESI purchased the 206-acre landfill and filed a 46-acre expansion application with the state Department of Environmental Protection, the first half of the state's review process has still not been completed. Township and DEP officials repeatedly have traded accusations with IESI officials over who is responsible for the delays, each accusing the other of filing either too many review letters or inadequate submissions...Read More »
Wingate Landfill Fight Draws "Civil Action" Attorney
Ford Lauderdale, Fla. residents protesting the tainted Wingate landfill have hired Boston attorney Jan Schlichtmann is best known for his so-called "Civil Action" case, made into a movie about starring John Travolta. There, Schlichtmann sued two large companies for contaminating the water of a Boston neighborhood. At Wingate, from 1954 through 1978, dozens of companies dumped their waste into the landfill. It was then burned and buried. Ever since that activity, a number of resident have become sick, some dying of cancer. Last year more than 50 infants from the area died, a number that many experts say is alarmingly high. Schlichtmann and a team of attorneys are hoping to track down residents who have lived near the landfill for the past 40 years. So far, no scientific study has shown a causal link between the Wingate landfill and the increased rates of cancer and infant death...Read More »
Weston Wins Potential $120M Contract
Weston Solutions, Inc., formerly Roy F. Weston Inc., has been awarded a new Environmental Multiple Award Contract with a total gross value of up to $120 million by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest Division, San Diego. Under the contract, Weston will perform remediation services at designated Navy and Marine Corps installations in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Nevada and Utah. Weston will perform environmental remedial action, removal actions, remedial design, expedited and emergency response actions, pilot and treatability studies, remedial systems operation, maintenance and instruction, and other related activities associated with returning sites to safe and acceptable levels of contamination...Read More »
KPMG Survey Shows More Corporate Environmental Responsibility
The number of American companies reporting on environmental, social and sustainability performance continues to rise, reflecting a global trend toward greater reporting of corporate responsibility issues, according to KPMG LLP. Every three years since 1993, KPMG's Global Sustainability Services, collaborating with the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, has conducted a survey of corporate non-financial reporting. The current survey was conducted between November 2001 and February 2002 by KPMG GSS practices in 19 countries in conjunction with the University of Amsterdam. Among its findings, the survey noted that U.S. companies that issued reports in 2002 on environmental issues rose 14 percent from three years ago...Read More »
Clean Harbors Offers Only Qualified Safety-Kleen Bid
Clean Harbors Inc.'s bid for Safety-Kleen Corp.'s chemical services division has been designated as the only qualified bid by the bankrupt South Carolina company. Clean Harbors has said Safety Clean won't auction the assets in question and will instead submit its bid to the bankruptcy court for approval later this week. Clean Harbors, which provides a variety of environmental services, has been competing with Onyx Environmental Services, a unit of Vivendi Environment SA, for the assets. Under the deal, Clean Harbors would acquire 2,800 employees and 50 primary facilities in exchange for $46.3 million in cash and $265 million in environmental liabilities...Read More »
Ecology And Environment, Inc. Announces Third Quarter Earnings
Net revenues for Ecology and Environment, Inc. (Amex: EEI) for the third quarter of fiscal year 2002 were $18.3 million, up $1.3 million from the $17.0 million reported in the third quarter of fiscal year 2001. Net income for the quarter was $400,000 or $.10 per share, compared to $245,000 or $.06 per share reported in the prior year. Officials attribute the increase in net revenues for the third quarter to the company's new Saudi Arabia and Kuwait contracts, which were signed during the first quarter of fiscal year 2002...Read More »
American Ecology Names Hazardous Waste Director
American Ecology Corporation (Nasdaq: ECOL) has announced the appointment of J. Scott Nicholson as Director of Hazardous Waste Operations. Nicholson will manage the Company's three hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities in Nevada, Idaho and Texas, and its industrial and municipal solid waste landfill also located in Texas. Nicholson joined American Ecology in April 2001 as Vice President and General Manager of the Idaho facility...Read More »
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