State Attorneys General. This interesting story from the Christian Science Monitor, headlined "New environmental cops: state attorneys general," begins:
NEW YORK - State attorneys general are known best for throwing mobsters in jail and trying to protect consumers from things like false advertising and Medicare fraud. But now an increasing number are taking an activist role well outside their state boundaries - challenging federal agencies, treading novel legal waters, and suing everyone from pharmaceutical companies to mutual funds.Asbestos. An AP story reports: "ATLANTA (AP) - Asbestos deaths in the United States have skyrocketed since the late 1960s and will probably keep on climbing through the next decade because of long-ago exposure to the substance, once widely used for insulation and fireproofing, the government said Thursday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 77 people died from asbestos in 1968, and nearly 1,500 people died from it in 2000." And here is the CDC report, "Changing Patterns of Pneumoconiosis Mortality --- United States, 1968--2000."In their latest foray, they're taking on global warming and polluters in states other than their own. Wednesday, eight attorneys general from California to Connecticut, along with officials from New York City, filed suit against five giant utilities they contend are the nation's largest emitters of carbon dioxide, a key contributor to global warming. None of the companies are located in the states that are suing.
Gibson Station. Updating a story we've been following, today's Mt. Carmel Daily Republican Register reports, in a story titled "Cinergy voluntarily shutting SCR's":
The City of Mt. Carmel learned this morning that Cinergy/PSI is going to voluntarily shut down both selective catalytic reduction (SCR) units at Gibson Station.Toxic releases. The Evansville Courier&Press reports:"They have voluntarily decided to shut both SCR's down until an approved protocol system can be developed between the regulating agencies and Cinergy," City Economic Development Director Bill Maples told the Register this morning. * * *
The announcement comes less than 24 hours after a teleconference held Wednesday afternoon between representatives of the City of Mt. Carmel, the Illinois Attorney General's office, U.S. EPA, Illinois EPA, Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) and Cinergy/PSI. It also comes two days after the Illinois EPA announced it had filed a referral with the Illinois Attorney General's Office, seeking suit against Cinergy/PSI.
Maples said Illinois agencies at Thursday's teleconference wished to establish an agreed-upon protocol for testing of products at Gibson Station. "We also want the SCR's shut down, and only turned on when they are going to test something that has been approved by the Illinois EPA, IDEM and the U.S. EPA," he said after Thursday's conference call. Maples said the State of Illinois'' basic concern is it wants the chance to "sign off or approve" a material that Cinergy wants to test at Gibson Station.
An aluminum scrap processing plant in Evansville allegedly released up to 60 times more cancer-causing dioxin and furan air pollution than allowed by federal law, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Intrametco Processing Inc., 1901 W. Louisiana St., also allegedly failed to comply with federal requirements for notification, planning, testing and labeling, an agency spokesman said.National Priority List The Courier&Press also reports that "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has tagged cleanup of Evansville's Jacobsville neighborhood "'a national priority.'" More:
The EPA on Wednesday placed roughly 250 acres in that neighborhood on its National Priorities List of hazardous waste sites. The list includes 1,245 sites and 56 proposed sites. Jacobsville was one of nine sites placed on the list Wednesday, but the only one in the Midwest, according to an EPA spokesman. * * *Posted by Marcia Oddi at July 23, 2004 07:42 PMThe Indiana Department of Environmental Management first discovered lead contamination after emergency cleanup of the former Evansville Plating site, when environmental investigators examined an area near the site.