The EPA has announced the selection of 243 new grant investments totaling $54.3 million to provide communities with funding necessary to assess, clean up and redevelop contaminated properties.

 

The agency says the grants will boost local economies while protecting public health and the environment. Recipients will each receive about $200,000-$600,000 in funding toward EPA cooperative agreements.

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Chemical dispersants are widely used in emergency responses to oil spills in marine environments as a means of stimulating microbial degradation of oil. After the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, dispersants were applied to the sea surface and deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the latter of which was unprecedented. Dispersants were used as a first line of defense even though little is known about how they affect microbial communities or the biodegradation activities they are intended to spur.

 

The article, published May 6, summarizes previous research from laboratory and field studies assessing the impacts of dispersants, which have generated inconsistent results.

 

"This comprehensive review illustrates a compelling need not only for more studies aimed at assessing the impacts of dispersants on microbial communities and microbial processes in marine ecosystems, but also underscores the necessity for using standardized methods and consistent metrics to document dispersant effects on microbial populations," said Joye, the UGA Athletic Association Professor of Arts and Sciences and a professor of marine sciences in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

 

 

 

Oil pipeline company officials said Wednesday that as many as 105,000 gallons of crude oil may have spilled from a ruptured pipeline on the California coast.

 

The 24-inch pipeline ruptured along the Santa Barbara coast, leaking the oil near Refugio State Beach, a protected state park, just before Memorial Day weekend marks the start of the summer tourist season.

 

Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline based the estimate -- what it called a worst-case scenario -- on the typical flow rate of oil and the elevation of the pipeline, said Rick McMichael, the company's director of pipeline operations.

 

The pipeline is still underground, so it will take a few days to determine how much crude oil was actually spilled.

 

McMichael told reporters an estimated 21,000 gallons of crude had gone into the Pacific Ocean.

 

The cause of the spill was still being investigated, he said, but there were problems Tuesday morning at two of the company's pump stations.

 

 

 

Duke Energy Corp pleaded guilty on Thursday to environmental crimes over a North Carolina power plant's coal ash spill into a river and management of coal ash basins in the state, U.S. prosecutors said.

 

The plea entered in federal court in Greenville, North Carolina, by the country's largest power company by generation capacity was expected as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice announced in February.

 

As part of the deal, Duke has agreed to pay $102 million in fines and environmental projects.

 

The company admitted to failures at five of its power plants over several decades that allowed coal ash to enter waterways, including documented problems with the 48-inch pipe that would eventually cause the spill into the Dan River in February 2014.