EPA initiates emergency response at mill site: Harbor District, feds create plan to get caustic liquors off peninsula

November 11, 2013

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has taken over the Samoa pulp mill site and initiated an emergency response to remove millions of gallons of caustic liquids, much of which are currently stored in failing tanks.

EPA has stabilized the situation, and is now working with the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District on a plan to remove more than 4 million gallons of pulping liquors from the site. Adding urgency to the effort is a constant fear that a large earthquake could lead to a potentially disastrous spill into the sensitive environmental habitat and economic engine that is Humboldt Bay.

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Organization calls for action on 'microplastics' pollution in Great Lakes

October 30, 2013

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- An organization representing more than 100 cities in Canada and the U.S. asked federal and industry officials in both countries Tuesday for action on the recently discovered problem of "microplastic" pollution in the Great Lakes.

Over the past two years, scientists have reported finding thousands of plastic bits -- some visible only under a microscope -- in the lakes that make up nearly one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water. Large masses of floating plastics also have been detected in the world's oceans.

Scientists believe some are abrasive "microbeads" used in personal care products such as facial and body washes, deodorants and toothpaste. They're so minuscule that they flow through screens at waste treatment plants and wind up in the lakes, where fish and aquatic birds might eat them, mistaking them for fish eggs. They also could absorb toxins.

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The World's 10 Most Polluted Places

November 6, 2013

Agbogbloshie, a neighborhood of Accra, Ghana, wasn't a pretty place in 2006, but the rising flood of e-waste had yet to completely drown the dump in the middle of town in toxic pollution. Ghana now imports some 215,000 metric tons of European computers, cell phones, microwaves, refrigerators, televisions and other electronic goods, making Agbogbloshie the second-largest site for processing such e-waste in all of west Africa. It may yet take the title as largest because e-waste imports are expected to double by 2020. And Agbogbloshie has already earned the dubious distinction of landing on the Blacksmith Institute's top 10 list of the world's most polluted sites, after failing to make the cut for the original list in 2006.

"Everybody wants a laptop, wants the modern devices," noted Jack Caravanos, Blacksmith's director of research, at a November 4 press conference unveiling the list. "Stopping e-waste is proving very complicated and difficult," particularly because the newest gadgets, such as tablet computers, are even more difficult to recycle than old desktop computers.

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EPA fines Veolia arm $95K over Phoenix pollution violations