EPA and State Partners Help Border Area Manage Scrap Tires

EPA News Release:

EPA and State Partners Help Border Area Manage Scrap Tires

DALLAS – (March 28, 2014) This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, along with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the State of Texas Alliance for Recycling (STAR), held a workshop in El Paso to help turn a source of pollution into a resource.

Each year, the U.S.-Mexico border region deals with millions of discarded tires, which pile up and attract pests. Finding ways to manage these scrap tires is an important goal of EPA’s Border 2020 U.S.-Mexico environmental program. Over the past few years, the program has made good progress by engaging local residents in cleanup efforts. This included removing six million tires from a pile in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, which were converted into fuel.

This week’s workshop brought together a variety of stakeholders from the U.S. and Mexico, including representatives from state agencies and municipalities, the tire industry, public utilities, and elected officials. By bringing so many perspectives together, the workshop aimed to define the future of scrap tire management and develop markets for the material instead of simply filling landfills. Organizers hope ideas and practices discussed at the workshop can work throughout the Border region, as well as in other areas of the world where scrap tires are a problem.

For more information on EPA’s Border 2020 program:

http://www2.epa.gov/border2020

For more information on EPA’s Sustainable Materials Management program:

http://www.epa.gov/smm/

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Statement from Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Director Lisa Bonnet

Illinois EPA News Release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 27, 2014


Statement from Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Director Lisa Bonnet 

SPRINGFIELD — Under the direction of Governor Quinn, the Illinois EPA is working with U.S. EPA to ensure that a recent crude oil release into Lake Michigan from the BP Whiting Refinery does not harm this precious water resource used for drinking, recreation and fishing. Illinois, like all other states that border Lake Michigan, have a shared responsibility for assuring that water pollution poses no threat to this significant water body. Given that the waters of Lake Michigan provide over 40 percent of our state’s citizens with drinking water, safeguarding its quality is of utmost importance.



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Secretary's Column: Our Nation's Wilderness: Yours to Enjoy and Protect

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, on March 28, 2014 at 12:00 PM

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. When he signed the Act in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson said, “If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.”

His foresight, along with the work of many of his contemporaries, has allowed generations of Americans to enjoy the natural beauty of our nation.

The Wilderness Act itself was landmark legislation that formally established protections for undeveloped tracts of land across the United States and created the country’s National Wilderness Preservation System.

Many wilderness areas are within a day’s drive of America’s largest cities, and showcase some of our most special places and landscapes. Across the country, 758 wilderness areas cover almost 110 million acres and boast forested mountains, alpine meadows, rock peaks above timberline, tundra, lava beds, deserts, swamps, coastal lands, and islands.

While it is impossible to measure its intrinsic value, many people appreciate the wilderness and wild lands simply for the continued existence of areas where the Earth and its community of life are untrammeled by humans. For others, wilderness areas have important cultural significance. They are home to the traditional ancestral lands of some American Indians and Alaska Natives, lands held sacred by Tribal citizens.

Wilderness areas also provide more quantifiable, far-reaching benefits that benefit each of us, whether or not you’ve ever set foot in a wilderness area. They provide abundant supplies of clean air and water and store and sequester carbon. They sustain biodiversity by providing a habitat for a wide variety of plants and animals and supporting healthy landscapes where rare and endangered species thrive. Areas that remain relatively untouched by modern society also provide important natural areas for scientific study of flora and fauna.

Finally, as March and National Nutrition Month come to a close and spring begins, now is a great time for kids and families to get outdoors as a way to be healthy and active, a key component of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! Outside initiative. Wilderness areas—located in all but six of our 50 states and enjoyed by more than 12 million Americans every year—offer the opportunity to hike, backpack, rock climb, canoe and horseback ride, with some of our nation’s most beautiful vistas in the background.

Learn more about our nation’s wilderness areas and where you can explore the great outdoors near your community at www.fs.fed.us/locatormap.

Kansas City Structural Steel Superfund Site in Kansas City, Kan., Set for Redevelopment

EPA Press Release:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7

11201 Renner Boulevard, Lenexa, KS 66219

Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nine Tribal Nations

Kansas City Structural Steel Superfund Site in Kansas City, Kan., Set for Redevelopment

Contact Information: Ben Washburn, 913-551-7364, washburn.ben@epa.gov

Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Lenexa, Kan., March 27, 2014) - The former Kansas City Structural Steel Superfund Site in Kansas City, Kan., has been purchased for redevelopment into a retail center, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today. The site of redevelopment is in the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kan.

Argentine Retail Developers Inc. will build La Plaza Argentine, a development that will house a Walmart grocery store and several other locations for retail businesses at the site.

“This site’s new future is taking shape because EPA partnered with local governments, innovative businesses, and the state of Kansas to use flexible cleanup laws for the Argentine community,” Region 7 Administrator Karl Brooks said. “La Plaza Argentine shows EPA’s Brownfields Program helping solve the challenge of offering choices for affordable, healthy food in our cities while creating jobs for the proud folks who call Argentine home.”

The site had been contaminated by lead and other heavy metals. In 1993, EPA conducted a removal action which included capping contaminated soil. The developer has worked with neighborhood groups and the Unified Government to obtain approval of the project, and has, with EPA’s approval, enrolled the property in the Environmental Use Controls Program administered by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The controls maintain the cap and protect human health and the environment during construction and into the future.

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Wild Turkeys

Burr Oak Woods Nature Center, Jackson County, Missouri. March 26, 2014.

Wild Turkey

Burr Oak Woods Nature Center, Jackson County, Missouri. March 26, 2014.

Eastern Snapping Turtle

Burr Oak Woods Nature Center, Jackson County, Missouri. March 26, 2014.