Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD)

"Wichita's Smog Violations Could Lead To EPA Rules"

"A byproduct of the ongoing heat wave, increased smog, may ultimately bring more and longer-lasting annoyance than the heat itself. The heat wave will eventually break, but Wichita’s smog reports probably already have been damaged to the extent of triggering some mandatory -- and potentially costly and inconvenient -- pollution controls like those in other big cities."

Source: Wichita Eagle, 07/30/2012

EPA Withdraws CAFO Database Rule

EPA says it could instead compile a database partly from information collected by some states. But that information is often spotty and inconsistent — which will make it hard for EPA to compile it and even harder to make useful conclusions from it. And the withdrawal may make it harder to get the information disclosed.

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"Taxpayers Foot Bill for Cleanup of Polluted Site in South St. Louis"

Politicians touted the use of tax credits to clean up the long-abandoned Carondelet Coke brownfields site site in St. Louis and turn it into an industrial park. But corner-cutting and lax oversight meant companies would benefit and taxpayers would get a raw deal, an investigation shows.

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 07/23/2012

Group Sues Interior for Failure to Disclose Correspondence with Wind Industry

The American Bird Conservancy has gone to court after the Interior Department stonewalled its Freedom-of-Information-Act requests for correspondence between feds and the wind industry on how potential wind projects in 10 states might affect birds and bats.

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"North Dakota’s Oil Boom Brings Damage Along With Prosperity"

"Oil drilling has sparked a frenzied prosperity in Jeff Keller's formerly quiet corner of western North Dakota in recent years, bringing an infusion of jobs and reviving moribund local businesses. But Keller, a natural resource manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, has seen a more ominous effect of the boom, too: Oil companies are spilling and dumping drilling waste onto the region's land and into its waterways with increasing regularity."

Source: ProPublica, 06/08/2012

Sand Dropped by Missouri R. Leaves Iowa, Nebraska Farms a Wasteland

"Mason Hansen guns his pickup and cranks the steering wheel to spin through sand up to 4 feet high, but this is no day at the beach. Hanson once grew corn and soybeans in the sandy wasteland in western Iowa, and his frustration is clear. Despite months spent hauling away tons of sand dropped when the flooded Missouri River engulfed his farm last summer, parts of the property still look like a desert."

Source: AP, 06/05/2012

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