Thread: DuPont to pay $50 million over mercury dumped in river

DuPont to pay $50 million over mercury dumped in river

Posted: Thursday, December 15, 2016 11:21 am | Updated: 11:43 am, Thu Dec 15, 2016.
Associated Press |

Chemical giant DuPont would pay around $50 million in a proposed settlement aimed at making up for the toxic mercury that one of its factories released for decades into a Virginia river.

State and federal officials announced the deal Thursday to remediate the South and Shenandoah rivers, which were polluted by DuPont's former plant in Waynesboro.


Officials call it the largest environmental damage settlement in Virginia history and the eighth largest in the nation.

The company based in Wilmington, Delaware, used mercury to manufacture rayon from around 1929 to 1950. Some of the toxic chemical seeped out and spread downstream.

Projects the money would pay for include wildlife habitat restoration, water quality enhancement and improvements to recreational areas.

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/new...5d8067d96.html

Criminal charges in coal ash spills to cost Duke Energy $100 million

Anyone that thinks we do not need a dutiful EPA is out of their mind. Trump's picks for EPA, Scott Pruitt is best known for his close ties to the oil and gas industry — and for suing the EPA on behalf of those interests to dismantle clean air and water regulations and for Interior, Zinke sponsored legislation to facilitate the opening of horse slaughter plants in his state so the future of our "protected" wild horses will be at stake - they are both unfit for those jobs and nauseating - Trump is starting to get on my nerves with his power house of GREEDY ones and all thy represent. How much money do they need - none of them can take it with them.

"Preservation of our environment is not a liberal or conservative challenge, it's common sense."
-- Ronald Reagan

"No man may poison the people for his private profit."
—Theodore Roosevelt

"The supreme reality of our time is the vulnerability of our planet."
President John F. Kennedy

“When a man must be afraid to drink freely from his country's river and streams that country is no longer fit to live in. ”― Edward Abbey

Trump is picking nothing but greedy gas and oil guys that are going to dig this country up big time bringing extreme pollution and the extraordinarily selfish act of destroying endangered species - he is creating a different kind of deadly swamp than we had but just as deadly. No fairness nor balance just GREED!

More info on zinke...

Donald Trump has offered Montana's Ryan Zinke the job of Secretary of the Department of the Interior. Representative Zinke is a freshman congressman who has used his brief time in Washington, D.C. to undermine wildlife and try to weaken the Endangered Species Act.
While his time in Congress has been brief, his list of attacks on endangered species is not. Representative Zinke cosponsored a bill to kick highly endangered lobos off of the endangered species list in 2015. Since then, he has supported each of the legislative attempts to turn management of wolves back over to states, despite his own state's troubling record of aggressive wolf hunting and trapping.

His radical approach to legislative assaults on conservation is not limited to wolves. He vehemently opposed the protection of greater sage grouse, fought to open more public lands to trapping, opposed efforts to end the bloody ivory trade, and took up the cause of trophy hunters seeking to import polar bear carcasses. Now, he's leading an effort to overturn protection for Canada lynx.

Representative Zinke has written that “conservation means development as much as it does protection.” In carrying out that philosophy, he has worked to open more public lands to drilling, mining, and logging, becoming a champion of special interests. That industry-first, conservation-second mentality has even led him to morph from a climate change realist to a denier in just 5 years, even suggesting that volcanoes were to blame for increased carbon dioxide.

This is not someone who should oversee the care of our most threatened and endangered species or their homes.

On rick perry as energy choice.....

A Doctor of Science in chemical engineering from MIT. A Nobel Laureate in physics. And a nuclear physicist who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal. These are the last three Secretaries of Energy. Each led a department responsible for overseeing critical laboratories and maintaining America’s nuclear arsenal.
Yet today, the new Secretary of Energy nominee is a man who couldn’t name this agency during a national debate. And this is no joke for the scientific community. Governor Rick Perry is a consistent climate denier, even claiming in 2010 that “we have been experiencing a cooling trend.” Instead of acknowledging the climate science consensus, Perry has lashed out at scientists, attacking "so-called science."

That's good they are going to clean that up. Wow, since 1950. We need an EPA alright, Republicans founded EPA, Richard Nixon established EPA. Trump supports EPA. But what he doesn't support is overreach, regulations that don't matter and impede business, while "regulations" allow mercury in rivers since 1950 unattended to. If EPA was doing its job right, this would have been fixed 40 years ago. Think about all the damage to wildlife for the past 30 to 40 years. Better late than never I suppose.

Thanks for posting the article, artist! And I'm with you on cleaning up spills and contamination. I'm just not against the oil and gas industry or any other industry so long as they function properly and clean up any mess they cause as quickly as possible.

Yes, there are the 'ifs'.

I'm not sure 50M is enough for dumping mercury in water. It doesn't take much to cause a huge amount of damage - to many things - but most important to people - especially children.

Yes, 50M just doesn't seem like enough.

We do need an EPA, but one that works, with regulations that work, and the enforcement power to punish those who deliberately do this or who allow it to happen, and make the punishment hurt. They should be personally held responsible -

Up until now, the EPA has been a tool that covers for some industries and punishes some on behalf of others.

As far as the slaughter of horses, I just can't accept the killing of horses for meat. That, I realize, has no basis in reality. Many people around the world eat horse meat. So, I suppose if I had to vote, I would say it is legal.

As far as the wild horses, no way , I do not want to see them slaughtered to extinction, BUT, like deer, sometimes they have to be harvested for their own health and welfare. Also, I don't exactly agree with those who lease government land and then complain that the wild horses are overgrazing..
Government land is the place for wild horses.

They have removed many wild horses and people are 'boarding' them to the tune of some big dollars. It is costing taxpayers a lot of money.

Mrs. T. Boone Pickens, bought a ranch for wild horses. At the time, I thought, 'how wonderful'. When I found out the government was paying others to 'board' wild horses, it gave another dimension to the story. How much is she getting paid to 'board' those animals?

Oh and Rick Perry - I personally wouldn't want him in charge of anything.

He is, evident by the state Texas is in, a pro illegal politician. If he were not, things would be very different here

As for climate denier - I don't know about that.
I think the have deliberately put out so much on both sides and made it a political issue - rather than scientific issue - we can't reach a consensus.

What bothers me is, while we are discussing global warming, our water, air, soil and food is being so destroyed, we may not live to see global warming.

My very cynical thought process, makes me think that was the intention of all the hype - both sides.

Of course, let's make a little money off it in the 'carbon tax' and 'trading carbon credits' , etc.
Never let a good crisis, even if it might be manufactured, go to waste.