Newsroom

State sues Quemetco, says battery recycling plant in City of Industry is guilty of 29 violations

[Source: San Gabriel Valley Tribune] The state attorney general has sued Quemetco, the battery-recycling facility in City of Industry, citing 29 alleged violations involving failures to stop hazardous waste from migrating into the neighborhood and the underground aquifer, a source of drinking water for more than a million Los Angeles County residents, according to the Read More…

Ozone hole modest despite optimum conditions for ozone depletion

[Source: Ellen Gray, NASA] The ozone hole that forms in the upper atmosphere over Antarctica each September was slightly above average size in 2018, NOAA and NASA scientists reported today. Colder-than-average temperatures in the Antarctic stratosphere created ideal conditions for destroying ozone this year, but declining levels of ozone-depleting chemicals prevented the hole from as Read More…

As Trump slashes environmental regulations, the EPA union forms the crux of an internal resistance

[Source: Salon] Salon talked to the head of a government employees union about the president’s disastrous environmental policies. For all of the horrifying policies being implemented by President Donald Trump, perhaps the most terrifying prospect is the potential for his climate change attitudes to bring about to the destruction of life on Earth as we know it. As the Read More…

Democrats to target Trump environmental rollbacks if they win House

[Source: Bloomberg] Democratic lawmakers are quietly making plans to use hearings and investigations to focus attention on the Trump administration’s environmental agenda if they win control of the House of Representatives. Because they are less likely to capture the Senate, Democrats would have limited opportunities to enact laws. But they can assert themselves in the Read More…

UTC Aerospace to end aircraft systems manufacturing in Chula Vista, cutting 300 jobs

[Source: LA Biz] UTC Aerospace Systems plans to wind down manufacturing at its Chula Vista aircraft plant beginning early next year, eliminating around 300 jobs. The company — a division of Farmington, Conn.-based conglomerate United Technologies — said the decision stems from ending production of certain commercial aircraft models. The Chula Vista plant builds aerodynamic Read More…

Environmental defense fund develops methane-hunting satellite

[Source: Astrowatch.net] Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a U.S.-based nonprofit environmental advocacy group, intends to launch a new satellite designed to measure methane emissions worldwide. The spacecraft, named MethaneSAT, could offer a substantial help for countries and companies in combating global warming. MethaneSAT project was unveiled by EDF President Fred Krupp on April 11, 2018. He Read More…

High level of toxic emissions cause closure of Anaplex, Paramount metal-finishing facility

[Source: Press-Telegram] The metal-finishing company Anaplex Corp. in Paramount was forced to close because of high-level emissions of a carcinogen on Thursday, Oct. 4, for the seventh time since February 2017. The South Coast Air Quality Management District ordered the temporary closure because the agency’s air monitors found above-threshold levels of toxic hexavalent chromium at the Read More…