skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

A New Year's Resolution: Cleaner Water for Clark County

play audio
Play

Friday, December 20, 2013   

VANCOUVER, Wash. – The year's end also marks the end of a three-year court battle over water quality standards for Clark County – and all sides are calling it a win.

This week, Clark County commissioners settled the penalty phase of a lawsuit to bring the county into compliance with the Clean Water Act.

In 2010, the Rosemere Neighborhood Association challenged the county for letting some developers build without regard to potential storm-water runoff problems, and for focusing on cleaning up pollution instead of preventing it.

Neighborhood Association chair John Felton says the negotiations went well.

"When it had concluded, everyone was very pleased at the collaborative effort that everyone put forward, and the success that resulted out of it,” he says. “So, it was a very positive experience."

In the settlement, Clark County commissioners agreed to give $3 million to the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board, an independent group that is working to clean up the area's major water pollution problems. Salmon populations, clean drinking water and preventing erosion all are affected by storm-water runoff.

The case has been closely followed by the Ecology Department and other counties around the state that could have adopted less stringent water quality standards of their own if the decision had gone the other way.

Jannette Brimmer, an attorney with Earthjustice who represented the neighborhood group and environmental organizations, says now, that isn't likely to happen.

"And in fact in the new permit, we see Ecology building on not just retaining this flow control standard, but moving to low-impact development and other concepts throughout western Washington, that are the next critical step in addressing the storm water pollution," she says.

Since the case was about federal Clean Water Act standards, the settlement still needs to be approved by the federal court where it began, as well as the U.S. Justice Department.




get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021