Environmental Issues and Protection

EPA to Recognize St. Louis Cardinals for Reducing Food Waste

Don't feel too guilty about not finishing your nachos at Busch Stadium. Chances are the leftover chips (and other half-eaten scraps) will make their way to St. Louis Composting for use as lawn and garden food. A similar second chance exists for unsold food at the ballpark. It is donated to Operati ... More >>

Earth Day II

Got Drugs? St. Louis Officials Would Like Your Unwanted Prescription Medications

Got drugs? The city of St. Louis wants 'em. In an effort to curb medication abuse, city officials are partnering this week with the St. Louis College of Pharmacy and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to encourage residents to remove "dangerous, unused and unwanted medications" from their ho ... More >>

Hard Sell: For Matt Damon and company, the message is the message in Promised Land

Recycling Up Fivefold in St. Louis -- Though City Diverts Just 10 Percent of Waste

It's been six months since all St. Louis households have had access to curbside recycling via those blue alley dumpsters or roll-out bins. And already city officials say they're seeing a huge uptick in the amount of waste diverted from landfills. Though there is definitely room for improvement.

Missouri Makes "Toxic 20" List of States Most Polluted by Coal-Fired Power Plants

The good news: When it comes to toxic air pollution, Missouri is not the worst! The bad news: We're among the twenty most worstest. According to a report just released by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Missouri comes in #15 on a list of the 20 states most polluted by coal-fired power plants. ... More >>

Thirty Years After Dioxin Disaster, EPA Returns to Times Beach

Starting this afternoon, the Environmental Protection Agency will be back on the former site of Times Beach for a trip down memory lane. Armed with new testing techniques, EPA scientists will collect soil samples in a pilot of new dioxin testing techniques. But spokesperson Chris Whitley says that ... More >>

EPA Official's Past Raises Red Flags in Wildwood's Dioxin Contamination Case

Missouri's interminable dioxin problem is alive and oozing in Wildwood. The latest controversy is over the Environmental Protection Agency official who's been working for decades on cleaning up the dioxin contamination of Times Beach and more recently assessing the Wildwood development site of Stre ... More >>

St. Louis Earth Day 2012: The Slideshow

Getting ready for Earth Day 2012 we were sure that with all that hoopla flooding Forest Park, there was bound to be an equal amount of garbage: a sea of half-eaten corn dogs, stale nachos, melted cotton candy and crumpled paper cups. Turns out we were wrong. Those pesky Earth Day volunteers had set ... More >>

The Music of the Nation's Third Largest Earth Day Festival, This Sunday in Forest Park

Music and environmentally geared celebrations seem like a good fit. They bring people together, and both have been described at one point or another as hippie activities. The brains behind St. Louis's Earth Day Festival know this. The festival -- the third largest of its kind in the country -- begin ... More >>

A Convenient Truth

St. Louis County Residents Forced to Pay For Recycling After Court Loss

Paying for recycling services is not optional, says the Missouri Appellate Court.​A group of St. Louis County residents has lost another round in its effort to opt out of a recycling service -- and the quarterly fees that go with it.Today's appeals court decision is the latest (and possibly final) ... More >>

Swimming the River des Peres: Daredevil Affects EPA Policy on St. Louis River

Hercules Agrees to $245K EPA Fine Over Clean Air Act Violations

​A chemical manufacturing plant in Louisiana, Missouri, just north of St. Louis, failed to properly monitor for leaks of hazardous air pollutants, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency charges -- leading to a $245,521 fine. The settlement was filed in federal court this morning, four years ... More >>

St. Louis to Get Hotter, Wetter, NRDC Report Says

Floods, like the one that took acres of farmland along the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers this spring, will become even more common, the NRDC warns.​A new report from the National Resources Defense Council predicts all sorts of holy hell triggered by climate change, and St. Louis is ... More >>

St. Louis Ranked Eighth Most Toxic City

​A report out yesterday ranks metropolitan St. Louis as one of the most "toxic" (i.e. polluted) cities in the nation. The study by Forbes.com looked at cities based on five factors: air quality, water quality, the number of nearby Superfund sites, amount of days when the air-quality index (AQI) ex ... More >>

Missouri Congressman Wants to Kill Funding for Climate Change

Luetkemeyer: Insert tinfoil hat above.​Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-9th District) is proud of his view that global warming is a myth. So proud, in fact, that last weekend he attached a provision onto a budget bill that would ban the United States from funding the Intergovernmental Panel on Cl ... More >>

Let's Get Lit: City Offers Free Light Bulbs as Ameren Gets Sued

​This just in from City Hall: On Jan. 17, 6,000 lucky St. Louisans will be the recipients of brand new eco-friendly light bulbs. Mayor Slay is scheduled to appear at a press conference this afternoon to announce a new initiative touting energy consumption, co-sponsored by Ameren Missouri. As ... More >>

Hot Enough For You?

John Shimkus: Ass Clown of the Week

In clowns we trust -- God help us.​Congressman John Shimkus has won his second election of the month. On November 2 voters in southwestern Illinois elected the Republican from Collinsville to his seventh term in Congress.  And, over the weekend, Daily RFT voted Shimkus their Ass Clown of the ... More >>

Congressman Shimkus Says His Quote on Global Warming and God Taken Out of Context

Rep. John Shimkus: Dinosaurs loved carbon, too. ​The man who wants to be chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee overseeing the nation's environmental regulation says a comment he made in a hearing last year was taken out of context. The Republican from Collinsville, Illinois, was speakin ... More >>

EPA: Factory Explosion in Venice Caused "Significant Environmental Concern"

The red circle shows Magnesium Elektron's facility on the border of Venice and Madison in a residential area. ​The residents of Venice, Illinois, claim that the massive factory on the north side of their town, across the river from St. Louis on State Route 3, has been poisoning them for decades. N ... More >>

Wash. U. Building Among World's Greenest

image viaIt's alive!!! Sorry, it's just a Living Building.​The Living Learning Center at Washington University's Tyson Research Center has just been designated one of the first the first two Living Buildings by the International Living Building Institute (ILBI), the most rigorous green buildi ... More >>

Doe Run Settles with EPA: Lead Company to Close Herculaneum Smelter, Spend Millions

Photo: Jennifer SilverbergDoe Run smelter in Herculaneum.​The Environmental Protection Agency announced today that St. Louis-based Doe Run -- North America's largest lead producer -- has agreed to spend approximately $65 million to correct violations of environmental laws at ten of its lead mining ... More >>

Wash U. Students Want University to Come Clean on Coal Research

Image viaBy contrast, coal accounts for more than 80 percent of Missouri's energy. ​For many environmentalists, the phrase "clean coal" is a contradiction in terms on par with military intelligence and jumbo shrimp. But to the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering at Washi ... More >>

Missouri Coalition for the Environment Sues EPA Over State's Notorious Poop Chutes

Missouri Coalition for the EnvironmentPeruque Creek running through Warren and St. Charles counties is an example of an "unclassified" waterway.​The Missouri Coalition for the Environment filed suit against the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday in federal court in Jefferson City alleging t ... More >>

St. Louis To Begin Curbside Recycling Citywide, Part of Paid Trash Collection

Coming to a neighborhood near you!​Just got off the phone with a couple of city officials who tell Daily RFT that St. Louis is indeed going forward with curbside recycling. The recycling service will be part of the new pay service for trash pickup that the city is implementing to offset budget sho ... More >>

Going the Opposite of Green: Chesterfield Recycling Center That Annoyed Neighbors is Set to Close

Image courtesy of Margaret Bour Common Chesterfield recyclables​Last October, the RFT detailed a neighborhood dispute between the Parkway School District and the residents of a white-collar subdivision in Chesterfield. The school district said it recycled more than 1,300 tons of trash each ... More >>

Monsanto v. Geertson Seed Farms: The Supreme Court Rules, Everyone Claims Victory

Image viaEven Alfalfa is smiling about yesterday's ruling on alfalfa.​Gut Check hasn't read much case law since our high-school debate career ended and our briefcase (and trophies!) went into storage in our parents' garage. However, we were fairly certain that when the Supreme Court issued a rulin ... More >>

Missouri's E. coli problems are not confined to the Lake of the Ozarks

St. Louis to Resume Twice Weekly Trash Pick Up; Considering Curbside Recycling

'Cause we don't want our alleys looking like this.​Mayor Francis Slay's office today announced that St. Louis is resuming twice-weekly trash pick up effective immediately. In an effort to save money, the city began a trial once-a-week trash pick up program last November that affected about 40 per ... More >>

Jonathan Katz: Wash U Prof Tapped By Obama to Solve Gulf Oil Crisis is "Homophobe, Climate Change Denialist"

Image sourceJonathan Katz describes himself as "a homophobe and proud"​Washington University physics professor Jonathan Katz is part of a five-man team of the nation's "best scientific minds" assembled by the Obama administration to help BP stem the flow of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. He' ... More >>

EPA: Missouri Company "Fresh and Clean Restrooms" Is Not So Fresh or Clean

Sludge: Not just for breakfast anymore.​The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday it has issued an order against Fresh and Clean Restrooms for failure to apply sewage sludge in compliance with Clean Water Act regulations. According to the EPA, the porta-potty company from southeast Mis ... More >>

Joe Washington of Northeast Ambulance & Fire District Sentenced for Clean Air Violations

Joe Washington​The former chief of the Northeast Ambulance & Fire Protection District was sentenced today to one year of probation for violating the Clean Air Act.Joe Washington pleaded guilty in December for violating EPA regulations when he had asbestos removed last year from the fire distri ... More >>

Global Warming & Meteorologists: A "Hot" Topic?

reedypress.comCorrigan says everything in Missouri is political, even the weather. ​Is global warming real?Finally, somebody has asked the experts. Thank you, Don Corrigan, editor and co-publisher of the Webster-Kirkwood and South County Times newspapers. In his new book, Show Me Nature's Wrath, a ... More >>

Doe Run Lead Smelter Continues to Contaminate Herculaneum

The report from the Environmental Protection Agency is hardly shocking. Yesterday the agency released test results indicating that as many as one-third of properties situated within a mile of the company's lead smelter in Herculaneum contain lead at levels exceeding 400 parts per million (ppm) -- th ... More >>

Lawyer for Metropolitan Sewer District is Married to EPA Official Who is Suing Agency

The Kansas City Star has a curious story out today involving an ethical quandary that could impact a lawsuit filed against the Metropolitan Sewer District. shb.comTerry SatterleeThe paper reports that the Kansas City attorney representing MSD, Terry Satterlee, is the wife of, Bill Rice, the head of ... More >>

"If You Ever Eat Pickled Eggs and Drink Beer, It Smells Worse Than Them Kind of Farts."

flickr.com/photos/cottergarageA Granite City sunrise.Parts of Madison County, Illinois, have the second-most poisonous air in the country, according to a new report issued by the Environmental Protection Agency. Most alarming was one particular Granite City neighborhood, located near U.S. Steel Corp ... More >>

Happy Earth Day

Fig-get Me Not

Love of food improves the world

What, a Dump?

Environmentalists decry the expansion of a gigantic Illinois landfill.

Hot Hot Heat

Combat it with cool, cool ice

Trash Talk

St. Louis is way behind the recycling curve. Don't expect that to change.

Invasion of the Swiss

Proposed cement plant in Ste. Genevieve would be foreign to our lungs

Cementing a Deal

A giant quarry and the world's largest cement kiln are being welcomed by Ste. Genevieve County. But the operation may leave St. Louis gasping for air.

Trash Talk

From the top of Mount Milam to the depths of the Pit with the people who take out St. Louis' garbage

Getting Burned

A North St. Louis medical-waste incinerator has spewed dioxin for a decade. Nearby residents say it's time to fight the fire.

PETER AND THE WOLF

Why Missouri Botanical Garden's Peter Raven, world-renowned environmentalist, courts Monsanto's favor, boosts its biotech and takes its money

Clearing the Air

Challenged by pro-business groups more interested in profit than in clean air, attorney Lewis C. Green fights to make the government enforce its own air-quality standards

Of Wetlands and Wal-Marts

One development at a time, Missouri has lost 87 percent of its wetlands. And that means more floods, more damage, more levees, more bucks. The story of one Supercenter and how progress comes at a price.