But Missouri Sens. Christopher “Kit” Bond and Claire McCaskill are pushing the EPA to abandon its new regulations due to the weak economy and the cost of ridding the air of more pollution.

“We believe that changing the rules at this time will have a significant negative impact on our states’ workers and families and will compound the hardship that many are now facing in these difficult economic times,”  reads a letter they signed.

Bond, a Republican, and McCaskill, a Democrat are among seven Midwestern senators who sent the letter to the EPA on Friday.

The EPA announced in January that it would issue a new standard for ground-level ozone by Aug. 31. An EPA official said today that the deadline still holds.

Ground-level ozone forms when auto and industrial emissions of nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds and carbon monoxide react react with sunlight.

Two years ago, the EPA toughened the standard to 75 parts-per-billion, translating roughly to 75 molecules of pollution in a billion molecules of air. The agency says it intends to further lower that limit to between 60-70 ppb.

Exposure to ground-level ozone can make it harder to breathe and aggravate chronic lung diseases such as asthma, emphysema and bronchitis.

The EPA also is proposing to establish a secondary standard aimed at protecting sensitive vegetation and ecosystems such as forests, parks and wildlife refuges.

Under court order two years ago, the Bush administration toughened decade-old ozone regulations after a review that the EPA says was based on more than 1,700 scientific studies.

Nonetheless, the senators contend in their letter that no new data has emerged that would compel more stringent limits.

“We have become increasingly concerned that the agency’s environmental policies are being advanced to the detriment of the people they are intended to protect,” the letter reads.

Also signing the bipartisan letter are Sens. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, Richard Lugar, R-Ind., David Vitter, R-La., Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Mary Landrieu, D-La.

The EPA issued a statement Monday evening saying that the agency is reviewing the letter. The statement asserted that ground-level ozone “is one of the most serious environmental threats to Americans’ health and welfare.”

Frank O’Donnell, president of the Washington advocacy group Clean Air Watch, remarked that “relatively few senators are attempting to interfere in such a blatant way in this EPA rule.

He argued that the senators “are conveniently leaving out the significant detail that the Bush administration ignored the standard recommended by its own science advisers.”

Washington University also has agreed to spend $45,000 to help the St. Louis Public Schools remove hazardous waste at 12 school buildings.  Whitley says the project helps the school district and allows the university to mitigate its civil penalties.

Missouri’s Most Important Water Quality Event of the Year

WHEN: September 21-22, 2010

WHERE: Columbia, Missouri (at the Holiday Inn Convention Center)

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

• EHS Personnel
• Utility Directors
• City Engineers
• Federal/State Water Professionals
• Environmental Consultants
• Environmental Attorneys

LODGING: Holiday Inn Convention Center in Columbia, Missouri

The reverse auction was held as part of the Energize Missouri Industries program, an initiative of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The overall goal of the online auction is to provide industries and commercial entities with the opportunity to realize measurable energy savings that will result in reduced energy costs and increased market competitiveness.

When all the winners fully implement their programs, Missouri could save up to 75 million kWh (kilowatt-hours) of energy, equivalent to powering 6,537 homes for a year or taking 10,299 cars off the road for a year.

The online reverse auction allowed pre-qualified providers to bid on $3 million in incentives on a $/kWh saved basis for expected energy efficiency projects. Available incentive dollars were allocated based on a lowest-price obtained, thus increasing the cost-effectiveness of the program and allowing the Department to spread the dollars further.

“We have new, hard evidence that some energy-efficiency investments in Missouri can cost less than the current cost of power,” said Mark N. Templeton, Director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. “Innovative procurement tools can help Missourians save real dollars. These grants are an investment in this state’s long-term energy savings and industrial competitiveness.”

The winning bidders were:

$500,00 grants

AmerenUE, St. Louis, $$0.0325/kWh for a projected total of 15.4 million kWh saved

The Gasket Guy dba Green Energy Masters, Jefferson City, $0.0325/kWh for a projected total of 15.4 million kWh saved

$250,000 grants

8760 Energy Engineering, LLC, St. Louis, $0.0275/kWh for a projected total of 8.5 million kWh saved

Eco Engineering, LLC, Cincinnati, OH, $0.0294/kWh for a projected total of 8.3 million kWh saved

Missouri Enterprise, Rolla, $0.0275/kWh for a projected total of 9.1 million kWh saved

Murphy Company Mechanical Contractors, St. Louis, $0.0275/kWh for a projected total of 9 million kWh saved

$100,000 grants

HTE Technologies, St. Louis, $0.0900/kWh for a projected total of 1.1 million kWh saved

Innovative Facilities Solutions, St. Louis, $0.950/kWh for a projected total of 1.1 million kWh saved

Schaeffer Marketing Group, Inc., St. Louis, $0.100/kWh for a projected total of 1.0 million kWh saved

Arctic Solar Engineering, LLC, Chesterfield, $0.100/kWh for a projected total of 1 million kWh saved

Ozark Energy Services, Joplin, $0.1050/kWh for a projected total of 952,381 kWh saved

Energy Solutions, Inc., University City, $.01050/kWh for a projected total of 952,381 kWh saved

Zeller Technologies, Inc., St. Louis, $0.1098/kWh for a projected total of 910,747 kWh saved

Metropolitan Energy Center, Kansas City, $0.1100 kWh saved for a projected total of 909,091 kWh saved

Environmental Dynamics, Inc., Columbia, $0.1100 kWh saved for a projected total of 909,091 kWh saved

Blue Sky Lighting Products, LLC, Wentzville, $0.1100 kWh saved for a projected total of 909,091 kWh saved

The 16 reverse auction winners will have two years to identify industrial and commercial customers to implement energy efficiency projects to expend their allotment of incentive funds and fulfill their energy savings obligation to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

The Department will work closely with the reverse auction winners to assist with funding efforts that support energy efficiency projects as well as provide a financial savings. The winning bidders must have their energy-savings plans reviewed by the department before implementation.

SOURCE: St. Louis Public Radio

Two other municipalities, Kinloch and Westwood, would receive carts the county has in hand.

The municipalities could distribute as many as 16,756 carts in total.

The municipalities and number of carts involved are Florissant, 4,836; Kirkwood, 4,370; Des Peres, 2,835; Berkeley, 2,145; Breckenridge Hills, 1,575; Bel-Ridge, 774; Kinloch, 90; Westwood, 80; and Norwood Court, 51.

The county had estimated the cost at nearly $700,000 based on paying $42 a cart for all but Kinloch’s and Westwood’s, and County Executive Charlie A. Dooley last Friday asked the council to allocate money for the six largest participants.

But when the county on July 16 opened bids for the carts, the low bid from Otto Environmental Systems of Charlotte, N.C., was $35 a cart. The second low bidder, Cascade Engineering of Grand Rapid, Mich., said each cart would cost $35.20.

Officials are reviewing the bids and have not awarded a contract. The county is using $500,000 from a surcharge on landfill fees and $200,000 in federal money for the project.

SOURCE: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced nearly $25 million in federal funding for a $44 million project to install a fixed-track trolley that would travel from the Delmar Loop to Forest Park. The Delmar Loop gets its name from a streetcar turnaround, or loop, and the trolleys that ran here from the late 1800s until 1966.

Developer Joe Edwards, owner of Blueberry Hill, The Pageant, Moonrise Hotel and Pin-Up Bowl, has pushed for years to bring a Loop trolley to the neighborhood, an effort he started in 1997. “This is great news not just for the Loop but for the entire metropolitan area,” he said. “I was absolutely delighted.”

Now he and other supporters have to start raising the local match for the streetcars, which Edwards hopes will start rolling in 2012. “There is still going to be a lot of work,” he said. A one cent sales tax in a transportation development district created more than a year ago brings in about $400,000 to $500,000 a year, he said. Other potential funding sources include corporate and private donations, and New Markets tax credits.

The Federal Transit Administration “has given the region a great opportunity to build the project. But the City of St. Louis, the Loop Trolley Co. and other supporters — myself included — will have to work hard to raise the local match and find creative ways to keep the cost of the project down,” said Thomas Shrout Jr., a longtime mass transit advocate and the outgoing executive director of Citizens for Modern Transit.

Current plans call for the Loop trolley to connect with two existing MetroLink light-rail stations and nine stops along a two-mile route, running from the Delmar Loop in University City to the Missouri History Museum at Lindell and DeBaliviere in Forest Park in St. Louis.

Planned stops along the route include the Missouri History Museum, Forest Park MetroLink station; Crossroads College Preparatory School; Laurel and Delmar; Delmar MetroLink Station; the Pageant; the Tivoli; the Market and Trinity or Kingsland.

Proponents say the restoration of the streetcar is more than an old throwback but a catalyst to stimulate area growth and development. Streetcars are making comebacks in cities nationwide, including San Francisco, Portland, Memphis, New Orleans, Charlotte and Dallas.

The trolley will boost tourism and make St. Louis stand out when organizations are considering where to host their conventions, Edwards said. It will also cut back on traffic congestion, he said.

The federal funding was made available through the Urban Circulator Program, which is part of the Obama administration’s “Livability Initiative.” The money will support the nonprofit Loop Trolley Co., which Edwards helped found.

Metro helped finance a $200,000 feasibility study in 2000 that estimated the cost of a new streetcar system. The study, completed in December 2000, suggested that an electric trolley line was feasible and more efficient than a system of buses disguised to look like trolleys, which Metro launched last week in downtown St. Louis. While a fixed track system would cost more to build, the operating costs of a fixed track versus a rubber tire system were almost identical, according to the study. The report also said that a fixed-track system had a projected ridership that would be 70 percent higher ridership than the rubber tire system.

A completed grant application must be submitted through a regional FTA office before the $24.99 million in funding can be officially awarded.

“I am so grateful to President Obama and my former colleague, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, for supporting this wonderful project with a major federal investment,” longtime trolley proponent U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., said in a statement. “I have been pushing the Loop Trolley for almost 10 years because it will connect two great neighborhoods that I am proud to represent, the U-City Loop and Forest Park. This exciting new attraction will serve both visitors and local residents, while generating jobs and lots of fun.”

SOURCE: St. Louis Business Journal

The district should not have implemented the charge without first receiving voters approval, the judge ruled.

The district for now can collect the charge which is 14 cents for each 100 feet of area that cannot hold water. Circuit Judge Dan Dildine of Lincoln County, who issued the ruling, said he would consider the continued collection of the charge in a second phase of the trial in the case.

The charge raised $41.84 million for storm-water control service in the district’s fiscal year that ended June 30. The district had planned to raise the rate to 17 cents on Jan. 1 and expects to collect $48.3 million in the current fiscal year. The trustees have adopted a series of rate increases that would boost the charge to 29 cents by 2014.

In a statement, the district said it is very disappointed about the decision. “Funding is no longer available for storm-water services in the St. Louis community,” the statement said.

The district’s trustees will hold a special meeting later this month to consider how to proceed.

When the charge took effect, the district reduced to zero the tax rate of up to 10 cents for each $100 of assessed valuation for storm water service. It has authority to reinstate the tax rate. The district had charged sanitary sewer customers 24 cents a month for storm-water control service.

The charge took effect on March 1, 2008. In July 18 of that year, Dr. William Zweig filed a law suit in St. Louis County Circuit Court seeking its cancellation of the charge. He asserted that it violated the Hancock Amendment. Later the state Supreme Court transferred the case to Dildine.

The state Supreme Court has adopted a five-question test to determine whether a charge is a tax subject to a vote or a fee that does not require one. Generally the test requires that a charge must be based on service the agency provides users rather than be a blanket fee on everyone. Dildine said the district’s charge failed all five questions of the test.

The charge “is not based on any provision of a service that property owners may accept, reject or use on a limited basis,” Dildine wrote.

SOURCE: St. Louis Post Dispatch