Environmental Briefs: Wetlands Restoration, County Contracts With Sterigenics On Hold and Clean Car Waiver Gets Automakers Support

EPA Awards $3.7 Million to Support Wetlands Restoration

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or EPA has awarded a total of $3,745,495 to boost programs that restore habitat, protect tribal water quality and preserve wetlands across the Pacific Southwest. The funding was awarded through EPA’s Wetland Program Development Grants.

Wetland Program Development Grants assist state, tribal, and local government agencies and interstate/intertribal entities in developing or refining programs which protect, manage, and restore wetlands.

Below are the local projects funded in this year’s round of grants: 

California State Coastal Conservancy will receive $365,000 to build capacity for assessing wetland recovery efforts. The project will develop a regional monitoring program for the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project.

Southern California Coastal Water Resource Project will receive $443,005 to develop a Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Monitoring Program for the Southern California Bight.

Details: www.epa.gov/wetlands/wetland-program-development

Hahn Prohibits County Contracts with Sterigenics While Elevated Emissions Persist

LOS ANGELES —The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors June 15, approved a motion authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn to prohibit county departments from contracting with Sterigenics, a medical device sterilization company, while it continues to emit elevated levels of a dangerous carcinogen from its Vernon plant.

Los Angeles County has no existing contracts with Sterigenics U.S., Inc. Hahn’s motion, approved unanimously by the board, directs that all county departments shall refrain from entering into any new or amended contracts to purchase goods or services from Sterigenics.

Details: http://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/bos/supdocs/169900.pdf

ICYMI: Leading Automakers Support California’s Clean Car Waiver

SACRAMENTO — Last week, five major automakers intervened in defense of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s or EPA decision to restore California’s waiver under the Clean Air Act for its greenhouse gas or GHG and zero-emission vehicle or ZEV standards. Ford, Volkswagen, BMW, Honda and Volvo filed a motion last June 7, backing California’s waiver in response to lawsuits filed by Republican-led states, the oil industry and other business interests against the EPA’s decision in March to restore California’s Clean Air Act waiver, remedying the previous administration’s groundless ​attack.

Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta and the California Air Resources Board led a multistate coalition joining the U.S. EPA to defend the waiver from the new lawsuits. California’s standards, which 17 states have chosen to adopt, result in emissions reductions of hundreds of thousands of tons annually and are essential components of California’s and other states’ plans to fight climate change and protect public health.

Details: www.governor-newsom-statement-on-biden-administrations-restoration-of-californias-clean-car-waiver/