Andrew Whitehurst

Oysters inspected. Photo credit: MDEQ.Mississippi’s Governor Phil Bryant recently announced the formation of the Governor’s Oyster Council to help the coast’s oyster industry restore a fishery that has been hurt and diminished over just a few years by hurricanes, the BP drilling disaster and its aftermath, and oyster reef mortality due to salinity changes. The

Gulf Restoration Network requested a meeting with the Vicksburg District Corps staff to ask about the status of the WRDA Section 211 flood control (lake) project on the Pearl River. We wanted to discuss the project and ask questions about the process since a local sponsor, and not the Vicksburg Corps, is doing all the

The Greater Jackson Partnership gave an update on its Vision 2022 plan on Thursday September 25th. Vision 2022 was begun in 2012 as a 10 year master plan for development in downtown Jackson. Its centerpiece is a new lake along the urban reach of the Pearl River, but there are parts of the plan that

Robert Bowcock visited Louisiana and Mississippi on September 9-10th doing investigations into water pollution problems. Bowcock’s consulting business, Integrated Resource Management, deals with the safety and security of drinking water systems. His investigations have supported some of Erin Brockovich’s environmental defense work. On he was in St. John Parish, upriver from New Orleans. The Parish

An oilfield waste injection well has been operating for 18 years with minimal oversight in a suburban neighborhood in Laurel, Mississippi. Since 1996 this disposal well has allowed salt water, produced during drilling operations, combined with oil and drilling fluids to be injected into the earth 4020 feet down a “dry hole” oil well from

At the MDEQ Environmental Permit Board’s August 2014 meeting, we presented GRN’s comments which asked the Board to require fecal coliform bacteria monitoring for any discharges from the reservoir at the Kemper IGCC power plant. This reservoir holds Meridian’s treated municipal waste water at the end of a 41-mile pipeline. Kemper buys this water to

Okatibbee Lake is fed by streams receiving water from several permitted discharges from Kemper The Kemper IGCC (lignite gasification) power plant will use Meridian’s treated municipal sewage water to make steam for the turbines that produce electricity. That water becomes property of Mississippi Power when the company purchases it from Meridian and pumps it 41

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality hosted a meeting on March 19th to update interested people on the process of developing and setting nutrient criteria for Mississippi. At some point in the next 2 to 3 years, after many delays, the MDEQ will finally release state-wide standards for nitrogen and phosphorous pollution limits either in