The new proposed agreement calls for mandatory stream quality monitoring for pollutants, including pathogens, with results posted quarterly, and greater transparency, with draft plans posted to the city's website and made available 45 days before they are due to interested parties.
"Today's agreement will help prevent hazardous releases at the StarKist facility, protect workers and the local community, and reduce pollution discharged into Pago Pago Harbor by more than 13 million pounds each year," said Alexis Strauss, acting regional administrator with EPA's Pacific Southwest Region. "Working with our partners at American Samoa EPA, we will monitor the company’s progress toward full compliance with all federal environmental rules."
"The Minamata Convention shows that our global work to protect our planet and its people can continue to bring nations together. We did it for the ozone layer and now we're doing it for mercury, just as we need to do it for climate change – a cause that the Minamata Convention will also serve. Together, we can clean up our act," said Erik Solheim, head of UN Environment.
The National Academies said it would go forward with previously scheduled meetings for the project in Kentucky on Aug. 21-23 "and we stand ready to resume it as soon as the Department of the Interior review is completed."
The three reports are required under the Administrative Order on Consent between the agency and Talen Montana, LLC. They concern the industrial wastewater facilities at the Colstrip Steam Electric Station.
The Clean Water State Revolving Fund Loan Program has awarded more than $1.8 billion in low-interest loans since its inception in 1987, while Tennessee's Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Loan Program has awarded more than $300.5 million in low-interest loans since its inception in 1996.