Environment Watchdog EPCA

In what could prove a significant move for communities facing air pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed on Thursday that chemical plants nationwide measure certain hazardous compounds that cross beyond their property lines and reduce them when they are too high. The proposed rules would reduce cancer risk and other exposure for communities that live close to harmful emitters, the EPA said. The data would be made public and the results would force companies to fix problems that increase emissions. This is probably the most significant rule I'm experiencing in my 30 years of working in cancer alley, said Beverly Wright, executive director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. She referred to an area dense with petrochemical development along the Gulf Coast. In the past, Wright said, even when emissions caused harm, residents weren't able to sue and reduce the threat. The proposed ..

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Thursday urged the Central Pollution Control Board and a Supreme Court-mandated pollution control authority to shut the 11 coal-fired power plants

In a special report submitted to the court, the EPCA said it found massive quantities of plastic, industrial and other waste dumped and burnt in vacant areas across pollution hotspots in NCR

The recommendations include banning construction work at night in Delhi-NCR from October 26 to 30 and closure of industries that have not switched to piped natural gas

The Supreme Court-appointed watchdog EPCA is planning to devise a system under which measures like odd-even will kick in automatically when air pollution enters 'emergency' zone. Earlier this month, when pollution had breached emergency levels, the Delhi government had decided to implement the car-rationing scheme based on odd and even number plates, but had to call it off at the last moment. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had made it clear that it would allow the scheme to be enforced only if the exemptions to two-wheelers and women were withdrawn, but the Arvind Kejriwal government had expressed its inability to do so, citing inadequacies in the city's public transport system. Caught between the NGT and the government, the measure, which is a part of the Centre-notified Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), could ultimately not be enforced. In fact, the Delhi government had gone ahead with its plan without the Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) ...