environment

Kansas says the Environmental Protection Agency has informed the state that all 105 counties in the state meet the most recent ozone standards.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said in a news release that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt recently sent a letter to Gov. Sam Brownback saying this is good news for the citizens of Kansas. Pruitt's letter also encouraged the state to continue efforts to maintain air quality that meets the 2015 ground-level ozone standards.

Kansas’ energy-regulating agency will investigate nearly a decade’s worth of permits it granted to oil and gas companies after learning recently that some wells received permits without meeting certain state regulations.

The probe, announced Tuesday, will determine the number of wells approved since 2008 without the companies giving nearby residents accurate information about their rights to protest the wells.

Kansas energy regulators have given the green light for an oil company to dispose of production-related wastewater in the Flint Hills — a plan that had met with resistance from residents.

Environmental sustainability is the focus of EcoFest in east Wichita on Saturday. Organizer Vivien Minshull-Ford says the celebration centers around green living and eco-stewardship. She says there will be an eco-conscious art exhibit, demonstrations, crafts for kids and a bus that's been converted into an eco-friendly home.

"People will be able to go on tours," Minshull-Ford says. "It’s put together by a couple of artists who are very clever at doing that sort of thing, and it’s off the grid so it has solar panels, a compost toilet and they live in it."

Residents of the Flint Hills on Wednesday took a fight against an oil company to Kansas energy regulators as part of their broader battle to stem wastewater disposal in the area.

They fear that a request from Quail Oil and Gas to jettison up to 5,000 barrels a day of brine near Strong City and the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve brings a risk for earthquakes or contamination of local groundwater — claims that the company disputes. 

The United States will withdraw from the international climate agreement known as the Paris accord, President Trump announced on Thursday. He said the U.S. will negotiate either re-entering the Paris agreement or a work on a new deal that would put American workers first.

During his campaign, Trump vowed to "cancel" U.S. participation in the deal. World leaders and business figures had recently urged him to reconsider. Ultimately, the president decided to withdraw, with the stated intention of renegotiating.

In 2012 the state of Kansas ranked in the bottom five for tourism, to no one’s surprise hereabouts.