environment

Kentuckians can enjoy a day in the country to count butterflies as part of a national census.

The count will be done in Oldham County on July 20 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

University of Louisville biology professor emeritus Charles Covell and other specialists will lead activities in the fields and forest of UofL's Horner Wildlife Sanctuary.

Participants are urged to wear hats, hiking shoes, long pants and long-sleeved shirts and bring water, lunch and insect repellent. Covell will supply nets but volunteers can use cameras, binoculars and notebooks.

Last year's local count yielded 36 species and 765 individual butterflies.

Volunteers should meet at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot of Sugarbabe Antiques in Brownsboro, about one mile northwest of Exit 14 off Interstate 71.

Henderson County is the recipient of $1.4 million in grants aimed at improving recycling efforts in the region.

More than $900,000 will go towards the Tri-County Alliance Recycling Center, which covers Henderson, Webster, and Union counties. The Center’s goal is to reduce the amount of recyclables that are dumped in area landfills.

The new funding will go to create one large, centralized recycling center that will collect, process, and market recyclables. The new 3,000-square-foot recycling center is currently under construction in Henderson.

As part of the grants announced Wednesday, the Hugh Edward Sandefur Training Center is receiving $500,000. The nonprofit serves Daviess, Henderson, Union, and Webster counties and provides employment training to those with disabilities.

The Center recently signed an agreement to reclaim and recycle electronic waste in western Kentucky and southern Indiana.

A western Kentucky utility says it’s withdrawing a pollution-control plan after an E.P.A rule was struck down in court this week. The Henderson-based Big Rivers Electric Cooperative says it will save customers about $225 million  by dropping the plan.

A three-judge panel has voted two to one to strike down a new rule from the Environmental Protection Agency that would require some states to reduce pollution that travels across state lines. This puts the EPA in a difficult position.

A new report says Kentucky is the worst state in the nation when it comes to toxic air pollution from coal-fired power plants. The analysis was released Thursday by the Natural Resources Defense Council and looked at emissions from power plants in 2010, the most recent data available.