DOVER - At the direction of Delaware Governor Jack Markell, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Collin P. O’Mara has assembled a team of environmental scientists and engineers to oversee the safe and orderly shutdown and stabilization of the Delaware City Refinery in response to an announcement this morning that owner Valero Energy Corporation is permanently shutting down the facility.

DOVER – Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Collin P. O’Mara has issued a Notice of Administrative Penalty Assessment and Secretary’s Order to Dassault Falcon Jet – Wilmington Corp. for violations of its permit issued by the Air Quality Management Section as well as violations of Delaware’s Regulations Governing Hazardous Waste. The Order includes a cash penalty of $30,000 and an additional $4,500 as cost recovery reimbursement to the Department for expenses associ

The DuPont Nature Center at Mispillion Harbor Reserve, a DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife facility, today announced its new winter hours. Beginning Dec. 1 and continuing through March 1, 2010, the center will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The Delaware Clean Water Advisory Council (CWAC) will meet at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2 in Conference Room 220 at the Kent County Administrative Complex, 555 South Bay Road, Dover.

Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Collin O’Mara has issued a Notice of Administrative Penalty Assessment and Secretary’s Order to the owners of the Glasgow Citgo for violations of Delaware’s underground storage tank regulations. The order includes a cash penalty of $50,605 and an additional $7,591 as cost recovery reimbursement for the Department’s expenses associated with its investigation.

DNREC Fish and Wildlife Enforcement agents on Nov. 13 arrested a Seaford man who is prohibited from carrying weapons on hunting-related violations.

The Advisory Council on Tidal Finfisheries will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18 in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control auditorium, Richardson and Robbins Building, 89 Kings Highway, Dover.

FELTON – The Environmental Stewardship Program of the Division of Parks and Recreation invites volunteers to spend the morning working in Killens Pond State Park from 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Nov. 21. Program staff will be hosting an invasive plant workday in the fields near the Water Park, targeting Bradford pears, multiflora rose, bush honeysuckles and other invasive plants that threaten the meadows and the understory of forest habitat throughout the park.

FELTON – It may be November, but the staff at Killens Pond State Park invites individuals and families to the park for a day of Fun in the Outdoors onSaturday, Nov. 14. The fun begins with a lesson in outdoor cooking at 2 p.m., followed by a paddling trip around the pond at 3:30 p.m. Visitors should bundle up for a chilly fall hayride through the park at 5:30 p.m. and night hike at 6:30 p.m., and be sure to bring enough water and snacks for the day.

WILMINGTON, Del. - Saturday’s Scrap Tire Drop-off event at Frawley Stadium netted 8.5 tons of scrap tires – more than 650 old passenger vehicle tires that could have ended up in an unsightly, scrap tire pile or left to decompose in a Delaware landfill.

The Recycling Public Advisory Council will meet from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18 at the DNREC Lewes Facility, 901 Pilottown Road, Lewes.

The final numbers are in: 2,002 community volunteers at this year’s Delaware Coastal Cleanup on Sept. 19 collected about 9.6 tons of trash from 41 sites along Delaware’s waterways and coastline stretching from Wilmington to Fenwick Island.

The DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Delaware Landowner Incentive Program (LIP) today announced a request for proposals from private landowners seeking to protect, enhance and/or restore habitat to benefit the First State’s species of greatest conservation need.