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Archive for July, 2011
In Rush to Find Gold, Indonesians Defy Dangers
Posted by New York Times: Norimitsu Onishi on July 8th, 2011
New York Times: On an otherwise verdant and untouched mountain, a patch of orange and blue tarpaulin stood out incongruously near the summit, the telltale sign of an illegal gold mine. The footpath leading there, freshly carved out of the thick bush and pockmarked with stones, suggested that the mine was new. Women with 50-pound sacks of rocks on their heads clambered down the path, carrying the loads to a nearby village where they would be crushed by hand and by machine, mixed with water and mercury, in a search...
Montana pulls out of oil spill joint command
Posted by Reuters: Laura Zuckerman on July 8th, 2011
Reuters: Montana's governor withdrew his state on Thursday from participation in a joint command team directing the cleanup of oil spilled from a burst Exxon Mobil pipeline, saying citizens "can't get straight answers" from the company.
In establishing the state's own incident command center in Billings, just downstream from Friday night's spill on the Yellowstone River, Governor Brian Schweitzer cited what he characterized as a lack of public transparency by Exxon.
Schweitzer said Exxon had restricted...
ExxonMobil finds 2 oil spots beyond 20 miles of spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 8th, 2011
Reuters: ExxonMobil said it found two separate spots of oil beyond 20 miles from the point of release from its ruptured Montana oil pipeline, but there was no oil between 20-40 miles from the site of the release.
One spot of oil was located about 40 miles from the site of the release and the second spot was about 80 miles away, the company's unit ExxonMobil Pipeline Co said in a statement.
Earlier, the company had said that the spill appeared to be concentrated within a 15-mile stretch of the Yellowstone...
Air, soil, wells near Mont. oil spill to be tested
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 8th, 2011
Associated Press: Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer has decided Exxon Mobil and the state don't make good roommates after nearly a week of working together in close quarters to clean up an estimated 42,000 gallons of crude oil released into the Yellowstone River.
State officials have moved out of a joint command post overseeing the response to the spill -- a mess that has painted a fresh target for scorn on one of the world's largest energy companies.
Security guards working for Exxon Mobil Corp. have closely guarded...
Montana pulls out of oil spill joint command
Posted by Reuters: Laura Zuckerman on July 8th, 2011
Reuters: Montana's governor withdrew his state on Thursday from participation in a joint command team directing the cleanup of oil spilled from a burst Exxon Mobil pipeline, saying citizens "can't get straight answers" from the company.
In establishing the state's own incident command center in Billings, just downstream from Friday night's spill on the Yellowstone River, Governor Brian Schweitzer cited what he characterized as a lack of public transparency by Exxon.
Schweitzer said Exxon had restricted...
Horn of Africa: From one drought to another
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 7th, 2011
Guardian: Every day 1,000 Somalis stream across the Kenyan border to Dadaab, which is full to bursting with 367,000 people and already constitutes the largest refugee settlement in the world. They arrive malnourished and dehydrated but – after a walk lasting weeks – grateful that they have made it to a point where they will get food and water. The exodus is not the only indicator that a major food crisis is brewing in the Horn of Africa after the driest year for 60 years.
In Somalia the price of the cereal...
EPA to test air in homes near Montana oil spill
Posted by Associated Press: Matthew Brown and Garance Burke on July 7th, 2011
Associated Press: The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it will collect indoor air samples from homes downstream of a Yellowstone River oil spill after residents raised concerns about health risks from the tens of thousands of gallons of crude that poured into the watercourse.
About 150 people showed up at an EPA meeting Wednesday night with questions about health risks, the duration of the cleanup, and whether the oil will permanently damage their livestock or property.
George Nilson, 69, said the...
Yellowstone river oil spill throws spotlight on ExxonMobil and regulators
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 7th, 2011
Guardian: An emergency response crew in Laurel, Montana, clean a section of the Yellowstone river affected by the ExxonMobil oil spill. Photograph: Reuters
ExxonMobil and the Obama administration faced a growing credibility gap on Thursday over their management of a pipeline break that has fouled the Yellowstone river.
Clean-up crews have yet to reach the site of the pipeline break nearly a week after the rupture, which leaked 42,000 US gallons (159,000 litres) of oil into the Yellowstone, one of the...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Yellowstone river oil spill throws spotlight on ExxonMobil and regulatorsE.P.A. Sets New Standards for Coal-Burning Plants
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 7th, 2011
New York Times: The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday issued new standards for coal-burning power plants in 28 states that would sharply cut smokestack emissions that have polluted forests, farms, lakes and streams across the eastern United States for decades.
The agency said that the new regulations, which take effect beginning in 2012, would cut emissions of soot, smog and acid rain from hundreds of power plants by millions of tons at a cost to utilities of less than $1 billion a year. The E.P.A....
Canada: Alberta sees mixed results in pine beetle battle
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 7th, 2011
Reuters: Alberta reported mixed results on Thursday in its battle with the mountain pine beetle, with six million hectares of forest in the western Canadian province susceptible to attack.
Milder winter temperatures allowed more beetles to survive in northwestern Alberta, which also remained at risk of continued migration of beetles from British Columbia, Alberta's Sustainable Resource Development Ministry said.
The situation remained stable in central Alberta.
Beetle survival rates were low in southwestern...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada: Alberta sees mixed results in pine beetle battle