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Archive for April, 2013
Amid China air, water pollution, soil survey reveals century-old heavy metals
Posted by Reuters: David Stanway and Niu Shuping on April 10th, 2013
Reuters: Soil samples across China have revealed remnants of toxic heavy metals dating back at least a century and traces of a pesticide banned in the 1980s, an environmental official said on Wednesday, revealing the extent of the country's pollution problems.
Street-level anger over air pollution that blanketed many northern cities this winter spilled over into online appeals for Beijing to clean water supplies, especially after rotting corpses of thousands of pigs were found last month in a river that...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Amid China air, water pollution, soil survey reveals century-old heavy metalsNiger: Access to Sanitation Still a Luxury for the Very Few
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 10th, 2013
Inter Press Service: About 20 communities in Tillabéri, west Niger, have been declared open defecation-free zones as across the country, very few people have access to proper sanitation.
The communities were part of a Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) project, launched in September 2010 in 32 villages in the region by the local office of the NGO Plan International.
Souley Hachimou, a sanitation technician in Niamey, the Niger capital, told IPS: "Open air defecation is a widespread hazard in Niger, especially...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Niger: Access to Sanitation Still a Luxury for the Very FewFracking does cause earthquakes – but you’ll hardly feel them
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 10th, 2013
Telegraph: The controversial technique blasts water into rocks to open up cracks and free up the shale gas, an energy source supporters say heat homes in Britain for 100 years.
Opponents say the process can open up faultlines and cause earthquakes.
But a new study, published in Marine and Petroleum Geology, found only three earthquakes that people can actually feel have been caused so far, out of hundreds of thousands of wells drilled since 1929.
Most of the tremors caused by fracking will be undetectable...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fracking does cause earthquakes – but you’ll hardly feel themNature reserves attract new species
Posted by BBC: Ella Davies on April 10th, 2013
BBC: The UK's nature reserves act as 'ecological welcome mats' to new species, according to scientists.
Since the 1960s, there has been a natural influx of wetland bird species from continental Europe.
Species such as whooper swans, Cetti's warblers and little egrets have used the nature reserves to colonise new areas of the UK, found the scientists.
The findings are published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
The effectiveness of the UK's Protected Areas, from...
Radioactive Water Leaks From Japan’s Damaged Nuclear Plant
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on April 10th, 2013
Environment News Service: The Government of Japan has ordered Tokyo Electric Power Co. to fix fresh radioactive water leaks at its damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Leaks in three underground storage pits at Fukushima Daiichi have released an estimated 32,000 gallons of radioactive water since Friday, TEPCO officials report.
The underground tanks contain water that became radioactive when it was sprayed into the Fukushima Daiichi reactors continuously for months to cool the nuclear fuel after the earthquake...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Radioactive Water Leaks From Japan’s Damaged Nuclear PlantCalifornia court ruling gives hope to foes of fracking
Posted by Reuters: Rory Carroll and Braden Reddall on April 10th, 2013
Reuters: A court ruling that the U.S. government must consider the environmental impact of "fracking" on federal lands leased to oil companies offers opponents of the technique a useful weapon in the fierce public debate in California and other parts of the country.
In a regulatory setback for hydraulic fracturing on public lands, a federal magistrate judge in San Jose, California, on Monday ruled that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) failed to analyze its impact on 2,500 acres in Monterey County. ...
Repsol suffers spill at Alaska exploration well – state
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 10th, 2013
Reuters: A ruptured hose at an Alaska well on Tuesday sprayed about two-thirds of an acre of snow-covered tundra and forced Spanish oil firm Repsol to halt exploration tests briefly at the North Slope prospect, state environmental officials said.
The early morning spill, of about 6,600 gallons of crude oil, produced-water and other fluids, occurred during a flow-back test at the exploration well, one of three Repsol drilled this winter on the North Slope, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Repsol suffers spill at Alaska exploration well – stateEnergy nominee Ernest Moniz backs natural gas ‘revolution’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 10th, 2013
Associated Press: President Barack Obama`s choice to lead the Energy Department pledged to increase use of natural gas Tuesday as a way to combat climate change even as the nation seeks to boost domestic energy production.
Ernest Moniz, a Fall River native and physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said "a stunning increase" in production of domestic natural gas in recent years was nothing less than a "revolution" that has led to reduced emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Energy nominee Ernest Moniz backs natural gas ‘revolution’Amid Drought, Water Board in New Mexico Confronts State Over Supply
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 10th, 2013
New York Times: A small water agency in southern New Mexico has moved to force state agencies that control water distribution to deprive some users of their supplies. The local agency, the Carlsbad Irrigation District, or C.I.D., acted to ensure that its alfalfa farmers receive the supplemental deliveries to which they say they are entitled. The irrigation district voted unanimously last week to make what is known as a “priority call” on the Pecos River, a move that could force New Mexico’s Office of the State...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Amid Drought, Water Board in New Mexico Confronts State Over SupplyQuake risk from fracking ‘minimal’
Posted by BBC: Matt McGrath on April 10th, 2013
BBC: New research suggests that fracking is not a significant cause of earthquakes that can be felt on the surface.
UK scientists looked at quakes caused by human activity ranging from mining to oil drilling; only three could be attributed to hydraulic fracturing.
Most fracking events released the same amount of energy as jumping off a ladder, the Durham-based team said.
They argue that the integrity of well bores drilled for fracking is of much greater concern.
The research is published in...