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Archive for February, 2014
EPA Puts Pebble Mine on Hold
Posted by National Geographic: Dan Vergano on February 28th, 2014
National Geographic: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials on Friday put on hold plans for a massive open-pit copper mine in Alaska, invoking Clean Water Act rules.
Requested by EPA administrator Gina McCarthy, the delay aims "to protect the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery in Bristol Bay, Alaska," the agency said in a statement.
Such a Clean Water Act hold on mining, invoked only 13 times previously by the agency, means the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cannot approve a permit for the proposed Pebble...
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Is climate change behind California’s dry spell?
Posted by PhysOrg: Ker Than on February 28th, 2014
PhysOrg: California's parched landscapes are receiving a much-needed soaking this week as heavy rainstorms roll across the West Coast. The break in the state's dry spell is due to a weakening of an atmospheric anomaly that has been hovering above the northern Pacific Ocean. Dubbed the "ridiculously resilient ridge" by a Stanford graduate student, this enormous region of atmospheric high pressure has been squatting off the coast of western Canada since January 2013, diverting storms northward, away from California...
Australia: Murray-Darling Basin deal caps water buybacks to bring all states on board
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 27th, 2014
AAP: A “historic” deal has been signed between NSW and the Commonwealth, securing $80m for water infrastructure projects along the Murray-Darling Basin. The prime minister, Tony Abbott, and NSW premier, Barry O’Farrell, wrapped up the agreement in Canberra on Thursday. The extra funds, which will be made available over the next eight years, will go towards water management projects and water resource plans. The NSW government and previous federal Labor government were in negotiations over the future...
United Kingdom: HS2 tunnel could save ancient woodland, campaigners say
Posted by Guardian: Jessica Aldred on February 27th, 2014
Guardian: A short tunnel extension could save up to one-third of the ancient woodland threatened by the HS2 high-speed rail project, campaigners say.
Figures show that 32 hectares (80 acres) of ancient woodland will be lost in the first phase of HS2, that will be constructed along a 140-mile route between London and Birmingham.
But a coalition of conservation groups and the local council says that more than 10 hectares (25 acres) could be preserved by increasing the length of the planned Chilterns tunnel...
Australia: Climate Change Authority rritating gadfly to Abbott
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 27th, 2014
Sydney Morning Herald: To get an inkling of how serious the Abbott government is likely to take today's release of the final report on Australia's carbon emissions reduction goals by the Climate Change Authority, try finding any reference to the report - or the authority itself - on the Department of Environment website.
As with the draft report released last November, the independent authority has concluded Australia's current goal of cutting emissions by 5 per cent on 2000 levels by 2020 is inadequate.
Rather,...
No Conflict of Interest Found in Favorable Review of Keystone Pipeline
Posted by New York Times: Coral Davenport on February 26th, 2014
New York Times: A State Department contractor who prepared an environmental analysis of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline did not violate conflict of interest rules, even though the contractor had previously done work for TransCanada, the company seeking to build pipeline, a State Department inspector general’s investigation concluded on Wednesday. The results of the investigation could further pave the way for the Obama administration to approve the 1,700-mile, $5.4 billion pipeline, which would move heavily...
Duke Raked Over the Coals for 35 Million Gallon Ash Spill
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on February 26th, 2014
Environment News Service: An estimated 35 million gallons of arsenic-contaminated water and ash has spilled into the Dan River since February 2, when a stormwater pipe broke beneath an unlined coal ash storage pond at Duke Energy`s retired power plant in Eden, near the North Carolina-Virginia border.
Wake Forest University researchers, using a 3D model created with aerial images taken by a camera on their unmanned aircraft, estimate that up to 20 million gallons of ash and water spilled out of the pond on February 2, with...
The Search For Drinking Water In California Has Led To Ocean
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 26th, 2014
National Public Radio: California is getting some much needed rain this week, but more than two-thirds of the state is still in extreme drought conditions, and that has the state thinking about alternative ways of getting water.
On the coast in Carlsbad, Calif., construction workers are building what will be the largest seawater desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere. When finished in early 2016, it is expected to provide up to 50 million gallons of fresh drinkable water every day.
"That's enough water for...
Portable Potables: How To Fight Drought By Reusing Water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 26th, 2014
National Public Radio: David Sedlak, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, explains the many methods of capturing and reusing drinking water.
Nowhere to hide from extreme weather
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 26th, 2014
USA Today: In 1887, the prospectus for a new, private, residential resort off the Georgia coast offered the nation's elite ("men of means, taste and culture") what they'd been searching for: the promise of perfect weather. "The climate is mild and even, with no extremes,'' it reported. "No destructive storms or cyclones have ever been experienced.'' Sold! J.P. Morgan, William K. Vanderbilt and Joseph Pulitzer all became charter members of the Jekyll Island Club. Eleven years later, a club superintendent wrote...