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World Bank Funds Hydro Dam for Africa’s Great Lakes Region
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on August 13th, 2013
Environment News Service: The World Bank has approved US$340 million for the long-planned Regional Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Project, which will generate power for residents of Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania. While local officials eagerly anticipate the power scheduled to start flowing in 2017, river advocates say ecosystem impacts of the project have not even been evaluated.
The 80 megawatt hydroelectric power station in Rwanda will dam the Kagera River. It will be located at Rusumo Falls on the border with Tanzania, near...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on World Bank Funds Hydro Dam for Africa’s Great Lakes RegionWhite House Undercuts Coal Power Plant Water Pollution Rule
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on July 25th, 2013
Environment News Service: Coal-fired power plants, many operating with expired permits, have become the largest source of toxic water pollution in the United States, finds new research released Tuesday by a coalition of environmental and clean water groups.
In April, the U.S. EPA proposed the nation`s first standards to regulate this pollution, but the White House Office of Management and Budget has weakened the proposed standards, the groups claim.
Their report, "Closing the Floodgates: How the Coal Industry Is Poisoning...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on White House Undercuts Coal Power Plant Water Pollution RuleAustralia: Ministers Ignore Industrial Threats to Great Barrier Reef
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on July 10th, 2013
Environment News Service: The Australian and Queensland governments today pledged to protect the world`s longest coral reef under a new plan endorsed at the Great Barrier Reef Ministerial Forum in Brisbane. But environmental advocates warn the ministers are ignoring alarm bells about industrial development rung by the United Nations. The 2013 Reef Water Quality Protection Plan is designed to guide initiatives to ensure that runoff from agriculture has no detrimental impact on the health and resilience of the Great Barrier...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: Ministers Ignore Industrial Threats to Great Barrier ReefRaging Wildfire Kills 19 Arizona Firefighters
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on July 2nd, 2013
Environment News Service: Fighting the lightning-sparked Yarnell Hill wildfire near Prescott late Sunday, 19 firefighters died in the line of duty. The 19 firefighters, all men, were part of the elite Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew of Prescott.
Fire officials say the Hotshot Crew had to deploy their fire shelters after strong winds pushed the fast-moving blaze over their position. They died in the worst wildland firefighter tragedy in the United States since 25 people died in the Los Angeles Griffith Park Fire...
Obama Orders U.S. Agencies to Fight Global Wildlife Trafficking
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on July 1st, 2013
Environment News Service: During a state visit to Tanzania today, President Barack Obama said his administration will put new energy and funds into fighting wildlife trafficking, which he called "an international crisis that continues to escalate."
In a news conference with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, President Obama said, "Poaching and trafficking is threatening Africa's wildlife, so today I issued a new executive order to better organize U.S. government efforts in this fight so that we can cooperate further with...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Obama Orders U.S. Agencies to Fight Global Wildlife TraffickingRacing the Monsoon, India Rescues Thousands but 550 Die
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on June 22nd, 2013
Environment News Service: "On a war footing" India has mobilized military and civilian emergency personnel to rescue tens of thousands of people stranded outdoors in mountainous forests due to unseasonably early monsoon rains, flash floods and landslides.
More than 550 people have died as four times the usual amount of rainfall swept across 40,000 square kilometers (15,440 square miles) of northern India this week.
A rescued survivor is carried to safety in northern India, June 21, 2013 (Photo by National Disaster Response...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Racing the Monsoon, India Rescues Thousands but 550 DieMayors Vow to Strengthen Defenses Against Extreme Weather
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on June 17th, 2013
Environment News Service: As unprecedented extreme weather and climate change wreak havoc across the country, 48 local elected officials today committed themselves to fortifying their cities, towns, and counties. As the "inaugural signatories" of the Resilient Communities for America Agreement letter, the officials pledged to take cost-effective actions to prepare and protect their communities from the increasing disasters and disruptions fueled by climate change -- heat waves, floods, droughts, severe storms, and wildfires....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Mayors Vow to Strengthen Defenses Against Extreme WeatherExxonMobil Sued Over Arkansas Pipeline Oil Spill
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on June 15th, 2013
Environment News Service: The United States and the State of Arkansas Thursday filed a joint enforcement action against ExxonMobil Pipeline Company and Mobil Pipe Line Company in federal district court in Little Rock.
The civil complaint addresses ExxonMobil's illegal discharge of heavy crude oil from a 20-inch-diameter interstate pipeline, known as the Pegasus Pipeline, that ruptured in Mayflower, Arkansas, on March 29.
A segment of the Pegasus Pipeline ruptured in a residential neighborhood of Mayflower, a town of...
Oil Spilled Into Ecuador’s Rivers Reaches Peru
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on June 11th, 2013
Environment News Service: Oil spilled from Petroecuador`s Trans-Ecuador pipeline after a May31 landslide in the Andean foothills has reached the Peruvian Amazon.
The landslide that destroyed a 330-foot section of the pipeline is blamed on heavy rain in the province of Sucumbios near the El Reventador Volcano, one of Ecuador`s most active volcanoes.
Oil spill caused when a landslide damaged the Trans-Ecuador pipeline near the El Reventador volcano, June 4, 2013. (Photo courtesy Petroecuador)
The broken pipeline spilled...
U.S. Groundwater Consumption Accelerating
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on May 23rd, 2013
Environment News Service: Aquifers across the United States are being drawn down at an increasing pace, finds a new study released today by the U.S. Geological Survey.
The report, "Groundwater Depletion in the United States (1900-2008)," evaluates long-term cumulative depletion volumes in 40 separate aquifers in the United States, bringing together information from previous studies and from new analyses of these distinct underground water storage areas.
"Although groundwater depletion is rarely assessed and poorly documented,...