NewsTrust - Pollution - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Feds failing in duty to protect water from oilsands development

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Canada.com - By Mike De Souza - Nov. 24 (Special Report) - The Harper government is failing to enforce federal law and exercise its constitutional authority in at least 10 different aspects of monitoring the exploitation of Alberta’s oilsands and its impact on water, says a new report to be released Monday.

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Some businesses waste more than £1m a year on excess energy, carbon trading trial finds

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

yorkshirepost.co.uk - By Tom Palmer - Nov. 24 (Special Report) - A PIONEERING carbon trading programme in Yorkshire has revealed some businesses are wasting more than a £1m a year on excess energy and would face six figure fines under future legislation.

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New report asserts R.I. CO2 emissions soared 24 percent

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

projo.com - Nov. 23 (News Report) - A new report from a group called Environment Rhode Island asserts that Rhode Island’s carbon dioxide emissions have soared 24 percent between 1990 and 2007, which is going in the wrong direction for a state trying to reduce its impacts on climate change.

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Naomi Starkman: Tests Find Wide Range of Bisphenol A in Canned Soups, Juice, and More

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Naomi Starkman - Nov. 02 (Investigative Report) - BPA, which has been used for years in clear plastic bottles and food-can liners, has been restricted in Canada and some U.S. states and municipalities because it has been linked to a wide array of health effects including reproductive abnormalities, heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, and heart disease.

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Video: 20,000 Detergent Bottles Under the Sea

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Sam Baldwin, Andy Kroll, Taylor Wiles - Sep. 27 (News Report) - After a month spent studying the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," a vortex of waste twice the size of Texas in the North Pacific Ocean where there's a 36-to-1 ratio of plastic to plankton, the scientists behind Project Kaisei offered tours of their vessel and talked with Mother Jones' Sam Baldwin, Andy Kroll, and Taylor Wiles about finding lawn chairs and laundry baskets floating a thousand miles at sea.

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NYT Investigation Exposes Severity of Nationwide Water Contamination; Corporations Violated Clean Water Act Over 500,000 Times in Last Five Years

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Charles Duhigg - Sep. 14 (Investigative Report) - chemical companies have violated the Clean Water Act more than 500,000 times in the last five years. Most of the violations have gone unpunished, with state regulators taking significant action in just three percent of all cases. An estimated one in ten Americans has been exposed to drinking water that has dangerous chemicals or falls short of federal standards.

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Bodega Bay scientists weigh impact of ocean acid levels on shellfish

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

pressdemocrat.com - By Bob Norberg - Sep. 06 (News Report) - The danger from increasing levels of acid in the ocean, which could devastate California's shellfish industry, is under investigation by Bodega Bay scientists. It is painstaking work that requires the team to wade through knee-deep mud at Tomales Bay to collect native Olympic oysters and then raise their young in salt-water tanks under conditions that mimic climate change.

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Big Oil creates phony climate denial site, lies about it

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Miles Grant - Sep. 04 (News Report) - A friend just alerted me to the website PlantsNeedCO2.org, which is running ads on NYTimes.com. From the site’s “about us” page: Our mission is to educate the public on the positive effects of additional atmospheric CO2 and help prevent the inadvertent negative impact to human, plant and animal life if we reduce CO2. Plants Need CO2 is a 501 (c)(3) non profit corporation. How do I say this? False. I know you’re never gonna believe who really owns the website ... Big Oil. It’s registered to Quintana Minerals Corporation:

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Fracking and the Environment: Natural Gas Drilling, Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Contamination

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez, Amy Goodman - Sep. 03 (Special Report) - Gas drilling companies such as Halliburton say the gas drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is safe, but opponents contend it pollutes groundwater with dangerous substances. Now, new evidence has emerged possibly linking natural gas drilling to groundwater contamination. ProPublica journalist Abrahm Lustgarten reports federal officials in Wyoming have found that at least three water wells contain chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing.

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Germ-killing chemical from soaps, toothpaste building up in dolphins

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

environmentalhealthnews.org - By Brett Israel - Aug. 11 (Special Report) - Triclosan is the germ-killing chemical of choice in hundreds of products, including liquid hand soaps, toothpaste and deodorants. Now some scientists are calling for its removal from consumer products because it is building up in the ocean's food web. A new study found that one-third of the bottlenose dolphins tested off South Carolina and almost one-quarter of those tested off Florida carried traces of triclosan in their blood. The concentrations found in the dolphins are known to disrupt the hormones and growth and development of other animals.

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Solar industry's promises bring environmental challenges for Tennessee

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Tennessean.com - By Chas Sisk - Aug. 09 (Special Report) - As the state tries to reap the benefits of a growing solar industry that could bring thousands of new jobs and billions in new investment, the massive projects also bring with them environmental challenges in the form of intensive manufacturing operations that will draw a tremendous amount of electricity from the state's power grid used to run sprawling chemical reactors.

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Warning green fears could make farming more industrialised

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

nzherald.co.nz - By Geoff Cumming - Aug. 09 (News Report) - Images of carefree cows roaming free, chewing grass or silage year round (well, almost), used to be the green selling point of New Zealand's dairy industry. Not for us those "factory farms" of the Northern Hemisphere where the poor cows are consigned to sheds and fed grain for long periods.

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Rural well water linked to Parkinson’s; California study implicates farm pesticides

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

environmentalhealthnews.org - By Marla Cone - Aug. 05 (News) - Rural residents who drink water from private wells are much more likely to have Parkinson’s disease, a finding that bolsters theories that farm pesticides may be partially to blame, according to a new study. The risk to people in California's Central Valley was 90 percent higher for those who had private wells near fields sprayed with certain insecticides. People with the incurable neurological disease “were more likely to have consumed private well water, and had consumed it on average 4.3 years longer,” UCLA scientists reported. Unlike municipal water supplies, private wells are largely unregulated and are not monitored for contaminants.

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Beyond Kyoto: Time to Switch Targets?

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

OurFuture.org - By Sam Pizzigati - Jul. 14 (Special Report) - Rich and poor, the new study points out, live in every nation, and the rich — wherever they live — pound a much greater carbon footprint than the poor.

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Your guide to the cap-and-trade estimates

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Catharine Richert - Jul. 02 (News Analysis) - With Congress considering a sweeping cap-and-trade bill to limit carbon emissions and slow global warming, there have been a perplexing array of cost estimates. We can't tell you which one is right — even the experts can't agree on that — but we wanted to provide an overview of the various studies to help you put them in perspective.

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Power lurks in Oregon forests ?

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

OregonLive.com - Jun. 26 (News Report) - Tucked into a sprawling, 1,200-page climate change bill before Congress today is a tiny paragraph that touches the federal forests covering a quarter of Oregon. It says these lands, that already give us trails to hike and clean water to drink, can provide renewable power for our toasters while helping to replace long gone lumbering jobs. .

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This is green energy?

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

columbusdispatch.com - By Spencer Hunt - Jun. 21 (News Report) - the state has expanded its green vocabulary to include a proposed Meigs County coal-fired power plant and a proposed Piketon nuclear power plant on its list of "advanced" energy sources. And the latest version of the state budget includes a proposal to change "renewable" to include a planned Mahoning County trash-burning power plant. Other provisions would add to that list plants that burn liquid waste from paper companies, old tires, and even methane from coal mines. Environmentalists say state officials have reneged on a deal struck last year to create more clean power.

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Coal's costs outweigh benefits, WVU study finds

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Charleston Gazette - By Ken Ward Jr. - Jun. 20 (News Report) - Coal mining costs Appalachians five times more in early deaths as the industry provides to the region in jobs, taxes and other economic benefits, according to a groundbreaking new study co-authored by a West Virginia University researcher. In the latest in a series of papers, WVU researcher Michael Hendryx questions the idea that coal is good for West Virginia and other Appalachian communities, and recommends that political leaders consider other alternatives for improving the region's economy and quality of life.

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EPA Refuses to Reveal Dangerous Coal Ash Waste Sites

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Sue Sturgis - Jun. 15 (News Report) - "One of the lessons we all learned from the TVA spill is that a close look at these facilities is extremely important, and we cannot rely on general assurances that the sites are safe," Boxer said at the press conference. The failure of a retaining wall at the Kingston plant in eastern Tennessee's Roane County resulted in the release of more than 1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash into a nearby community, destroying several homes and polluting water supplies with arsenic, lead and other poisons.

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Coal Ash Spills Too Dangerous To Reveal To Public, Says DHS (VIDEO)

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Ryan Grim - Jun. 12 (News Report) - Just how bad has the coal ash situation gotten in the United States? So bad that the Department of Homeland Security has told Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) that her committee can't publicly disclose the location of coal ash dumps across the country. The pollution is so toxic, so dangerous, that an enemy of the United States -- or a storm or some other disrupting event -- could easily cause them to spill out and lay waste to any area nearby. There are 44 sites deemed by the Environmental Protection Agency to be high hazard, but Boxer said she isn't allowed to talk about them other than to senators in the states affected. "There is a huge muzzle on me and my staff," she said.

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Medical Group Calls for Cutting Use of BPA

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Liz Szabo - Jun. 11 (News Report) - Hormone-like chemicals in plastics, pesticides and other products pose "significant concern for public health," possibly causing infertility, cancer and malformations, a medical society announced Wednesday.

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DeGette plans to introduce ‘fracking’ bill this week to protect drinking water from gas drilling

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Colorado Independent - By David O. Williams - Jun. 08 (News Report) - Officials for the natural gas industry are quick to point out that a process called hydraulic fracturing has been in use for more than 60 years without a single documented case of groundwater contamination by the chemicals used to make gas flow more freely from wells. But U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette is just as quick to respond that it’s hard to document contamination when no one outside of the industry knows exactly what kinds of chemicals are being injected along with high-pressure water into wells to force open rock formations thousands of feet below the surface.

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Northwest's biofuel boom goes bust ?

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

OregonLive.com - By Scott Learn, The Oregonian - Jun. 07 (News Report) - The biofuel downturn has been a national phenomenon, Van't Hof noted. Oregon's plants are likely to be restructured under Chapter 11 proceedings or sold, not shuttered. And the federal plans for more biofuel use in coming years leave Oregon in a good position to capitalize as the industry grows, he said.

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Industry Defends Federal Loophole for Drilling

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By Abrahm Lustgarten - Jun. 05 (News Report) - In a packed and sometimes contentious hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, representatives of the oil and gas industry and their state regulators vigorously defended the practice of injecting toxic fluids underground without federal regulatory oversight.

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"We All Live in the Coal Fields": West Virginians Step Up Protests as EPA OKs New Mountaintop Removal

Fri, 29 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Jeff Biggers, Juan Gonzalez, Amy Goodman - May. 29 (News Analysis) - The protests came just a week after the Obama administration gave the green light for forty-two more mountaintop removal permits, dealing a victory for the coal industry. The Environmental Protection Agency’s decision shocked many activists in Appalachia, who have been campaigning to end the practice of mountaintop removal that’s already destroyed over 450 mountains in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky.

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