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Archive for December, 2010
Past decade ‘best for UK rivers’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 31st, 2010
BBC: Cleaner rivers in England and Wales have helped many species of wildlife, the Environment Agency says.
The last decade has been the best for rivers since the industrial revolution, it said.
Record numbers of salmon and sea trout were found in the Mersey, Tyne and Thames, while otters returned to every region in England and Wales.
The decade also saw the return of the water vole after a dramatic decline in the 1990s.
Incidents of serious water pollution have more than halved since 2001....
Britain’s rivers come back to life
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 31st, 2010
Independent: Britain's rivers, some of which were little better than sewers a generation ago, are now at their cleanest for more than a century. In the past decade, our waterways have returned to conditions not seen since before the industrial revolution, the Environment Agency says. Meanwhile, the river Thames, which half a century ago was declared "biologically dead" at Tower Bridge in London, won a coveted international prize this year for its environmental value. "The last decade shows how far we've come...
Fisheries commissions’ ability to manage diminishing tuna stocks called into question
Posted by Mongabay: Morgan Erickson-Davis on December 31st, 2010
Mongabay: Fisheries commissions' ability to manage diminishing tuna stocks called into question
During a meeting earlier this month, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) disregarded appeals from the EU and Japan, as well as from Commission scientists, calling for a substantial and immediate reduction in catch rates of bigeye and yellowfin tuna in response to diminished stocks. An earlier meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) resulted...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Fisheries commissions’ ability to manage diminishing tuna stocks called into questionFreshwater wildlife thrives in cleanest rivers since Industrial Revolution
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 31st, 2010
Guardian: Otters, water voles and species of freshwater fish which had all but vanished from waterways have made a dramatic recovery following the healthiest decade for rivers since the industrial revolution.
The toxic effects of pesticides nearly wiped out the wild otter in the 1970s, but steady improvements in water quality mean their numbers are expected to make a full recovery.
Otters may already have reached their maximum capacity in parts of the south-west of England, Cumbria and Northumbria. In...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Freshwater wildlife thrives in cleanest rivers since Industrial RevolutionNew York State Buys Conservation Rights for 89,000 Acres of Forest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 30th, 2010
New York Times: In 2007, the Nature Conservancy bought 161,000 acres of forest in the Adirondacks from the Finch, Pruyn paper company for $110 million.
The state of New York paid $30 million on Friday to secure extensive conservation rights on 89,000 acres of forest in the Adirondacks, another big step toward protecting lands once owned by the Finch paper company.
In exchange for the payment, the state got a legal document known as a conservation easement from the Nature Conservancy, the environmental group...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New York State Buys Conservation Rights for 89,000 Acres of ForestMinnesota sues 3M over pollution claims
Posted by Reuters: James B. Kelleher on December 30th, 2010
Reuters: The state of Minnesota sued 3M Co on Thursday, saying that the company contaminated the state's waters for decades with chemicals used in some of its best known products, including Scotchgard stain repellent.
The lawsuit, filed by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, seeks unspecified damages from 3M.
The company did not respond to a request for a comment.
According to the complaint, filed in state court, St. Paul-based 3M polluted public and private wells in the state for years by pumping...
Another Setback for a West Coast Coal Port
Posted by NYT: Felicity Barringer on December 30th, 2010
NYT: A worker unloading coal at a storage site by a railway station in Shenyang, China.
When my colleague Elisabeth Rosenthal wrote last month about the growth of coal exports to China from all over the world, she noted that the Port of Tacoma in Washington had nixed proposals for a new coal export terminal in the area.
Now the state government has blocked a proposed export terminal in the southwestern corner of Washington, which could have provided another outlet for coal companies like Peabody...
Water companies struggle with impact of thaw
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 30th, 2010
Guardian: A water company has been flooded with 40,000 calls since Christmas Eve from customers reporting leaks and burst pipes.
United Utilities, which owns and operates the water network in north-west England, said the unprecedented volume of calls was 10 times the usual number.
United Utilities said the problem was caused by ice melting following the prolonged freezing weather.
Scott Beard, United Utilities' regional water network manager, said: "It is not unusual to see the number of bursts increase...
Conservation stories of 2010
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 30th, 2010
Guardian: From bitterns and pine martens in the UK, to Sumatran orang-utans and Congolese chimps, the International Year of Biodiversity saw mixed fortunes for Earth's animals. Some species suffered further declines, but there were also conservation success stories to celebrate
The bittern, one of Britain's rarest birds, is booming again after research revealed record numbers across the country Photograph:
Decades of neglect led to this Northern Ireland water crisis
Posted by Guardian: Ruth Collins on December 30th, 2010
Guardian: Witnessing thousands queue in the cold and dark over the past two nights to collect water from depots across Northern Ireland, I've found it hard to understand how things could have gone this far. One member of the public described it as "scandalous", a second as "unacceptable", while others are speechless as to how to describe the current water crisis that has left about 80 towns and 36,000 homes without running water. Understandably, the public are angry and want somebody to blame. However, the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Decades of neglect led to this Northern Ireland water crisis