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Archive for June 17th, 2011
Plan for Hydroelectric Dam in Patagonia Outrages Chileans
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 17th, 2011
New York Times: A white gas mask hanging from her neck, Paula Bañados strode side by side with 30,000 other marchers through this capital one recent Friday, a determined look on her face. “Patagonia without dams!” Ms. Bañados, 19, shouted with the others, pumping a fist in the air. “The government is saying we will be left without energy, but it’s a lie,” she said. “They are just trying to scare us. But we won’t be scared away, because we know we’re right.” By the time Ms. Bañados reached Chile’s presidential...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Plan for Hydroelectric Dam in Patagonia Outrages ChileansChina raises flood alert to top level, 555,000 evacuated
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 17th, 2011
Reuters: China has mobilized troops to help with flood relief and raised its disaster alert to the highest level after days of downpours forced the evacuation of more than half a million people in central and southern provinces.
More than 555,000 people had been evacuated in seven provinces and a municipality after rains in recently drought-stricken areas caused floods and mudslides in the Yangtze River basin, the official China Daily said.
State media said that as of Thursday evening, floods caused...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on China raises flood alert to top level, 555,000 evacuatedOregon panel approves tough new clean water rules
Posted by Reuters: Teresa Carson on June 17th, 2011
Reuters: Oregon's environmental regulators on Thursday approved new health-based water quality standards, touted as the toughest in the nation, for curtailing toxic pollutants in rivers and streams.
The rules, subject to approval by the Environmental Protection Agency, are up to 10 times more stringent than current national standards and are designed in part to account for comparatively large amounts of fish in the diets of Oregonians, especially Native Americans.
Five years in the making, the regulations...
Japan cleanup of radioactive water hits snag
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 17th, 2011
Reuters: Japan's crisis-hit nuclear power plant could spill more radioactive water into the sea within a week unless engineers can fix a glitch in a new system to clean up growing pools of contaminated water, officials said.
Tokyo Electric Power Co, known as Tepco, has pumped massive amounts of water to cool three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant that went into meltdown after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disabled cooling systems.
But managing the radioactive water has become a major headache...