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Archive for September, 2013
California law to regulate fracking signed by governor
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2013
Reuters: California's first regulations on fracking and related oil production practices will go into effect next year in the most populous U.S. state under a bill signed into law on Friday by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the practice of injecting water, sand and chemicals underground to crack rock formations and free up oil and natural gas. The technology makes it possible for oil companies to unlock California's vast Monterey Shale deposit, estimated to hold...
Three Tiny New Species of Frogs Found in Papua New Guinea
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on September 20th, 2013
Nature World News: Three new species of frogs from the rainforests of Papua New Guinea have been descried in the latest edition of the journal Zookeys.
Each of the new frogs is incredibly tiny, with total body lengths about 20 millimeters. Their discovery came by way of Fred Kraus of the University of Michigan, who in 2011 described the frogs, Paedophryne dekot and Paedophryne verrucosa, which were then the smallest frogs known on Earth. In 2012 the description of Paedophryne amanuensis took the title of world's...
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Comments Off on Three Tiny New Species of Frogs Found in Papua New GuineaMeasuring the speed of thaw
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2013
Environmental News Network: Researchers have known that ocean temperatures are rising but up until now haven't had any way of measuring the effects of this rise on Antarctica's glaciers. New research will now enable scientists to determine how quickly ice is melting under a rapidly changing glacier. Martin Truffer, a physics professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Tim Stanton, an oceanographer with the Naval Postgraduate School, were able to look underneath the Pine Island Glacier on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet...
How much methane leaks out during fracking?
Posted by Mother Nature Network: John Platt on September 20th, 2013
Mother Nature Network: Critics of the natural gas extraction technique known as fracking have long criticized it for leaking too much methane — a potent greenhouse gas — into the atmosphere during the extraction process. The Environmental Protection Agency recently estimated that natural gas operations emitted about 145 million metric tons of methane in 2011, making it the biggest source of these emissions in the country. Now a new study, sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and nine energy petroleum companies,...
Central Arkansas Water Utility Files Intent to Sue Exxon Over Pipeline
Posted by Arkansas Times: Lindsey Millar on September 20th, 2013
Arkansas Times: Central Arkansas Water (CAW) has filed a notice of intent to file a citizen lawsuit against ExxonMobil under the federal Pipeline Safety Act. The unusual legal maneuver of notifying a party that it'll be sued, rather than simply suing it, is dictated under the Pipeline Safety Act, which requires that potential plaintiffs give 60 days notice to the accused and the Department of Transportation, whose Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) regulates pipelines. ExxonMobil's...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Central Arkansas Water Utility Files Intent to Sue Exxon Over PipelineOil spills in flood-hit Colorado raise concerns over industry regulation
Posted by Al Jazeera: Renee Lewis on September 20th, 2013
Al Jazeera: At least two large oil spills have been confirmed in the wake of Colorado's historic floods -- with almost 20,000 gallons of oil being spilled into Colorado rivers -- raising fears of contamination and questions about the regulation of the state's growing oil and gas industry.
On Wednesday, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. said that a 5,000 gallon tank had spilled oil into the South Platte River near the town of Millikin in flood-ravaged Weld County -- the most heavily drilled county in the state, with...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Oil spills in flood-hit Colorado raise concerns over industry regulationDocuments reveal Army Corps’ earlier concerns about coal trains & wetlands
Posted by KUOW: Ashley Ahearn on September 20th, 2013
KUOW: Proposals to make the Northwest a major coal exporting region have made for a familiar debate over the potential impacts on people and the environment. Will it help the economy? What will coal dust do to the air we breathe? Will our rivers and marine waters be threatened? Here’s another question: Will coal trains harm the wetlands of the Pacific Northwest? So far, wetlands have not been a central part of the public debate over coal exports. But concern over these ecologically sensitive areas are...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Documents reveal Army Corps’ earlier concerns about coal trains & wetlandsColorado rescue effort biggest in USA since Katrina in ’05
Posted by USA Today: Rick Jervis on September 20th, 2013
USA Today: The massive search-and-rescue effort after the recent floods in Colorado has been one of the biggest in state history -- and the largest in the USA since Katrina -- as thousands of stranded people are plucked from swirling floodwaters by helicopters or rumbled out of washed-out neighborhoods by all-terrain military vehicles. TV and camera-phone images of people hoisted by helicopter from flooded homes have brought eerie comparisons with similar efforts to rescue stranded Gulf Coast residents during...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Colorado rescue effort biggest in USA since Katrina in ’05Climate Change Linked Higher Chemical Load in Polar Bear Diet
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on September 20th, 2013
Nature World News: Polar bears are changing their diets to adapt to climate change, a new study has found. Researchers also found that a change in the diet has led to increase in toxic chemicals in the bears' bodies.
The study was conducted by researchers from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Aarhus University (Denmark) and their colleagues. The team found that the diet of polar bears has changed over the past few decades and their tissue samples are showing high levels of contaminants.
Polar bears...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate Change Linked Higher Chemical Load in Polar Bear DietEpic Flooding Deals Colorado Drought Crippling Blow
Posted by Climate Central: Bobby Magill on September 20th, 2013
Climate Central: All it took was a 1,000-year flood to knock out -- or at least significantly dampen -- the drought that has been ravaging much of Colorado for at least a year and half.
The U.S. Drought Monitor, released Thursday, shows that nearly all of north-central Colorado is drought free, and the drought is greatly reduced in much of the rest of the state:
Many parts of the Colorado Front Range received most of their normal annual rainfall in just a couple of days last week, with up to 18 inches of rain...