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Archive for December, 2014
Volume of world’s oldest water estimated
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 18th, 2014
BBC: The world's oldest water, which is locked deep within the Earth's crust, is present at a far greater volume than was thought, scientists report.
The liquid, some of which is billions of years old, is found many kilometres beneath the ground.
Researchers estimate there is about 11m cubic kilometres (2.5m cu miles) of it - more water than all the world's rivers, swamps and lakes put together.
The study was presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
It has also been published...
Fracking Banned in New York
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 18th, 2014
Scientific American: Fracking has been banned in New York State since 2008. Then-Governor David Paterson imposed a moratorium on the controversial technique-- which fractures shale rock using high pressure, specially treated water to release gas trapped inside--citing the need for further study of health and environmental risks. After six years and a multiplicity of such studies the results seem to indicate that fracking can be done safely--but often is not. And that is conclusive enough to allow the current governor,...
With Unresolved Health Risks and Few Signs of an Economic Boon, Cuomo to Ban Gas Fracking
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2014
New York Times: After years of gauging the environmental, medical, economic and political risks of hydraulic fracturing, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is moving to ban this method of extracting natural gas from shale deposits in New York State.
[Update, 9:30 p.m. | See the end of the post for an excerpt from the state health study that underpinned the decision.]
It had been clear for years, as I wrote in 2012, that there was little political or economic impetus to act quickly, even though I felt (and still am convinced)...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on With Unresolved Health Risks and Few Signs of an Economic Boon, Cuomo to Ban Gas FrackingGreat Lakes pollution no longer driven airborne sources; land, rivers now bigger factors
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2014
ScienceDaily: A chemical oceanographer at the University of Rhode Island who measured organic pollutants in the air and water around Lake Erie and Lake Ontario has found that airborne emissions are no longer the primary cause of the lakes' contamination. Instead, most of the lakes' chemical pollutants come from sources on land or in rivers.
According to Rainer Lohmann, professor of chemical oceanography at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography, water quality in the Great Lakes has been slowly improving for...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Great Lakes pollution no longer driven airborne sources; land, rivers now bigger factorsFamilies Forced to Flee Their Homes From Out-of-Control Leak at Fracking Well
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on December 17th, 2014
EcoWatch: More than two dozen families have been forced to flee their homes in Monroe County in eastern Ohio as natural gas poured from a leak at an unused fracking well, the C0lumbus Dispatch revealed.
According to Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) spokeswoman Bethany McCorkle, crews lost control of the well Saturday and have not yet been able to stop the leak. Families were evacuated from homes within a 1.5-mile radius of the well near the Ohio River. “There’s still a steady stream of natural...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Families Forced to Flee Their Homes From Out-of-Control Leak at Fracking WellCuomo Bans Fracking in New York State
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on December 17th, 2014
EcoWatch: In a victory for environmental, health and community activists, fracking has been banned in New York state. That was the conclusion reached at a public, livestreamed meeting of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s cabinet in Albany today. Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation Joseph Martens issued the order, following a report on his own findings and a strongly cautionary report from Dr. Howard Zucker, commissioner of the Department of Health, who compared the unknown health impacts of...
Obama Protects Alaska’s Bristol Bay From Oil and Gas Development
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2014
Yale Environment 360: President Obama yesterday announced protections for Bristol Bay, Alaska, one of the most productive fishing grounds in the nation, from future oil and gas development. The president's action is expected to benefit commercial fishermen and Native Alaskans and boost conservation efforts in the region, which is roughly the size of Florida. Noting that Bristol Bay is the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery and the source of 40 percent of U.S. wild-caught seafood — a catch worth $2 billion annually...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Obama Protects Alaska’s Bristol Bay From Oil and Gas DevelopmentNASA: California Needs 11 Trillion Gallons Water to End Epic Drought
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on December 17th, 2014
EcoWatch: California’s record-setting three-year-old drought has left the state with a massive water deficit, and communities, agricultural interests and others warring over access to the supply.
Now groundbreaking new calculations based on Now groundbreaking new calculations based on NASA satellite data have revealed just how large that deficit is. A team of sci’s Jet Propulsion Laborator (JPL) crunched data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) to figure out how much water it would...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on NASA: California Needs 11 Trillion Gallons Water to End Epic DroughtIndustry’s mercury challenge could undermine attack on EPA climate rule
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2014
Greenwire: If coal companies get their way when the Supreme Court reviews U.S. EPA's air standards for mercury and other hazardous emissions, they could undermine their primary legal challenge to another landmark pollution rule: President Obama's greenhouse gas limits for power plants. The justices last month agreed to review the Utility Air Regulatory Group and National Mining Association's challenge to EPA's 2011 mercury and air toxics standards, or MATS. A high profile environmental rule of Obama's first...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Industry’s mercury challenge could undermine attack on EPA climate ruleNew York bans fracking after health report
Posted by Reuters: Daniel Wiessner and Edward McAllister on December 17th, 2014
Reuters: New York state will ban hydraulic fracturing after a long-awaited report concluded that the oil and gas extraction method poses health risks, Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration said on Wednesday.
New York Environmental Commissioner Joseph Martens said at a cabinet meeting he will issue an order early next year banning fracking, which has been under a moratorium since 2008. Once that happens, New York will join Vermont as the only states to completely prohibit fracking.
The decision ends...