RSS Feed
Archive for January, 2016
Shallow groundwater poses pollution problem for Africa
Posted by SciDev: None Given on January 11th, 2016
SciDev: The groundwater in many of Africa's most crowded regions lies close to the surface, making it vulnerable to pollution, a study shows.
Regions along the Gulf of Guinea are at highest risk of groundwater pollution on the continent, according to a map drawn by researchers at the Université Catholique de Louvain's Earth and Life Institute in Belgium. Much of Central Africa and some coastal lands in northwest Africa are also vulnerable, the map shows.
The study, to be published in next month's issue...
The status quo on Europe’s mussels
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 11th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Mussels are the natural treatment plants of bodies of water and, therefore, just as important as bees. Unfortunately, they are equally threatened: most of the world's mussel stocks are in decline and some species face extinction. For this reason, scientists from 26 European countries have compiled the first comprehensive survey on the status quo of freshwater mussel species in Europe. TUM Professor Juergen Geist and two colleagues from Porto coordinated the project and can now provide recommendations...
Obama Admin Wants To Cut Water Use By A Third
Posted by Water Online: Sara Jerome on January 10th, 2016
Water Online: The Obama administration is pointing to a new goal for U.S. water conservation.
“We have potential to... reduce water usage by 33 percent. This would bring us closer in line with other industrialized nations, and could reduce the nation’s total CO2 emissions by about 1.5 percent annually,” the White House said in a recent announcement.
The figure is part of a new strategy for water innovation announced in December with an eye toward how climate change is affecting water resources.
The new...
With Great Uncertainty, Geologists try to Predict Chance of Big Quake Striking Kansas
Posted by Wichita Eagle: Oliver Morrison on January 10th, 2016
Wichita Eagle: Lori Lawrence said she was standing in the hallway of her home near Central and Hillside on Wednesday night when the bedroom door started rattling. It was, she said, the sixth earthquake she's felt in the past two years.
Friends filled up her Facebook feed with comments about the latest quake, which was actually two back-to-back quakes, the largest of which had a magnitude of 4.8.
It was intense enough that the city of Wichita, for the first time, sent out a team to examine whether any of its...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on With Great Uncertainty, Geologists try to Predict Chance of Big Quake Striking Kansas‘A millennium’s worth of earthquakes’: What are states going to do?
Posted by Monitor: Kelsey Warner on January 10th, 2016
Monitor: A spike in seismic activity over seven years, a flurry of reports, and then last week, more earthquakes.
Last Wednesday night, in an area where drilling for oil and gas occurs, a community in northwestern Oklahoma was hit with two quakes that registered 4.7 and 4.8 on the Richter scale, and 22 more tremors were logged throughout the area over a 13-hour period.
The panhandle state experienced 585 quakes in 2014. In 2015 there were 842, according to data from the National Earthquake Information...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on ‘A millennium’s worth of earthquakes’: What are states going to do?What Does El Niño Precipitation Mean Calif Drought?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2016
National Public Radio: It's finally raining in California, but will the El Niño storms be enough to refill the state's reservoirs? Can the water be collected? Alice Walton of the LA Times talks with NPR's Rachel Martin.
Fracking shakes American west: ‘a millennium’s worth of earthquakes’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2016
Guardian: Increasingly tied to tremors shaking the west, fracking for natural gas is creating alarm and division around western states that until recently enjoyed a boom in jobs and revenue.
In Oklahoma, seismologists have warned that significant temblors last week could signal a larger, more dangerous earthquake to come in a state where drilling is destabilizing the bedrock.
Last Wednesday night two earthquakes, measuring 4.7 and 4.8 on the Richter scale, struck rural northern Oklahoma, beneath a major...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fracking shakes American west: ‘a millennium’s worth of earthquakes’Chemicals in Melbourne’s Yarra River created a health risk, says report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2016
AAP: A toxic cocktail of chemicals and herbicides has been washed into Melbourne’s Yarra River, killing trees and creating a public health risk, according to a Parks Victoria report.
An internal incident and hazard summary report on Parks Victoria operations between January and October 2015 has revealed toxic chemicals were flowing into the Yarra from a wash-down facility in the Warrandyte state park, located next to popular swimming spot Pound Bend.
The report said the “wash-down facility used...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Chemicals in Melbourne’s Yarra River created a health risk, says reportHere’s How Software Could Save Salt Marshes
Posted by Climate Central: Sharon Ashworth on January 10th, 2016
Climate Central: It's a mild and sunny summer day on the tidal salt marshes at Barn Island Wildlife Management Area, which sits across Little Narragansett bay from Stonington, Conn. Walking through a wide, dry stretch of marsh, Chris Elphick, a conservation biologist at the University of Connecticut, focuses a spotting scope on a group of little brown birds hidden among the thigh-high grasses.
Elphick identifies the rare saltmarsh sparrow by the yellow shading on its face and the crisp dark streaks on its breast....
Global Warming Could Take Its Toll Down The Shore Sooner Than Many Expect
Posted by CBS: David Madden on January 10th, 2016
CBS: A Florida based geologist has some dire warnings about climate change. Among them, many of the barrier islands along the Jersey shore could be under water in as little as 50 years.
Professor Harold Wanless chairs the Geological Sciences Department at the University of Miami. He suggests the feds are grossly underestimating the rate at which sea levels are rising because the polar ice caps are melting so rapidly.
His advice? Towns along the shore should start preparing now.
"As sea level...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Global Warming Could Take Its Toll Down The Shore Sooner Than Many Expect