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"Politics"
Raytheon has received approval for a plan to clean up a toxic waste spill that has polluted groundwater in St. Petersburg for the past thirty years. The spill occured at a manufacturing plant under a previous owner. Raytheon’s plan is to drill hundreds of wells to boil the groundwater under the site and vaporize the contaminants. [...]
Continue Reading →Cadiz has been trying to sell groundwater from the Mojave desert to Southern California cities for 15 years. The environmental impact report for the project was accepted last week by the Santa Margarita Water District in Orange County. Santa Margarita also agreed to buy one-tenth of the project’s proposed annual yield. If it goes ahead [...]
Continue Reading →The EPA announced yesterday that it has completed its sampling of water from private homes in Dimock, PA. The sampling program was undertaken based on concerns regarding contamination from nearby hyrdaulic fracturing, or “fracking”, operations. However, the EPA did not detect elevated levels of any of the contaminants studied.
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A plan to sell groundwater from the Mojave desert to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California hit a roadblock when testing showed that the water contains 14 – 16 parts per billion of chromium-6. The public health goal in California is 0.02 parts per billion. The plan may still go ahead, but Metropolitan is [...]
Continue Reading →The EPA has suggested demolishing three buildings at a Superfund site in downtown Columbus, OH to clean up soil contaminated by local dry cleaners. The soil contains tetrachloroethylene, a carcinogenic chemical commonly used in dry cleaning, and has been contaminating local groundwater since the 1980′s. The EPA believes that demolishing the buildings will facilitate the cleanup process.
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Continue Reading →Researchers at the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation and the University of California, Davis discovered that viruses were present in a quarter of Wisconsin drinking water systems that do not disinfect their water. The authors of the study believe that this has a significant impact on the health of those communities: between 6% and 22% of all cases [...]
Continue Reading →North Carolina is expected to pass legislation opening the state to hydrolic fracturing, or “fracking” later this summer. However, there is concern that the state’s groundwater supplies could be at greater risk from the toxic chemicals used than those in places like Pennsylvania. The News & Observer reports that:
“North Carolina’s natural gas reserves are much closer to [...]
Continue Reading →A new study by the University at Buffalo finds that implementation of environmental regulations reduces the rate of environmental violations due to drilling shale gas wells. The study looked at drilling in Pennsylvania between 2008 and 2011, and found marked reductions in the number of violations per well. In 2008, 58% of wells incurred an environmental violation while in [...]
Continue Reading →In 2000 Congress established the $135 million San Gabriel Basin Restoration Fund to treat carcinogens and rocket-fuel contamination in the San Gabriel Basin aquifer, as well as the San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority to oversee the cleanup effort. The fund still contains $53 million for operating and maintaining treatment plants, but without an extension for the [...]
Continue Reading →WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today published a list of 28 chemicals and two viruses that approximately 6,000 public water systems will monitor from 2013 to 2015 as part of the agency’s unregulated contaminant monitoring program, which collects data for contaminants suspected to be present in drinking water, but that do not [...]
Continue Reading →Wednesday 25 April 2012
Controversial “fracking” for shale gas should only take place at least 600 metres down from aquifers used for water supplies, scientists said on Wednesday.
A new study revealed the process, which uses high-pressure liquid pumped deep underground to split shale rock and release gas, caused fractures running upwards and downwards through [...]
Continue Reading →Associated Press
PITTSBURGH — A former top environmental official says Pennsylvania’s successful efforts to keep Marcellus Shale wastewater away from drinking water supplies should be extended to all other oil and gas drillers.
“It’s the same industry. It is the same contaminants. And the goal should be the same,” said George Jugovic Jr., who was [...]
Continue Reading →(New York, N.Y.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that it has entered into an agreement with the General Electric Company and SI Group, Inc. (formerly Schenectady Chemical) to collect and properly dispose of contaminated ground water and liquid leaching from the Dewey Loeffel landfill that is threatening several nearby drinking water wells. The [...]
Continue Reading →By Greg Stohr and Mark Drajem on March 21, 2012
The U.S. Supreme Court blunted a commonly used Environmental Protection Agency enforcement tool, siding with landowners and companies that said the federal agency was abusing its power…
The ruling will have its primary impact on disputes over the Clean Water Act, the federal law that [...]
Continue Reading →WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it will provide up to $15 million in funding for training and technical assistance to small drinking and wastewater systems, defined as systems that serve fewer than 10,000 people, and private well owners. The funding will help provide water system staff with training and tools [...]
Continue Reading →Associated Press
EVANS CITY, Pa. — A western Pennsylvania woman says state environmental officials refused to do follow-up tests after their lab reported her drinking water contained chemicals that could be from nearby gas drilling.
At least 10 households in the rural Woodlands community, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, have complained that recent drilling [...]
Continue Reading →By FELICITY BARRINGER
Published: February 9, 2012
SAN DIEGO — Almost hidden in the northern hills, the pilot water treatment plant here does not seem a harbinger of revolution. It cost $13 million, uses long-established technologies and produces a million gallons a day.
But the plant’s very existence is a triumph over one of [...]
Continue Reading →PHILADELPHIA (Jan. 19, 2012) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it plans to perform water sampling at approximately 60 homes in the Carter Road/Meshoppen Creek Road area of Dimock, Pa. to further assess whether any residents are being exposed to hazardous substances that cause health concerns. EPA’s decision to conduct sampling is [...]
Continue Reading →By KATE GALBRAITH Published: January 14, 2012
Starting Feb. 1, drilling operators in Texas will have to report many of the chemicals used in the process known as hydraulic fracturing. Environmentalists and landowners are looking forward to learning what acids, hydroxides and other materials have gone into a given well.
But a less-publicized part of [...]
Continue Reading →By Joe Palazzolo
This following opinion, courtesy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, is for LBers who agonize over whether to order bottled water or tap water at lunch when you’re using your corporate card.
Oh, you don’t agonize over it? I see. Well, what if you were paying [...]
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