Tag Archives: Environmental Protection Agency
Corn Belt Pollution: Louisiana Shrimp And Oysters Pay The Price as EPA raises the ethanol mandate
Nitrogen run-off from the nation’s booming Corn Belt is the single largest source of nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River basin, which drains a stunning 41 percent of the waterways in the contiguous United States. Massive amounts of water, sediment and nutrients wash off cornfields from as far away as Minnesota, enter the Mississippi River system, and eventually reach the Gulf. Read the rest here 12:07
Scary lessons for Bristol Bay from recent B.C. mine-waste accident
For millennia, humanity’s insatiable appetite for valuable metals has degraded the integrity of ecosystems that provide habitat for the world’s wildlife, and the clean water and food humans need to thrive. During the past decade, proposals have emerged to develop several mega-mines on the North America’s West Coast on some of our largest free-flowing rivers that produce much of the world’s wild salmon. Read the rest here 07:52
Updated Advice on Eating Fish During Pregnancy
“These findings very consistently demonstrate that among women who consumed more fish during pregnancy — or at least the amounts we’re currently recommending — that there were improvements in children,” Dr. Stephen Ostroff, the F.D.A.’s acting chief scientist. Read more here 15:43
EPA agrees to pesticide buffers to protect salmon
The settlement agreement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides was published Friday in the Federal Register. Read more here 13:57:10
New Minnesota environmental law bans triclosan
A University of Minnesota study published in January 2013 in the journal Environmental Science and Technology said increasing amounts of triclosan were found in the sediment in eight Minnesota lakes and rivers, including Lake Superior, the Duluth harbor, Shagawa Lake in Ely, Lake Pepin, Lake St. Croix, Lake Winona and East Lake Gemini, all of which receive treated sewage effluent. Read more here 12:11
Bloated Bureaucracy Creating Conflict by Executive Order – NOP Riverhead “Listening Session”
Notice of the Riverhead listening sessions was sent to stakeholders by email and via a listserv, Michael Snyder of the N.Y. Department of State, said after the meeting. Notice was not given to the news media for public dissemination, he acknowledged. A host of nongovernmental organizations were represented in the audience, including: The Natural Resources Defense Council, the Peconic Estuary Program, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, The Nature Conservancy, Sea Grant, Concerned Citizens of Montauk, the Surfrider Foundation and the N.Y. Aquarium. riverheadlocal.com Read more here 17:44
Big Green’s ‘sue-and-settle’ strategy draws pushback from states, Congress
Scott Pruitt is Oklahoma’s attorney general and he’s fed up with Big Green’s outrageously destructive sue-and-settle attacks using endangered species as a weapon to obliterate America’s burgeoning oil and gas production. (OUR INDUSTRY?) Read more here washingtonexaminer 11:25
Getting a Grip on Nitrate Discharge Levels – EPA’s Great Bay nitrogen levels upheld by board
Newmarket town officials agreed in December 2012 to accept a nitrogen discharge permit issued by the EPA to reduce the amount of nitrogen discharged from the town’s wastewater treatment plant into the Lamprey River to 8 milligrams per liter (mg/l), and then ultimately to 3 mg/l. The EPA has argued excess nitrogen discharge into the bay is causing water-quality issues in the Great Bay estuary, including reducing eelgrass and oyster populations. more@seacoastonline 08:30
Sen.Vitter’s dead-zone stance is wrong, coastal experts say
The Gulf dead zone south of Louisiana and Texas was above average in size this summer, and is getting some needed attention after no recent progress in efforts to reduce it, according to coastal experts. In a Nov. 1 letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Republican Senator David Vitter, more@louisianaweekly 19:24
New EPA chief steps into Alaska mine controversy
“No amount of money or jobs can replace our way of life,” Nondalton Tribal Council President William Evanoff told the EPA leader. “The threats are real.” In the Bristol Bay fishing town of Dillingham, everyone who spoke to McCarthy was against the Pebble mine. The town of about 2,300 lives and breathes salmon, with vivid murals on the weathered buildings celebrating salmon and urging their preservation. more@mcclatchy 11:49
Compass: EPA can and should block Pebble mine
The biggest environmental decision facing Obama you’ve never heard of. Unless you are a Fisherynation follower!
Washington Post – If you want to get a sense of how contentious the decision is over whether the Obama administration is going to block a planned cooper and gold mine near Bristol Bay, consider this: the Environmental Protection Agency has just decided to allow the public another month to weigh in on a scientific review of the project they released a year ago. continued
EPA requiring ships to better clean dumped ballast water that’s blamed for invasive species
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The Environmental Protection Agency has issued new requirements for cleansing ballast water dumped from ships, which scientists believe has provided a pathway to U.S. waters for invasive species that damage ecosystems and cost the economy billions of dollars. continue reading
R.I. Fishermen Rally for Counterparts in Alaska
“We’re reaching out to commercial fishermen on the East Coast because we need the nation’s support on this issue,” Carscallen said. “This is not a question of jobs versus the environment, but of protecting a thriving, lucrative established industry that yields high returns, year after year, for local communities in the Bristol Bay watershed, and the country. This is something that all commercial fishermen can relate to, and we appreciate the support of New England’s fleet.”
Read more here Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay
GULF OIL SPILL: Judge tosses claims against dispersant’s maker
NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge presiding over litigation spawned by the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill has dismissed all claims against the manufacturer of a chemical dispersant that was used to break up crude gushing from BP’s blown-out well. http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/viewart/20121205/NEWS02/312050031/GULF-OIL-SPILL-Judge-tosses-claims-against-dispersant-s-maker
New study shows dispersant makes oil up to 52 times more toxic to Gulf of Mexico microorganisms
Followup studies after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill call into question the extensive use of chemical dispersants. Photo courtesy NOAA.
FRISCO — The massive amounts of oil that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico after BP’s Deepwater Horizon drill rig exploded was devastating to marine life, but the dispersant used in the aftermath to try and break down the oil slicks may have been even worse for some species, according to new research done by scientists with the Georgia Institute of Technology and Universidad Autonoma de Aguascalientes, Mexico. http://summitcountyvoice.com/2012/12/01/environment-new-study-shows-dispersant-makes-oil-up-to-52-times-more-toxic-to-gulf-of-mexico-microorganisms/
