by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica Federal officials have given energy and mining companies permission to pollute aquifers in more than 1,500 places across the country, releasing toxic material into underground reservoirs that help supply more than half of the nation’s drinking water. In many cases, the Environmental Protection Agency has granted these so-called aquifer exemptions in…
Category: Science & Environment
climate change, warming, water, nature, fracking, pollution, bio-diversity
Milli-Moteins: Programmable Matter Bots Could Lead to Real-Life ‘Transformers’
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It looks like a mechanical worm, but it’s a sophisticated building block that takes science one step closer to developing devices that can change shape. Maybe ‘Transformers,’ robots capable of transforming into vehicles and weapons, long a children’s favorite, will no longer be the stuff of science fiction, but rather science fact. The Millimeter-Scale Motorized…
Paulsboro NJ Toxic Spill: 4th NTSB Briefing
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Vinyl Chloride Fumes Linger in Paulsboro
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Yesterday, officials detected a spike in vinyl chloride fumes and issued a “shelter-in-place” order for the town of Paulsboro, just across the Delaware River from the Philadelphia airport. The order was for people to stay indoors until the gas fumes had dissipated. Though levels dropped, this morning the order was still in place. Train cars…
National Transportation Safety Board: 3rd Media Briefing
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Vinyl Chloride Spill in Mantua Creek
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A train traveling through Paulsboro, NJ derailed into Mantua Creek, a tributary to the Delaware River, on Friday morning, spilling an estimated 180,000 pounds of toxic vinyl chloride. Seventy one people effected by the fumes sought emergency help for burning eyes and breathing problems, according to WFMZ news. Hours later, officials declared no further hazard…
EPA: Look Beneath the Surface- Don’t Litter
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Nice public service announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency about pollution. It doesn’t take much to pick up after ourselves, and to teach our children to do the same.
The Trillion-Gallon Loophole: Lax Rules for Drillers that Inject Pollutants Into the Earth
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by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, Sept. 20, 2012, 11:12 a.m. On a cold, overcast afternoon in January 2003, two tanker trucks backed up to an injection well site in a pasture outside Rosharon, Texas. There, under a steel shed, they began to unload thousands of gallons of wastewater for burial deep beneath the earth. The waste…
New Study: Fluids From Marcellus Shale Likely Seeping Into PA Drinking Water
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by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, July 9, 2012, 2 p.m. New research has concluded that salty, mineral-rich fluids deep beneath Pennsylvania’s natural gas fields are likely seeping upward thousands of feet into drinking water supplies. Though the fluids were natural and not the byproduct of drilling or hydraulic fracturing, the finding further stokes the red-hot controversy…
The First Earth Day 1970
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The First Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, supported by the Earth Day Network. Here’s a clip of that first effort towards environmental awareness:
