Industry News
ASABE Endorses Natural-Fiber Products In
Remediating Oil Spill - June 15, 2010
The Society of Agricultural and
Biological Engineers announces its endorsement of
the use of natural-fiber products such as cotton in
remediating the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Cotton and many cotton byproducts provide crucial
benefits over synthetic materials, like
polypropylene, in recovering oil from the ocean.
Cotton fiber can absorb about 40 times its weight in
oil, whereas currently used synthetics have a
capacity of 10 to 20 times their weight. In
addition, the oil absorbed by cotton, along with the
cotton itself, will degrade naturally in the
environment, which is not the case for synthetics.
Also, cotton fiber and its fibrous byproducts can be
reused to absorb additional oil.
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WHO Says H1N1 Flu Still a Pandemic -
International Agency Says Swine Flu Is Still
Infecting People, But Virus Is Past Peak - June 3,
2010
Even as an emergency committee
that advises the World Health Organization announced
today that swine flu is still a pandemic, medical
authorities in the United States say the H1N1 virus
is past its peak. World Health Organization director
Margaret Chan said the current pandemic alert level
will remain at the highest possible -- phase 6. Chan
said the WHO may revisit the decision in July.
Between 43 million and 89 million people caught H1N1
in the year since U.S. officials discovered the
virus in April 2009 and between 8,870 and 18,300
people died, according to estimates by the national
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But the CDC stopped reporting H1N1 flu infections by
late May, stating on its Web site that "only a small
number of influenza viruses are being reported, most
of which are 2009 H1N1."
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Finding Natural Gas Safely - New York Times - March 28, 2010
The Environmental Protection
Agency will soon begin a much-needed study of the
effects on water quality and public health of a
method of extracting natural gas called hydraulic
fracturing. An E.P.A. investigation in 2004 was
rightly seen as superficial and skewed toward
industry, which provided much of the underlying
data. This one must be comprehensive and
transparent.
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UNEP: Time To Cure Global Tide Of Sick Water -
Water Online - March 22, 2010
Nairobi and Rio de Janeiro —
Transforming wastewater from a major health and
environmental hazard into a clean, safe and
economically-attractive resource is emerging as a
key challenge in the 21st century. It is a challenge
that will continue to intensify as the world
undergoes rapid urbanization, industrialization and
increasing demand for meat and other foods unless
decisive action is taken says a new United Nations
report released today. Urban populations are
projected to nearly double in 40 years, from current
3.4 billion to over six billion people — but already
most cities lack adequate wastewater management due
to aging, absent or inadequate sewage
infrastructure. The new report, called Sick Water?,
says some two million tons of waste, estimated to
equal two or more billion tons of wastewater is
being discharged daily into rivers and seas
spreading disease to humans and damaging key
ecosystems such as coral reefs and fisheries.
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EPA's Phase 1 Evaluation Report - Hudson River Drudging
On March 8, 2010, EPA and
General Electric Company (GE) released the final
version of their respective Phase 1 Evaluation
Reports for the Hudson River dredging project. EPA
will accept public comment on the reports until
April 22, 2010 submit a comment. These reports
replace draft versions of the reports exchanged in
mid-January, pursuant to the Consent Decree under
which GE performed Phase 1 of the dredging. GE's
Phase 1 Evaluation Report is available at
www.hudsondredging.com.
More Info
The Lithium Chase New York Times - March 9, 2010
For many years, few metals drew
bigger yawns from mining executives than lithium, a
lightweight element long associated mostly with
mood-stabilizing drugs. Suddenly, the yawns
are being replaced by eurekas. As awareness spreads
that lithium is a crucial ingredient for hybrid and
electric cars, a global hunt is under way for new
supplies of the metal.
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EPA to Hold Public Listening Sessions on
Potential Stormwater Rule
WASHINGTON – The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold five
listening sessions to provide information to the
public about a potential rule to strengthen
stormwater regulations and to establish a
comprehensive program to reduce stormwater from new
development and redevelopment. These potential
regulations would help to reduce stormwater
discharges that can harm water quality into nearby
waterways. EPA seeks input on the following
preliminary regulatory considerations: expand the
area subject to federal stormwater regulations;
establish specific requirements to control
stormwater discharges from new development and
redevelopment; develop a single set of consistent
stormwater requirements for all municipal separate
storm sewer systems; require those sewer systems to
address stormwater discharges in areas of existing
development through retrofitting the sewer system or
drainage area with improved stormwater control
measures; and explore specific stormwater provisions
to protect sensitive areas.
The sessions will be held:
-
January 19, 2010, 10 a.m. to
3 p.m. at EPA Region 5 Office, 77 W. Jackson
Blvd., Chicago
-
January 20, 2010, 10 a.m. to
3 p.m. at EPA Region 9 Office, 75 Hawthorne
Street, San Francisco, Calif.
-
January 25, 2010, 10 a.m. to
3 p.m. at EPA Region 8 Office, 1595 Wynkoop
Street, Denver, Colo.
-
January 26, 2010, 10 a.m. to
3 p.m. at EPA Region 6 Office, 1445 Ross Avenue,
Suite 1200 Dallas, Texas
-
January 28, 2010, 10 a.m. to
3 p.m. at EPA HQ Office, Ariel Rios Building,
1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.
The public can register by going
to the Web site below.
EPA will accept written comments
on the preliminary rulemaking considerations until
February 26, 2010.
More information on listening sessions, the
potential rule and instructions for submitting
written comments:
Bacteria Linked To Feces Found In Nearly Half Of
Fast Food Soda Fountains (Huffington Post) (Jan. 7,
2010)
This time, it's not the food,
but the soda fountains to be worried about.
According to Tom Laskawy, a media and technology
professional and blogger for grist.org, a team of
microbiologists from Hollins University found that
48% of sodas tested from the fast food fountains
contain coliform bacteria, which is typically fecal
in origin. And most bacteria found were antibiotic
resistant, as icing on the cake.
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That Tap Water Is Legal but May Be Unhealthy (NY
Times) (Dec. 17, 2009)
The 35-year-old federal law
regulating tap water is so out of date that the
water Americans drink can pose what scientists say
are serious health risks — and still be legal.
Only 91 contaminants are
regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, yet more
than 60,000 chemicals are used within the United
States, according to Environmental Protection Agency
estimates. Government and independent scientists
have scrutinized thousands of those chemicals in
recent decades, and identified hundreds associated
with a risk of cancer and other diseases at small
concentrations in drinking water, according to an
analysis of government records by The New York
Times.
But not one chemical has been
added to the list of those regulated by the Safe
Drinking Water Act since 2000.
More
49 Million In U.S. Exposed to Dangerous Water
(NY Times) (Dec. 8, 2009)
According to a lead article
featured on Page 1 of the December 8, 2009 National
Edition of The New York Times more than 20% of the
nation’s water treatment systems have violated key
provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the
last five years. Since 2004 the water provided to
more than 49 million people has contained illegal
concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or
radioactive substances like uranium.
In was noted that “in response
to inquiries submitted by Senator Boxer, the
Environmental Protection Agency has reported that
more than three million Americans have been exposed
since 2005 to drinking water with illegal
concentrations of arsenic and radioactive elements,
both of which have been linked to cancer at small
doses.”
"Since 2004, more than 20 percent of the country's
water treatment systems failed to meet the standards
set out by the Safe Drinking Water Act. That means
that while the law requires tap water to be safe,
the truth is that more than 49 million people have
been exposed to dangerous water during that time.
And we're not talking about meaningless bureaucratic
rules."
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DAI's unique Dyna-AquaTM line of
specialty, targeted alumina products is able to provide the American
public with affordable, convenient and simple
solutions which reduce the risk of exposure to such
toxic substances.
More about Dyna-AquaTM
AP: EPA unveils new
policies on water at schools (Dec. 9, 2009)
WASHINGTON — The Environmental
Protection Agency unveiled a new national strategy
to enforce safe drinking water laws in small, rural
communities on Tuesday and pledged to redouble
efforts to protect children from toxic water in
schools. The announcement came during a hearing by
the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
held to examine reports of widespread water
contamination and unsafe levels of lead and other
toxics flowing through the pipes at thousands of
U.S. schools.
As part of the new approach, EPA
officials said the agency would pay particular
attention to chronic violators and said in some
cases they would ask small water systems to
restructure or merge to improve their safety
records. The hearing followed an Associated Press
investigation showing that roughly one in five
schools with their own wells violated the Safe
Drinking Water Act in the past decade, a problem
that until now has gone largely unmonitored by the
federal government.
EPA: Uranium From Polluted British Petroleum
Mine Found In Nevada Water Wells (Huffington Post)
(Nov. 21, 2009)
YERINGTON, Nev. — Peggy Pauly
lives in a robin-egg blue, two-story house not far
from acres of onion fields that make the northern
Nevada air smell sweet at harvest time.
But she can look through the
window from her kitchen table, just past her
backyard with its swingset and pet llama, and see an
ominous sign on a neighboring fence: "Danger:
Uranium Mine."
More
AP: School Drinking Water
Unsafe (Sept. 25, 2009)
Over the last decade, the
drinking water at thousands of schools across the
country has been found to contain unsafe levels of
lead, pesticides and dozens of other toxins.
An Associated Press investigation found that
contaminants have surfaced at public and private
schools in all 50 states - in small towns and inner
cities alike.
But the problem has gone largely
unmonitored by the federal government, even as the
number of water safety violations has multiplied.
"It's an outrage," said Marc Edwards, an engineer at
Virginia Tech who has been honored for his work on
water quality. "If a landlord doesn't tell a tenant
about lead paint in an apartment, he can go to jail.
But we have no system to make people follow the
rules to keep school children safe?"
The contamination is most
apparent at schools with wells, which represent 8 to
11 percent of the nation's schools. Roughly one of
every five schools with its own water supply
violated the Safe Drinking Water Act in the past
decade, according to data from the Environmental
Protection Agency analyzed by the AP.
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Advantages of
alumina over silica gel
Article from the Center of Excellence Environmental Analysis and
Monitoring, August 2003 New Horizons and Challenges in
Fundamental Analysis and Monitoring Metal Oxides as
HPLC Stationary Phases, Jasek Nawroki and P. W. Carr.
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PCB Removal News
Read news highlights related to PCB removal
activities, along with PCB removal resources and
other info.
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EPA News
Read the latest news from the Environmental
Protection Agency.
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