Rush is on to stem Yellow Sea oil spill

BEIJING — China rushed to keep a growing oil spill from reaching international waters yesterday, while an environmental group tried to assess if the country’s largest reported spill was worse than had been disclosed.

Crude oil started pouring into the Yellow Sea after a pipeline exploded last week, sparking a massive 15-hour fire. The government says the slick has spread across 70 square miles of ocean.

Images of 100-foot flames shooting up near part of China’s strategic oil reserves drew the immediate attention of President Hu Jintao and other top leaders. Now the challenge is cleaning up the greasy brown plume floating off the shores of Dalian, once named China’s most livable city.

Read more http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2010/07/21/rush_is_on_to_stem_yellow_sea_oil_spill/

Article courtesy of Cara Anna  Associated Press from the Boston Globe

Fishing for pollution in the Atlantic

Researchers from the Sea Education Association have removed tens of thousands of plastic fragments from the Atlantic Ocean over the past six weeks in what many believe is just a small part of a giant collection of debris in the middle of the ocean.

In their search for marine pollution, crew members of the expedition found more than 48,000 plastic fragments, most no larger than a pencil eraser, of the type of plastic used in bags, straws, bottle caps, and other household materials floating throughout the Sargasso Sea, a region in the middle of the North Atlantic extending south and east of Bermuda

Continue reading  http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/07/14/fishing_for_pollution_in_the_atlantic/

Article courtesy of The Boston Globe by Marissa Lang

Solar farm planned for Canton landfill

A solar farm could begin sprouting on about half of the Pine Street landfill as early as this fall. Town Manager Bill Friel said negotiations are moving along well on a long-term lease and power purchase agreement with Virgo Energy of California and Southern Sky Renewable Energy for the town-owned capped landfill.

Read more http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2010/07/11/solar_farm_planned_for_canton_landfill/

Article courtesy of The Boston Globe by E. Cushman Carroll

 

Massive oil-skimmer latest weapon in fight

NEW ORLEANS — With hurricane-whipped waves pushing more oil onto the Gulf of Mexico’s once-white beaches, the government pinned its latest cleanup hopes yesterday on a huge new piece of equipment: the world’s largest oil-skimming vessel.

The Taiwanese-flagged former tanker named A Whale is the length of 3 1/2 football fields and stands 10 stories high. It just emerged from an extensive retrofitting to prepare it specifically for the gulf, where officials hope it will be able to suck up as much as 21 million gallons of oil-fouled water per day

read more   http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2010/07/01/massive_oil_skimmer_latest_weapon_in_fight/

Story courtesy of The Associated Press by Tom Breen and Jay Reeves

 

It's Important to Conserve Water

Water is a precious resource and even though it flows readily whenever we turn on a faucet, it’s important to conserve.  Water is vital to the environment and conserving water helps our critical ecosystems, and saves us money too. We don’t have to make major lifestyle changes to conserve water.  Listen to Marla Carter, education coordinator for the City of Everett Public Works.  To fine out more go to www.ci.everett.wa.us then type in public works or call 4255-257-8875 For more visit  http://livingsustainablyinsnohomishcounty.blogspot.com

 

Article courtesy of Living Sustainable in Snohomish County

NOAA botched decision to move Seattle fleet to Oregon, audit finds

Before deciding to move its research fleet from Seattle to Newport, Ore., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) failed to adequately consider the possibly cheaper option of existing federal facilities in Seattle, a federal auditor's report says.

The report also takes NOAA to task for failing to analyze the total, long-term cost of moving the ships to Newport, which lacks major maritime facilities and is more than 200 miles from the Seattle-based researchers who commonly use the vessels.

read more  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012239196_noaa30m.html

Article courtesy of The Seattle Times by Sandi Doughton

 

Report details efforts to prevent isotope from reaching Vt. water supplies

VERNON, Vt. — After pumping out 130,000 gallons of contaminated groundwater, removing 240 cubic feet of tainted soil, and spending about $10 million responding to a leak of radioactive tritium, Vermont Yankee officials said yesterday it will be at least three months before the cleanup is complete.

But they say that there is no evidence the isotope made it into drinking water supplies and that samples of water from the neighboring Connecticut River continue to show no detectable tritium levels. Continue story

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2010/06/23/report_details_efforts_to_prevent_isotope_from_reaching_vt_water_supplies/

Article courtesy of Associated Press by John Curran