October 19, 2009 by osmobuddy
An estimated one in 10 Americans have been exposed to drinking water that contains dangerous chemicals, parasites, bacteria or viruses, or fails to meet federal health standards. Part of the problem, says journalist Charles Duhigg, is that water-pollution laws are not being enforced.
Duhigg reports on the “worsening pollution in American waters” — and regulators responses to the problem — in his New York Times series, “Toxic Waters.” In researching the series, he studied thousands of water pollution records, which he obtained via the Freedom of Information Act.
How Safe Is Your Drinking Water? : NPR
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October 13, 2009 by osmobuddy
Across the nation, the system that Congress created to protect the nation’s waters under the Clean Water Act of 1972 today often fails to prevent pollution. The New York Times has compiled data on more than 200,000 facilities that have permits to discharge pollutants and collected responses from states regarding compliance. Information about facilities contained in this database comes from two sources: the Environmental Protection Agency and the California State Water Resources Control Board. The database does not contain information submitted by the states.
Click here and then enter your zip code (U.S.A only)
Posted in drinking water, pollution, tap water, water facts, water safety | 2 Comments »
October 12, 2009 by osmobuddy
For nearly half a century, Sylvia Earle has been exploring the world’s oceans, taking part in more than 400 expeditions and spending thousands of hours under the sea. An explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society and former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earle has broken many barriers in the world of deep-sea exploration.
In 1970 she led the all-female Tektite II expedition during which she and four other women spent two weeks living in a small structure under the sea. In 1979, she descended to 1,250 feet in a dive suit, setting a women’s depth record and also walking untethered on the sea floor at a lower depth than any person ever has. In addition, she holds the women’s record for a solo dive in a submersible vehicle, reaching a depth of 3,280 feet.
Now, drawing on decades of oceanographic work, Earle has written a book in which she reflects on the profound changes she has witnessed in the world’s oceans and offers her thoughts on how to restore the health of a badly over-taxed marine environment. In The World is Blue, Earle describes the two-pronged assault on the seas: what we are pulling out of the oceans, through unfettered industrial fishing, and what we are putting into the oceans through pollutants, fertilizers, and growing amounts of carbon dioxide that are leading to a dangerous acidification of the sea.
Worldchanging: Bright Green: A Blueprint For Restoring The World’s Oceans To Health
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October 12, 2009 by osmobuddy
Most people would be pretty upset if their homework blew up in their faces and crumbled into a bunch of tiny pieces.
Not so student Jamie Link. When Link was doing her doctoral work in chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, one of the silicon chips she was working on burst. She discovered afterward, however, that the tiny pieces still functioned as sensors.
The resulting “smart dust” won her the top prize at the Collegiate Inventors Competition in 2003. These teensy sensors can also be used to monitor the purity of drinking or seawater, to detect hazardous chemical or biological agents in the air, or even to locate and destroy tumor cells in the body.
Smart Dust: Top 10 Accidental Inventions: Brink: Science Channel
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October 1, 2009 by osmobuddy
Tell the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to prevent the Water for the World Act of 2009 from being used as a vehicle to privatize water in developing countries.
The Water for the World Act of 2009 sets the goal of bringing safe drinking water to 100 million people for the first time. This is an important goal for which the U.S. should strive. However, the bill contains a peripheral component that encourages public-private partnerships, which have been used in the U.S. and abroad to privatize municipal water systems.
Water is a natural monopoly because the vast cost of infrastructure systems makes it impossible to introduce competition through multiple providers. A more fitting role for the private sector is in developing new technologies, signing limited-term contractual arrangements with publicly-run utilities, manufacturing products and investing in municipal bonds. In sub-Saharan Africa, 80 percent of the major water privatization contracts have either been terminated or have been the subject of disputes between public authorities and the private operators over levels of investment. Public water–in developed and developing countries alike–has proven more affordable, transparent and sustainable.
Take Action Now!
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October 1, 2009 by osmobuddy
U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold D-Wisconsin has introduced and is promoting a Clean Water Restoration Act, legislation he says will re-establish federal protections for wetlands that were undermined by recent Supreme Court decisions, but his critics say the proposal represents an unprecedented expansion of federal regulatory power.
To Feingold, the bill would restore the intent of the 1972 Clean Water Act, which gave the federal government jurisdiction to regulate and protect the navigable waters of the United States, including connected water bodies and adjacent wetlands.
Two Supreme Court decisions narrowed the scope of what water bodies could be regulated under the Act, however. Feingold proposes fixing that by removing the word navigable from the Clean Water Act, thereby giving the federal government jurisdiction over all waters of the United States.
Feingolds clean water bill swims into strong currents of opposition
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September 18, 2009 by osmobuddy
In the first thorough review of ocean policy in 34 years, the Pew Oceans Commission released a host of recommendations in 2003 to guide the way in which the federal government will successfully manage America’s marine environment. The report found that more than 60 percent of America’s coastal rivers and bays are degraded by nutrient runoff. Crucial species like groundfish and salmon are under assault from overfishing. Invasive species are establishing themselves in the nation’s coastal waters.
The commission recommended
- improving the management of the nation’s commercial fisheries;
- establishing networks of marine reserves in coastal waters;
- increasing the involvement of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in environmental restoration;
- applying strong environmental standards to fish farms;
- regulating the discharge of waste by cruise ships.
The Pew Oceans Commission concluded its work, but its findings are still available online to aid researchers and policy makers.
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Pew Oceans Commission
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September 15, 2009 by osmobuddy
Dr Sommerkorn says: “What this report says is that a warming Arctic is much more than a local problem, it’s a global problem. Simply put, if we do not keep the Arctic cold enough, people across the world will suffer the effects.”
One major finding is that sea-level is actually anticipated to rise by more than one meter by 2100 more than twice what the IPCC predicted in 2007. This would directly affect more than ¼ of the world’s population! Indirectly, I’m sure it will affect everyone.Another major point is that the Arctic is warming at about twice the rate of the rest of the world and the Arctic’s frozen soils and wetlands “store twice as much carbon as is held in the atmosphere“. This means that if the Arctic isn’t kept cool, the multiplying effects of global warming will jump drastically. The global warming cycle will be out of our hands soon if we don’t act now and keep the Arctic cool.
Global Warming in the Arctic — Much Worse than We Thought! : EcoWorldly
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September 13, 2009 by osmobuddy
Reefs are home to millions of animals—at least 25 percent of all fish species. These underwater worlds are so lush that they’ve become known as the rain forests of the sea. But just as rain forests are in trouble on land, all is not well beneath the waves. Worldwide, half of all reefs have vanished, and the rest could be extinct by mid-century. Half the coral in U.S. waters is in fair to poor health. Staghorn and elkhorn coral are now on the endangered species list, the first corals ever.
If reefs disappear, we lose a source of extraordinary beauty and biodiversity. We also lose an underwater buffer that holds back waves during hurricanes; a nursery for fish that feed a billion people around the world and provide 200 million jobs in the fishing industry; a home for plants and animals used to treat cancer, HIV, and other diseases; and an estimated $105 billion a year from tourist revenue in the Caribbean alone. The threat to coral is a threat to all of us.
Coral Reefs at Risk | Action Stories | Reader’s Digest
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September 13, 2009 by osmobuddy
Almost four decades ago, Congress passed the Clean Water Act to force polluters to disclose the toxins they dump into waterways and to give regulators the power to fine or jail offenders. States have passed pollution statutes of their own. But in recent years, violations of the Clean Water Act have risen steadily across the nation, an extensive review of water pollution records by The New York Times found.
In the last five years alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times. The violations range from failing to report emissions to dumping toxins at concentrations regulators say might contribute to cancer, birth defects and other illnesses.However, the vast majority of those polluters have escaped punishment. State officials have repeatedly ignored obvious illegal dumping, and the Environmental Protection Agency, which can prosecute polluters when states fail to act, has often declined to intervene.
Because it is difficult to determine what causes diseases like cancer, it is impossible to know how many illnesses are the result of water pollution, or contaminants’ role in the health problems of specific individuals.
But concerns over these toxins are great enough that Congress and the E.P.A. regulate more than 100 pollutants through the Clean Water Act and strictly limit 91 chemicals or contaminants in tap water through the Safe Drinking Water Act.Regulators themselves acknowledge lapses. The new E.P.A. administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, said in an interview that despite many successes since the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972, today the nation’s water does not meet public health goals, and enforcement of water pollution laws is unacceptably low. She added that strengthening water protections is among her top priorities. State regulators say they are doing their best with insufficient resources.
Toxic Waters – Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Suffering – Series – NYTimes.com
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