Today’s Essential Reads
FRACKING:
Natural Gas Drilling Produces Radioactive Wastewater
Wastewater from natural gas drilling in New York State is radioactive, as high as 267 times the limit safe for discharge into the environment and thousands of times the limit safe for people to drink.
Recent Fire Near Dallas Re-enforces Concerns over Air Toxics Exposures
A chemical plant fire blazed last week at a Magnablend Inc. facility in Waxahachie, Texas as workers mixed a toxic assortment of chemicals. The owner, Scott Pendery, initially gave vague comments about the types of chemicals produced in the plant. However, he later stated that most of what the plant produces is a cocktail of chemicals blended specifically to be used in hydraulic fracturing fluids, used to extract natural gas.
Bill Faces Steep Odds in Effort to Idle ‘Fracking’ in Ohio
Two Democrat state legislators want to put the brakes on “fracking” in Ohio, hoping for a temporary halt to drilling into deep reserves of natural gas whose potential has been hailed by Republican Gov. John Kasich as an economic driver for the state.
BP OIL SPILL:
FDA Allowed Unsafe Seafood Onto Market After BP Oil Spill Disaster
A study accuses the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of allowing seafoods with unsafe levels of contaminants to enter the food chain after the BP oil disaster. A study carried out by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and published in the peer-reviewed Environmental Health Perspective reports that the FDA underestimated the risk of cancer from accumulated contaminants in the seafood – especially the risk for pregnant mothers and children who live in the area.
Exxon Still Avoiding Valdez Costs: Mother Jones
It’s been more than 22 years since the Exxon Valdez dumped 10 million gallons of crude into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, but you don’t have to look very hard to find lingering impacts from the spill. You can actually still find oil on the shore there, the fisheries are still struggling, and some bird species haven’t recovered. But now Exxon is saying it won’t pay up, despite an agreement to cover those additional cleanup costs.
BP’s “Big Fix” To Be Exposed Friday At New Orleans Film Festival
Funny that the international media at the cannesfilm festival got to know more details of the inner workings and corruption at the core of the BPgulf oil disaster than those of us who’ve endured it. But this Friday that score will be corrected, twice.
Forget Tar Patties…Try Tar Logs
When I shot the previously posted interview with Bay St. Louis resident, John Gooding, he showed me numerous “tar logs” they had found on Ship Island, Mississippi immediately following Tropical Storm Lee.
RADIATION:
World Needs Joint Nuclear Safety Approach: Report
The global upsurge in the use of nuclear power in countries such as China, Russia and Britain must be accompanied by a greater focus on security and the management of nuclear waste, a report said Thursday.
