Today’s Essential Reads
FRACKING:
Citizens Drill Into Fracking Issue at City Council Meeting
About a dozen citizens attended an Athens City Council meeting Monday night united in their opposition to horizontal hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), and urged the body to adopt an ordinance prohibiting the gas drilling technique within the city.
DOE ‘Report Card’ on Shale Gas Recommendations Uncertain at Midpoint
The final shale gas subcommittee report reflecting how the industry and state regulators complied with recommendations is due in 90 days, but environmental groups are doubtful about progress.
EPA Has Hearing on Drilling, Fracking Regulations
The Environmental Protection Agency is holding a public hearing in Arlington on its proposed rules for limiting pollution at oil and gas wells.
Toronto Environmentalists Worried About Fracking Fluids in Our Drinking Water
One of the more recent environmental problems in the last five years has been the explosion of natural gas drilling that relies on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process that involves taking chemicals and high pressure to break up layers of rock to get at the natural gas below. The problem is when the fracking fluids make their way to sources of drinking water, the results can be flammable.
BP OIL SPILL:
Seafood Industry Hurting From White Shrimp Shortage, Some Blame BP
Shrimpers and businesses connected to the industry may be getting an extra helping hand from BP’s Deepwater Horizon claims fund.
UCSB Marine Science Institute’s research professor of oceanography Uta Passow and her team received a $22.5 million grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative to continue research on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill for another three years.
Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Response Should Address Overall Ecosystem Needs, Scientists Say
A panel of nationally recognized scientists and engineers recommended today that officials abandon their traditional methods of mitigating the impact of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and instead recognize that the spill is only one of a number of threats to the gulf ecosystem.
Researchers Find Signs of Oil Effects in Louisiana Marsh Fish
Seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is safe to eat and the water is clear after the BP oil spill, but a biological study released Monday shows that effects of the oil on a small Louisiana marsh fish could be an early sign of trouble ahead for fish populations.
RADIATION:
Japan Sizes Up Task of Fukushima Waste Disposal
Japan faces the prospect of removing and disposing 29 million cubic metres of soil contaminated by the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years from an area nearly the size of Tokyo, the environment ministry said in the first official estimate of the scope and size of the cleanup.
