Free Republic

The Civil Authority and the IDF has cleared out 20,000 cubic tons of trash from an illegal Arab dump in Samaria, after ongoing appeals from an environmental organization. The Yarok Achshav (“Green Now”) group expressed its satisfaction at the resolution of the issue, preventing further damage to the environment by Arabs in the area. The site of the dump, near the Arab village of Kafr Duma, was situated right atop a well that tapped directly in into the large aquifer that runs under Samaria. As such, there was a strong danger that the groundwater throughout the entire region would have...

Dr. Ann Maest is a managing scientist at Straus Consulting, and she’s the go to expert on all things groundwater. In the press release announcing her reappointment to the National Academy of Sciences, they mention that she is focused on the environmental effects of mining and petroleum extraction and production, and, more recently, on the effects of climate change on water quality. Maest is in high demand as an expert for those looking to stop oil and mineral exploration. She’s also heavily used by the federal government, even though after new details about her past work are coming to light...

Groundwater flowing into Fukushima nuclear plant TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday it suspects that 200 to 500 tons a day of groundwater might be flowing through pits and wall cracks into reactor and turbine buildings at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The suspicion is based on the fact that a decline in water levels in these buildings has slowed down. "The suspected groundwater inflow is now unlikely to cause problems as the plant is capable of treating nearly 1,000 tons of radiation-contaminated water," said an official at the...

Monday, June 13, 2011 High level of strontium found at Fukushima plant Kyodo Radioactive strontium up to 240 times the legal concentration limit has been detected in seawater samples collected near an intake at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday. The utility said the substance was also found in groundwater near the plant's Nos. 1 and 2 reactors. The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said it is the first time that the substance has been found in groundwater. The agency said it is necessary to carefully monitor the possible effects of the strontium...

Groundwater radiation level at nuke plant rises: TEPCO TOKYO, April 15, Kyodo The concentration levels of radioactive iodine and cesium in groundwater near the troubled Nos. 1 and 2 reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have increased up to several dozen times in one week, suggesting that toxic water has seeped from nearby reactor turbine buildings or elsewhere, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday. The announcement came as the plant operator continued to grapple with pools of highly radioactive water found on the plant's premises, with the level of polluted water filling an underground trench edging up again...

Friday, April 1, 2011 Groundwater At Nuclear Plant 'Highly' Radiation-Contaminated: Tepco TOKYO (Kyodo)--More signs of serious radiation contamination in and near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were detected Thursday, with the latest data finding groundwater containing radioactive iodine 10,000 times the legal threshold and the concentration of radioactive iodine-131 in nearby seawater rising to the highest level yet. Radioactive material was confirmed from groundwater for the first time since the March 11 quake and tsunami hit the nuclear power plant on the Pacific coast, knocking out the reactors' key cooling functions. An official of the plant operator Tokyo Electric...

A titanic battle between the West's two traditional power brokers -- Big Oil and Big Water -- has begun. [...] Extracting oil from rocky seams of underground shale is not only expensive, but it also requires massive amounts of water, a precious resource critical to continued development in the nation's fastest-growing region. [...] Oil shale companies acknowledge that the technology to superheat shale to extract oil is unproven. They also concede that they aren't certain how much water will be needed in the process, although some experts calculate it would take 10 barrels of water to get one barrel of...

A titanic battle between the West's two traditional power brokers -- Big Oil and Big Water -- has begun. [...] Extracting oil from rocky seams of underground shale is not only expensive, but it also requires massive amounts of water, a precious resource critical to continued development in the nation's fastest-growing region. [...] Oil shale companies acknowledge that the technology to superheat shale to extract oil is unproven. They also concede that they aren't certain how much water will be needed in the process, although some experts calculate it would take 10 barrels of water to get one barrel of...

Arsenic risk high in Sumatra, Myanmar, Cambodia: study Fri Jul 11, 2:15 PM ET Eastern Sumatra, the Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar and Cambodia's Tonle Sap lake are among areas in Southeast Asia facing a high risk of arsenic contamination in the water, according to a study published on Friday. The researchers use innovative digitalised techniques, drawing on geology, geography and soil chemistry, to compile a "probability map" of naturally-occurring arsenic concentrations in five Southeast Asian countries and Bangladesh. The map is intended as a useful pointer for health watchdogs, urban planners and water engineers worried about concentrations of this poison...

Products based on NASA Earth observations and a new Internet-based decision tool are providing information to help land and water managers combat tamarisk (saltcedar), an invasive plant species damaging precious water supplies in the western United States. This decision tool, called the Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS), is being used at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Institute of Invasive Species Science in Fort Collins, Colo. It is the result of combining USGS science and NASA Earth observations, software engineering and high- performance computing expertise. "The ISFS combines NASA satellite data with tens of thousands of field sampling measurements, which...

Start all over with the Trans Texas Corridor. And let the legislature oversee future highway planning. That was the gist of the testimony delivered by TFB State Director Albert Thompson on behalf of the Texas Farm Bureau during a recent Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security hearing on the massive transportation project. "...it appears to us that the legislature has given the Texas Department of Transportation what amounts to a blank check worth approximately $180 billion," Thompson said on Feb. 9. "We would feel more comfortable if citizens had the opportunity to voice opinions with elected officials who should...

Perhaps you recall the line from "Dr. Strangelove," Stanley Kubrick's film - now 40 years old - about nuclear war and fluoridation. "As human beings," Gen. Jack D. Ripper says to Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake, "you and I need fresh pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids." Hard to imagine what General Ripper would have thought of the recent announcement by Britain's Environment Agency that it had found traces of the antidepressant drug Prozac in rivers and groundwater. The idea of someone dumping mood-altering pharmaceuticals into the water supply sounds suitably Strangelovian. But the source in this case is...

Water rights, a mammoth property rights battle Two-thousand and four is the centennial of the landmark legal case that established the rules by which Texans can pump subterranean water from under their land. The so-called "rule of capture" is based on English common law and holds that a Texas landowner may pump as much water as he wants from underneath his private property. As the court ruled in 1904, the movements of water underground are "secret, occult and concealed." Underground, water drains and recharges, moves and percolates. Anyone pumping water from underground will most likely affect the water under the...

Lawmakers want a say in pumping, selling of Texas groundwater AUSTIN - For the second time in a decade, lawmakers are preparing to tackle major issues concerning water in Texas. In the 1990s, lawmakers examined how much water the state would need for the next 50 years and how Texas would meet the demand. Now, lawmakers seem ready to deal with more controversial water issues: water marketing, conservation, the century-old rule of capture, and deciding how much water should flow in a stream to maintain aquatic life and a healthy environment. During the next 12 months, lawmakers will study water...

A PROBLEM WITH PRAIRIE DOGS Debate over rodents' removal has Lubbock leaders in a bind By EVAN MOORE Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle LUBBOCK -- The atmosphere was electric, charged with anticipation as Linda Watson knelt in the dirt and thrust a sunburned arm elbow-deep down a prairie dog hole. Sean Meyers / Special to the Chronicle Linda Watson, who runs a business specializing in trapping prairie dogs, and Daryl Hogue of Lubbock run water into a prairie dog hole to force the animals to the surface so they can be relocated. "Got him," breathed Watson. Then, with one deft movement...