Environmental groups challenge Shell drilling plan (AP)

By HARRY r. WEBER, Associated Press Harry r. Weber, Associated Press - 47 minutes ago

ATLANTA - environmental groups asked a Federal Court of appeal lay by a decision of the Government of U.S. to approve a Shell Oil exploration plan that includes five wells proposed more than 7,000 feet of water in the Gulf of the Mexico.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and application of the Act approved the plan in May. The plan includes also three wells already approved 72 miles off the coast of Louisiana.

Defenders of wildlife, the Center for biological diversity and the claim of Natural Resources Defense Council in a petition filed Thursday in the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of appeals in Atlanta, that the decision contravenes the law and that the environment would cause if it is.

New regulations for drilling in deep water was imposed after the deadly rig explosion of last year and the Gulf oil spill.

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Environmental hazards remain after the tornado Joplin (AP)

By JOHN FLESHER and ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, Associated Press John Flesher and Alan Scher Zagier, Associated Press - Tue May 31, 8: 05 pm et

JOPLIN, Mo. -as residents face a massive cleanup after the tornado that destroyed Joplin, environmental hazards experts say could hide in the mountains of debris in the city of the southwest of the Missouri and even in the air and water.

Damage caused by tornadoes, as floods and hurricanes, often goes beyond what is visible. Chemical and combustible liquid can containers rupture flight and contaminate groundwater. Ruins of buildings may contain asbestos. The lights can generate smoke containing soot, dioxin and other pollutants. Household, industrial and medical wastes are dispersed.

In the first hours after the tornado on May 22, the smell of gasoline was evident on several service stations flattened. A great fire burned for hours about Regional Medical Center, John devastated St.. Heavy rains caused floods flash, possibly fouling of streams of.

Yet the teams U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sent to inspect the damage retroussée no problem of serious pollution in the first week, although the search continues, said spokesman Chris Whitley.

"Until that the systematic evaluation of the impact of the tornado zone is complete, it is not possible to fairly assess the levels of risk or environmental intervention priorities," he said in an e-mail.

Deadliest single tornado in the nation for more than six decades packed winds of more than 200 and measured half a mile across. It killed at least 132 people and injured over 900 severely damaging or upgrade of many buildings in the industrial corridor of the city, which includes suppliers of chemical products, natural gas companies and manufacturers of paint. An estimated 8 000 structures have been destroyed.

A leak of ammonia anhydrous brief a valve products of Jasper, trucking company was sealed by the crew of hazardous materials from the company. Otherwise, an EPA emergency response team to comb the area last week found that no important toxic only disclosed after verification of the 40 sites, Coordinator Eric Nold said.

"If there was a release screaming was to be found, it would have been now," he said. His team of two people watched underground storage tanks, waste water treatment plants and other sources of potential pollution.

"In view of this tornado of size, could it be worse from the point of view of chemical release," Nold said on the sound of crunching metal as bulldozers worked nearby.

Many businesses sent their own teams of environmental response to the disaster zone.

Among the other examined places were destroyed hospital and a Superfund site in the County of Jasper West tainted by years of lead and zinc mining. The tornado missed the mine waste heaps, but landed in the nearby neighborhoods where own layers of topsoil were placed at the top of soil between 1995 and 2002, Whitley said.

Owners and emergency workers were advised to use caution when removing debris from the region, he said. Lead exposure mostly occurs by ingestion of contaminated soil on dirty hands - a particular danger for children – and to breathe the contaminated dust.

Another likely danger is oil spilled in electrical transformers fell, some which contain highly toxic polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs. It is not immediately of this clearly how many have been blown during the storm.

But a spokesman for the Alabama Power, more great service of electricity in this State, said that more than 4,000 transformers had recovered it following a series of tornadoes last month. Among the oldest contained traces of PCBs, spokesman Michael Sznajderman. All were bagged and sent to a recycler under license, while the oil and dirt around fallen transformers were transported to a landfill of hazardous waste.

Some of the greatest environmental risks long-term tornadoes come during the cleanup, said experts.

The Ministry of natural resources of the Missouri last week, announced a temporary waiver of certain solid wastes pollution regulations and air for the counties of Jasper and Newton, where the tornado struck. The move allows landfills to accept brush, building waste, equipment and other materials that would not normally be allowed, although recycling of appliances is encouraged. It allows the burning of tree and brush waste under certain conditions.

Also waived was a requirement that supervisors certified by the State be involved in the removal of materials containing asbestos, a fiber which can cause pulmonary diseases, including cancer. Federal asbestos regulations remain in place.

Relax the rules during an emergency is understandable, but poor handling or disposal of waste could make a bad situation worse, said David Carpenter, Director of the Institute of health and the environment at the University of SUNY Albany.

If plastics, asbestos or treated wood materials find their way in the brush fires, they could produce particularly dangerous programs for people with asthma or respiratory diseases, he said.

"I know there is a huge amount of debris, but find a landfill site in a Valley somewhere where you can put it and cover it above is much wiser than combustion it", said Carpenter. "There are health risks associated with the combustion of the debris of all kinds."

Some products of storms such as overwhelming volumes of waste which limited combustion should be allowed, said John Mitchell, Director of the division with the Kansas Department of health and the environment. The fires have been allowed after the 2007 tornado which devastated Greensburg, Kan, he said, although the State prefers other disposal methods.

It is important to separate the different types of waste so that they can be disposed of properly, some landfills are not suitable for materials such as household chemicals, paints and treated wood, said Mitchell. The Ministry of natural resources of the Missouri urges people to recycle equipment and vegetation of compost.

Environmentalists were not oppose rules of bending for some time.

"The last thing you want to do when the community dealing with a situation as it is require permits and paperwork,", said Kathleen Logan Smith, Executive Director of the Missouri Coalition for the environment.

People in the Joplin area are not the only ones who should be looking for contaminated materials, said John Snow, an expert in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma. Research has shown that tornadoes may suck debris and drop the 200 kilometres, he said.

"This is the type of a popular danger which deserves attention far more careful that it's been given," said snow.

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Flesher Traverse City, Mich. has reported. Associated Press writer Jim Salter has contributed to this story of Joplin.

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The Texas legislature has mixed the environmental results (AP)

By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Ramit Plushnick-masti Associated Press, Associated Press - kills on 31 May, 16 h 30 et

HOUSTON - Texas legislature ended its ordinary session with a mixed bag of environmental rules, from some bills which has made it before the nation and others who are required to make angry of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In Texas, an oil and Central gas and one of the largest polluters in the nation, only may change and adopt new laws once every two years, so the legislative session is significant. Federal and other bodies States often monitor carefully see what energy and environmental rules are submitted or changed in Texas, a State which often has precedent in these areas - for the good and bad.

This time, the legislature passed a bill that could make Texas the first State to require by law that the oil and gas companies publicly disclose the chemicals they use in the breakdown of rock dense to extract minerals. This could force the other States and by the EPA to move more quickly on an issue that is gaining steam that hydraulic fracturing is used in several areas.

Parliament also overwhelmingly approved a bill that would delay at least two years to strengthen the air allowing rules for oil and gas industry, a gesture which could exercise more dragging, sometimes ugly, public dispute between Texas and the EPA which has evolved from a tussle on environmental issues in a battle to the right of States.

Parliament adopted the Bill after the Deputy Regional Administrator Lawrence Starfield the EPA sent a letter to the environmental agency Texas warning that if passed "The EPA would have to consider taking additional measures, including the consideration of sanctions" under the Clean Air Act. This could include a takeover air of Texas for program, a responsibility traditionally reserved to the States.

"Is the bottom line, it is probably a C-plus session on environment and energy," said Director Tom "smitty" Smith, Texas of Public Citizen, a group of lobbying non-profit that focuses on environmental and energy issues.

Texas has long been a setter to trend to the nation on energy and the environment. In 1999, for example, the State passed a law of offensive targets for reducing air emissions in Eastern Texas, said Smith parameter. Other States eventually followed, and the rules became the cornerstone of the Clean Air Interstate Rule, adopted by EPA in 2005 in order to achieve the greatest air pollution cuts in more than a decade.

"This time around we didn't have one of these great breakthrough moments where define us a new energy policy for the nation," Smith said.

Bill requiring companies to disclose product chemical fracking was significant, he said, but when the deadline for implementation was delayed from January 2012 to July 2012.

However, Parliament pass a dozen bills that will reduce the need for new power plants, lower energy costs for consumers and results in cleaner air, said Smith. But it has also approved a Bill which makes it more difficult for the cities to sue large companies which emit gases to global warming, methane or other gases of hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" - the technology that coupled with drilling horizontal allows producers of oil and gas extracting minerals once out of reach of rock formations dense.

Important changes have been made to the Texas Commission on the quality of the environment - the State agency that oversees and regulates the environmental rules. The Agency can now fine companies up to $25,000 per day for violations, maximum of $10,000. However, the Bill has also limited the ability of the public at the request of the hearings in certain situations.

Parliament has also adopted several important bills that make it easier and more efficient to install and use solar energy, one that will allow stores - as Wal-Mart - to install solar panels and produce energy without having to go through the tedious and bureaucratic process to register itself as a power company.

And Texas passed a law allowing nuclear waste low resulting in 36 States - a major expansion of before when only two States and the Federal Government could send these waste for burial site West of Texas, along the border of the New-Mexico. It is known, however, how long that could begin to flow or the impact that might have on the environment.

Debbie Hastings, vice President of business environmental for the Texas oil and Gas Association, a lobby group that represents the oil and gas, industry has refused to give a grade to the Legislative Assembly, but said that he attempted to strike a balance between different interests with the "unprecedented challenges".

Fracking Act has been the key, she said, calling it "a cue point feat that will go far in the debunking of some of the myths and misconceptions that people have on fracking.".

Hastings said that it is important that Parliament adopted the Bill specifying how the State emits and oversee air permits, stating that the concerns of the EPA on the period of two years included in the law is wrong.

Richard Hyde, a Director for the environmental agency Texas TCEQ said the EPA notes often concern with Bill and Starfield letter will help Texas to comply with federal law, while writing the new rules.

"Time will tell how it goes," said Hyde. "But I see nothing in their letter, that we cannot respond."

And what does a go perhaps as important.

The Railroad Commission will remain as is, despite verification by sunset Commission consultative status who have called for a revision which would have also changed the name of the Agency for the oil and gas Commission. The commission - responsible for oil and gas drilling and regulate pipelines - has not managed railroads for at least five years, but the name change has failed to pass three sessions of the Legislative Assembly.

Cyrus Reed, Director of conservation for Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, also gave the legislature a C-plus.

"It's a mixed bag," he said, noting that they did well on energy efficiency.

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EPA and Louisiana address environmental issues of flood (ContributorNetwork)

According a press of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published this Friday, the EPA continues to work with the State of Louisiana to prepare for any environmental issues that may occur due to the flooding of the Mississippi River that struck the hard State.

The United States EPA and the State of Louisiana said concerned about the rise of the waters of the Mississippi River flood and the possibility of it flooding facilities and industrial sites which may contain chemicals and other toxins that are harmful to human health and could easily get in other waterways to be washed away their holding locations or containers. The EPA is ready to dispatch technologies for cleaning of hazardous and other emergency plans if such facilities are threatened by dangerous flood waters.

In addition, according to the EPA press release, EPA has teamed with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the Louisiana Department of health and the hospital to counter the threat which pose flood water to drinking water sources and the containment and disposal of wastewater and sewage. The EPA is remain stationed in Louisiana and is working with local officials to identify areas at risk. The Agency also works with drinking water and wastewater, especially security plans, to ensure or are compromised despite the continuing problems with flooding.

Mississippi River inflated and growing threat yet in Louisiana with a lot of destruction. According to a recent press release from the army of the United States, Louisiana National Guard are standing help Louisiana residents and to conduct search and rescue missions in the case where there is an immediate need of assistance.

The floods that hit central United States and continue to flow downstream are some of the worst in the 1970s, according to AFP. So far, slow and swollen flood waters destroyed houses, farms and roads throughout the Mississippi River. In many cases, the Government was opening the dikes and other weirs to offer relief floods in towns along the route of flood, but waters could continue to pose a dangerous risk to public health and the environment. Flooding was triggered by remnants of snow and ice melt in the regions of Mississippi North and also heavy rains which have hit the Centre of United States and still do.

Rachel Bogart provides a thorough analysis of local environmental issues current and new in Chicago. As a student of the suburbs of Chicago, seeking to obtain two degrees of science, applied his knowledge and his passion for the two subjects to gather more public awareness.

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