News and Articles


Calculating the Exact Water Footprint of Animal, Plant Products

The University of Twente in the Netherlands has for the first time calculated the exact water footprint of both animal and plant products per kilo, per calorie, and per protein.

EPA To Develop Regulation for Perchlorate and Toxic Chemicals in Drinking Water

EPA will move forward with the development of a regulation for perchlorate to protect Americans from any potential health impacts.

Should Vapor Intrusion be Part of NPL Decisionmaking?

EPA is asking for comments on seven topics related to potential revisions of its Hazard Ranking System.

Agency Seeks Input for Common-sense Design of GHG Rules

EPA has slated five listening sessions related to updating the Clean Air Act's pollution standards for power plants and refineries.

SFPUC OKs Calaveras Dam Replacement in Water Improvement Program

After seven years, San Francisco's Planning Commission certified the project's environmental impact report for work that is designed to improve Bay Area water supply in the Alameda Creek habitat.

Intact wetlands along coastal Louisiana.

New Orleans' Corps of Engineers to Use Modified Charleston Method

The mitigation assessment tool should improve process consistency when the Corps is determining the environmental impact of a particular project.

New Treatment Plant to Remove Arsenic, Uranium from Benkelman Water

Baseline Engineering has completed the master planning, design, engineering, funding, and construction documents for a 600-gallons-per-minute water treatment plant.

Mayors Select Schenectady and Veolia for Public-Private Partnerships Award

The city and the company, operating under a long-term contract, have developed a successful biosolids program and made significant wastewater treatment plant improvements.

$2M Available for Environmental Community Grants

Assistance is available for community-based parnterships to develop local environmental priorities; the deadline for application is March 22.

East-African Drought

Pattern of More-Frequent Droughts in Eastern Africa Likely to Continue

The increased frequency of drought observed in eastern Africa over the last 20 years is likely to continue as long as global temperatures continue to rise, according to new research published in Climate Dynamics.

WaterSense Draft Specification Released for Weather-based Irrigation Controllers

The revised specification is open for comment until March 21.

coca

Cocaine Production Quickens Destruction Of Colombia's Rainforests

A new study provides evidence that cultivating coca bushes, the source of cocaine, is speeding up destruction of rain forests in Colombia.

EPA Disapproves Part of Vt.'s 2002 Water Quality Plan

EPA has disapproved Vermont’s 2002 water quality plan that set phosphorus targets for discharges into Lake Champlain.

Energy-efficient Intelligent House Monitors Health

An energy-efficient house that can send alerts if its residents are ill has been developed by researchers at the University of Hertfordshire.

LSU Professor Evaluates Photocatalytic Pavements

Pureti was applied to asphalt and concrete paving near the LSU campus; Professor Hassan is monitoring air quality and groundwater runoff from the site.

Mercury in San Francisco Bay Fish a Legacy of California Mining

With the use of a mercury "fingerprinting" technique, researchers from the University of Michigan, the University of California, Davis, and the San Francisco Estuary Institute have identified the main sources of mercury in bay floor sediments and shown that small fish near the base of the food web acquire their mercury from those sediments.

Australia Coal-fired Plant to Test OriginOil Algae Oil Extraction System

MBD Energy, owner of three CO2-to-energy projects, will pilot the extraction unit.

Prarie Cordgrass

Scientists Develop Preliminary "Genetic Map" of Cellulosic Ethanol Crop

The first rough draft of a “genetic road map” of prairie cordgrass, a biomass crop, is giving scientists an inside look at the genes of one of the crops that may help produce the next generation of biofuels.

Turbine Spacing May Be Reason for Underperforming Wind Farms

A new spacing formula based on wind tunnel testing recommends turbines be spaced 15 rotor diameters apart, more than half the current standard.

Keerthi Venkataramanan

Bacteria Eats Glycerol and Makes New Products

A University of Alabama graduate student is using Clostidium pasteurianum bacteria to break down a biodiesel waste product and find uses for its byproducts: butanol, propanediol, and ethanol.