What Role Do Small Dams Play in Pollution Control?

April 1, 2013

Sometimes, little things can add up to a lot. In short, that's the message of a research study on small dams, streams and pollution by Steve Powers, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative (ECI).

"Small dams, reservoirs and ponds trap water pollution, which provides an important benefit to water resources," Powers said. "This is especially relevant in agricultural lands of the Midwest U.S., where there are lots of small, but aging dams."

Although small individually, the sum total of the small reservoirs and ponds have a global surface area comparable to that of all large reservoirs added together.

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Sea Monsters Two Years After Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

March 28, 2013

These aren’t just old fishermen’s tales. More than two years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, local Gulf Coast fishers are seeing eyeless fish and shrimp, festering sores and tumors on catches and other mutations in their nets.

The University of South Florida conducted a survey after the spill with startling results: between two to five percent of fish in the Gulf now have skin lesions or sores. Before April 20, 2010, just one-tenth of one percent of fish had any of these abnormalities. Researchers believe these are the result of the chemicals found in the oil and the solvents used to ameliorate the spill.

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New York coke producer found guilty of pollution

A federal jury on Thursday found Tonawanda Coke Corp, accused of years of illegal air pollution, guilty of violating federal clean air regulations and found its environmental manager guilty of hiding plant deficiencies from U.S. regulators.

The jury in U.S. District Court deliberated just one day before returning its verdicts against Tonawanda Coke, which has operated for 30 years in the Buffalo suburb of Tonawanda in upstate New York and produces a coal-based additive called coke that is used to make steel.
 
It found the company and Mark Kamholz, its environmental manager, guilty of 14 charges, including violations of the federal Clean Air Act from 2005 to 2009 as well as violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, having to do with the disposal of benzene sludge on the plant's property from 1998 to 2009.

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Oklahoma earthquake linked to oil extraction wastewater

March 28, 2013

Scientists have linked the underground injection of oil-drilling wastewater to a magnitude-5.7 earthquake in 2011 that struck the US state of Oklahoma.

Wastewater injection from drilling operations has been linked to seismic events in the past, but these have typically been much smaller quakes.

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