water pollution

Here are the details:

The first two hearings will be held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday at the McKeithan Center on the North Campus of Cape Fear Community College, 4500 Blue Clay Road, Castle Hayne. The third hearing will be held from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday in the Kenan Auditorium at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, 601 S. College Road.

I've been pretty impressed with the Star's coverage of a wide range of issues (including Titan), but to write an article about an upcoming public hearing, without mentioning that two citizens who previously spoke out are facing a SLAPP suit for doing so, is (at best) a gargantuan oversight:

More dirty details about hydraulic fracturing:

Of more than 179 wells producing wastewater with high levels of radiation, at least 116 reported levels of radium or other radioactive materials 100 times as high as the levels set by federal drinking-water standards. At least 15 wells produced wastewater carrying more than 1,000 times the amount of radioactive elements considered acceptable.

And this is just the 40% of waste water that is recovered from the surface. What about the other 60% that remains underground, migrating into the water table?

Big surprise, Republican mayor doesn't want to clean up water pollution:

Knight and Matheny told lawmakers the estimated cost of the sewer plant improvements was $70 million. That’s money the city didn’t have to spend as it struggled to cope with the recession.

Spending that kind of money would likely require an increase in water rates or a rise in property taxes. “We just want an extension of time,” Matheny said.

The City of Greensboro has had decades to prepare for these rules, Zack. But instead of requiring developers to utilize best practices in abating stormwater runoff, and instead of upgrading water treatment plants incrementally, you stuck your head in the sand and hoped the water would magically clean itself. If you want to blame anybody for that $70 million pricetag, look in the mirror, pal.

ProPublica is on the case:

The agency wants to look at the potential impacts on drinking water of each stage involved in hydraulic fracturing, where drillers mix water with chemicals and sand and inject the fluid into wells to release oil or natural gas. In addition to examining the actual injection, the study would look at withdrawals, the mixing of the chemicals, and wastewater management and disposal.

Hat-tip to conservative conservationist Jeff Sykes for pointing me in this story's direction.

Cross-posted from a Facing South article by Sue Sturgis

When the federal Environmental Protection Agency prepared a cost-benefit analysis for the two coal ash regulatory options it released last year for public comment, it overestimated the benefits of recycling coal ash and underestimated the benefits of safe disposal -- thus hurting the chances for an adequately protective rule.

Company's pollution in Texas used as a warning:

Using water discharge data supplied by the company to the Environmental Protection Agency, the nonprofit group Environment Texas reported a year ago that the chicken plant near Bryan, Texas, released about 1.2 million pounds of nitrate compounds into Cottonwood Branch creek in 2007.

The city of Wilson, which has sued Nash County over its approval of a rezoning that could allow the project, has alleged that the project is in its watershed.

This is not really a "chicken war", it's one of the battles in the "water war". And in the absence of leadership from above (the Legislature), we can expect to see more of these cross-county disputes.

Leaking gas tanks: another cost of our carbon economy