Scientists study harmful algae blooms in Guatemala’s Lake Atitlan

ScienceDaily (June 22, 2010) — A team of scientists from the University of Nevada, Reno, DRI, Arizona State University and University of California, Davis has returned from a two-week expedition to Guatemala’s tropical high-mountain Lake Atitlan, where they are working to find solutions to the algae blooms that have assailed the ecosystem and the drinking […]

Changing Chesapeake Bay acidity impacting oyster shell growth

Cambridge, Md. (June 10, 2010) – Acidity is increasing in some regions of the Chesapeake Bay even faster than is occurring in the open ocean, where it is now recognized that increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide dissolve in the seawater thereby making it more acidic. These more acidic conditions in key parts of Chesapeake […]

Water treatment plant survey shows high emissions of nitrous oxide

NEW YORK, NY, May 26, 2010 — Nitrous oxide, or N2O, is a greenhouse gas considered by experts to be 300 times more powerful in its atmospheric warming effect than carbon dioxide. By far the greatest recorded sources of N2O emissions are from agricultural activities and fossil fuel combustion. But sewage breakdown by some wastewater […]

Baltimore rivers that flow into Chesapeake Bay get ‘F’ in University of Maryland report

By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun 9:43 a.m. EDT, May 19, 2010 While the Chesapeake Bay’s overall health improved slightly last year, the rivers that drain much of the Baltimore area remain in such poor shape that they earn a “failing grade,” University of Maryland scientists reported Tuesday. The bay as a whole improved […]

Iraq's drinking water drying up, sewage pollutes shrinking rivers

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 14, 2010 (ENS) – Clean drinking water is an increasingly scarce resource for millions of people in Iraq, according to a new report released today by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The agency says its engineers are doing their best to improve access to safe water in the face of […]

Poor Mexico farmers fear that toxic-sludge irrigation will end

By ELISABETH MALKINPublished: May 4, 2010 MIXQUIAHUALA, Mexico — Night and day, Marcelo Mera Bárcenas slops the fetid water that has coursed 60 miles downhill from the sewers of Mexico City and spreads it over the corn and alfalfa fields of this once arid land. From the roads here in the Mezquital Valley, fields stretch […]

As weather tracks with climate scientists’ grim forecasts, Kenya is awash in misery

By MICHAEL BURNHAM AND NATHANIAL GRONEWOLD of GreenwirePublished: May 4, 2010 NAIROBI, Kenya — It’s the rainy season, but the sun is still baking the Mathare Valley slum. A half-million people live in this warren of shacks clustered amid 10 square kilometers of the Mathare River. When the rains fall, drops spill like marbles on […]

Record Tennessee river levels will continue to rise; water mains break, sewage treatment plants engulfed, curfew declared

By Juanita Cousins • The TennesseanMay 2, 2010, UPDATED 7:30pm A number of water main breaks and sewage treatment problems are being reported across Middle Tennessee. According to, Tisha Calabrese-Benton, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, water main breaks in the city of Brentwood and Humphreys and Maury counties are threatening fresh […]

River Jordan could die by 2011

By Staff WritersAlumot, Israel (AFP) May 3, 2010 The once mighty Jordan River, where Christians believe Jesus was baptised, is now little more than a polluted stream that could die next year unless the decay is halted, environmentalists said on Monday. The famed river “has been reduced to a trickle south of the Sea of […]

Uganda says pollution of Lake Victoria worsening

Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Kevin Liffey KAMPALA (Reuters) – Pollution in parts of Lake Victoria is worsening so fast that soon it may be impossible to treat its waters enough to provide drinking water for the Ugandan capital, a senior official said Monday. The lake, east Africa’s largest by area, also supplies water […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial