US - Central

Flares at the Bridgeton Landfill outside St. Louis burn off noxious fumes, including those generated by an underground fire that's been burning since 2010. The "fire" is really a high-temperature chemical reaction that consumes the waste below the landfill's surface. Véronique LaCapra/St. Louis Public Radio

Image: Flares at the Bridgeton Landfill outside St. Louis burn off noxious fumes, including those generated by an underground fire that's been burning since 2010. The "fire" is really a high-temperature chemical reaction that consumes the waste below the landfill's surface. Véronique LaCapra/St. Louis Public Radio

npr.org - November 3rd, 2015 - Veronique Lacapra

Imagine you are a parent, and that out of the blue, you get a letter from your child's school telling you not to worry — that they're ready to evacuate or shelter in place if an underground fire at a nearby landfill reaches radioactive waste on the same property.

That's pretty much what happened recently in suburban St. Louis.

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NASA: The US Faces a "Mega-Drought" Not Seen in 1,000 Years

Wed, 2015-02-18 23:39 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Albert Gomez

The long and severe drought in the U.S. Southwest pales in comparison with what’s coming: a “megadrought” that will grip that region and the central Plains later this century and probably stay there for decades, a new study says.

Thirty-five years from now, if the current pace of climate change continues unabated, those areas of the country will experience a weather shift that will linger for as long as three decades, according to the study, released Thursday.

Researchers from NASA and Cornell and Columbia universities warned of major water shortages and conditions that dry out vegetation, which can lead to monster wildfires in southern Arizona and parts of California.

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CLICK HERE - NASA - Study Finds Carbon Emissions Could Dramatically Increase Risk of U.S. Megadroughts

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Last Person Completes Ebola Monitoring in Texas

Fri, 2014-11-07 11:23 — mike kraft

ABC NEWS Nov 7, 2014

by Sydney Ludkin

DALLAS The final person in Texas being monitored for Ebola has passed the virus's 21-day incubation period, marking the end of the state's Ebola crisis.

None of the 177 people who had contact with the state's Ebola patients -- Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, and two of the Dallas nurses who cared for him, Nina Pham and Amber Vinson -- have contracted Ebola, state officials said. The list included health care workers, people who shared the same households as the Ebola patients and other community contacts.

"Hopefully, Americans will be relieved and fear will be eased," said Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News chief health and medical editor. "In Dallas, not even the people who lived with a very sick person with Ebola became ill."

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http://abcnews.go.com/Health/person-completes-ebola-monitoring-texas/story?id=26742640

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Evergreen Cooperatives

Sun, 2014-07-13 11:43 — Maeryn Obley

evergreencooperatives.com

The Evergreen Cooperatives of Cleveland, Ohio are pioneering innovative models of job creation, wealth building, and sustainability. Evergreen’s employee-owned, for-profit companies are based locally and hire locally. They create meaningful green jobs and keep precious financial resources within the Greater University Circle neighborhoods. Worker-owners at Evergreen earn a living wage and build equity in the firms as owners of the business.

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North Dakota Oil Spill: Tesoro Corp. Pipeline Breaks Near Tioga; Dumps More Than 20,000 Barrels Of Crude

Fri, 2013-10-25 21:53 — admin

www.huffingtonpost.com - October 10, 2013 - AP by James MacPherson

North Dakota Oil Spill

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — More than 20,000 barrels of crude oil have spewed out of a Tesoro Corp. oil pipeline in a wheat field in northwestern North Dakota, the state Health Department said Thursday.

State environmental geologist Kris Roberts said the 20,600-barrel spill, among the largest recorded in the state, was discovered on Sept. 29 by a farmer harvesting wheat about nine miles north of Tioga.

Steve Jensen, the farmer, said he'd smelled crude several days before the tires on his combines were coated with it. At the apparent break in the underground pipeline, the oil was "spewing and bubbling six inches high," Jensen said.

[Read entire article]

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The Nation: Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency Claims a Near Catastrophic Meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant in Nebraska

Thu, 2011-06-23 00:52 — mdmcdonald

This unusual story from Pakistan's "The Nation" claims that there has been a cover up of a near catastrophic meltdown for the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant near Omaha, Nebraska. Evidence from the nuclear power plant and U.S. regulators indicate that the Pakistani story and Russian claims are significantly over-reaching. The flooding that caused a Fukushima reactor 4-like spent fuel rod cooling pond interruption of power led to a 90 minute interruption of power, but the temperature of the cooling pond and the water coverage of the spent fuel rods did not approach circumstances that would cause a meltdown, according to U.S. officials.

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