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Corpus Christi, Texas, Tells Residents Not To Use Tap Water

npr.org - December 15th 2016 - Camila Domonoske

City officials in Corpus Christi, Texas, are warning residents not to use their tap water — at all — after possible contamination by an unknown chemical.

A press release from the city points to "a recent back-flow incident in the industrial district," and instructs residents to use just bottled water all food preparation, drinking, washing and bathing needs until further notice.

"DO NOT TRY TO TREAT THE WATER YOURSELF," the city says. 

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A Year Later, Unfiltered Flint Tap Water Is Still Unsafe To Drink

The state says more than 600 pipes have been replaced in Flint, Mich., this year — but 30,000 suspect pipes remain. Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Image: The state says more than 600 pipes have been replaced in Flint, Mich., this year — but 30,000 suspect pipes remain. Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

npr.org - December 14th 2016 - Steve Carmody

A year ago, Flint, Mich., Mayor Karen Weaver declared a state of emergency because of lead-contaminated drinking water, attracting national outrage and sympathy, and millions of gallons of donated water.

But a year later donations have slowed to a trickle, and little has changed — unfiltered water here is still unsafe to drink.

With frigid temperatures and flurries swirling around outside, the crowd inside Flint's downtown transit station ebbs and flows as buses come and go.

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The Goose-Killing Lake and the Scientists Who Study It

The toxic lake left behind after the Berkeley Pit copper mine shut down.

Image: The toxic lake left behind after the Berkeley Pit copper mine shut down.

theatlantic.com - 13 December 2016 - Sarah Zhang

In late November, a flock of migrating snow geese landed in a lake in Butte, Montana. Soon, they began to die. Because what they landed in was the Berkeley Pit, a Superfund site filled with acidic and metal-laden toxic waste from copper mining. 

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Worrying Traces of Resistant Bacteria in Air

           

Forbidden City in Beijing.  Credit: bizoo_n / Fotolia

CLICK HERE - Microbiome - The structure and diversity of human, animal and environmental resistomes

sciencedaily.com - Margareta Gustafsson Kubista - November 18, 2016

Polluted city air has now been identified as a possible means of transmission for resistant bacteria. Researchers have shown that air samples from Beijing contain DNA from genes that make bacteria resistant to the most powerful antibiotics we have.

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ALSO SEE SAME ARTICLE HERE - UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG - Worrying traces of resistant bacteria in air

 

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WHO: Excessive Air Pollution Affects 92 Percent of People

CLICK HERE - WHO - Ambient air pollution: A global assessment of exposure and burden of disease

CLICK HERE - WHO - News Release - WHO releases country estimates on air pollution exposure and health impact

Associated Press - by Jamey Keaten - September 26, 2016

GENEVA (AP) — More than nine out of 10 people worldwide live in areas with excessive air pollution, contributing to problems like strokes, heart disease and lung cancer, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

The U.N. health agency said in a new report that 92 percent of people live in areas where air quality exceeds WHO limits, with southeast Asia, eastern Mediterranean and western Pacific regions hardest hit.

The country-by-country figures come from new satellite data over rural areas to complement traditional ground measurements of pollution, mostly in cities, in about 3,000 places worldwide.

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Rural Pennsylvanians Say Fracking ‘Just Ruined Everything’

Jesse and Shirley Eakin stand by the water well they no longer use at their home in Avella, Pa. Delivered water is stored in the tank behind them.Image: Jesse and Shirley Eakin stand by the water well they no longer use at their home in Avella, Pa. Delivered water is stored in the tank behind them.

huffingtonpost.com - June 23rd 2016 - Maryam Jameel

Sixty years after his service in the Army, Jesse Eakin still completes his outfits with a pin that bears a lesson from the Korean War: Never Impossible.

That maxim has been tested by a low-grade but persistent threat far different than the kind Eakin encountered in Korea: well water that’s too dangerous to drink. It gives off a strange odor and bears a yellow tint. It carries sand that clogs faucets in the home Eakin shares with his wife, Shirley, here in southwestern Pennsylvania.

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Clean Water Crisis Threatens US

           

Aerial view overlooking landscaping on April 4, 2015 in San Diego, California.  Photo: Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images

by Sarah Ferris and Peter Sullivan - April 25, 2016

The United States is on the verge of a national crisis that could mean the end of clean, cheap water.

Hundreds of cities and towns are at risk of sudden and severe shortages, either because available water is not safe to drink or because there simply isn’t enough of it.

The situation has grown so dire the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence now ranks water scarcity as a major threat to national security alongside terrorism.

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27,000 Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells in Gulf of Mexico Ignored by Government, Industry

An older nearshore wellhead is shown off the coast of California in this undated photo. In state waters, California has resealed scores of its abandoned wells since the 1980s, but in federal waters, the official policy is out-of-sight, out-of-mind. Neither industry nor government checks for leaks at the more than 27,000 oil and gas wells abandoned in the Gulf of Mexico since the late 1940s. Abandoned wells are known sometimes to fail both on land and offshore. It happens so often that a technical term has been coined for the repair job: "re-abandonment."  Photo: California State Lands Commission / The Associated Press

nola.com - Associated Press - July 7, 2010

More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one -- not industry, not government -- is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The oldest of these wells were abandoned in the late 1940s, raising the prospect that many deteriorating sealing jobs are already failing.

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Transparency an Issue in Texas Flooding Consequences

           

Photo: El Paso Times - (CLICK HERE to view additional photos)

texashillcountry.com - by Spring Sault - May 30, 2016

The existence of a number of aerial photos showing flood-related oil spills on a state-run website was revealed in an El Paso Times story by Marty Schladen last month, followed shortly by state officials ordering the photos removed from the website operated by the University of Texas at Austin.

Until the Times’ story was published, the photos weren’t common knowledge to the public and identified possible environmental damage caused by flooding in oil drilling areas, including fracking sites. . . .

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Texas Flooding Overflows Oil Wells, Fracking Sites

           

Photo: El Paso Times - (CLICK HERE to view additional photos)

texashillcountry.com - by THC Staff - May 6, 2016

The recent Texas flooding has overwhelmed oil wells and fracking sites, overflowing crude oil and chemicals into rivers statewide.

With the onset of storms finally subsiding, state officials have begun to assess the entirety of the damage caused by the flooding that occurred across the state.

As KIII reported, “state emergency management officials have taken dozens of photographs that show sheens and plumes spreading from tipped tanks and flooded production sites” of the Sabine River flood on the Louisiana-Texas border.

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CLICK HERE - kiiitv.com - Flooding Flushes Oil, Chemicals into Texas Rivers

 

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