Vulnerability

by Dan Vergano, USA Today - January 3, 2012

This photo made Jan. 2, 2012 shows the site of a brine injection well owned by Northstar Disposal Services LLC in Youngstown, Ohio. The company has halted operations at the well, which disposes of brine used in gas and oil drilling, after a series of small earthquakes in the Youngstown area. Photo: Dan Pompili, Warren Tribune-Chronicle / AP

Ohio earthquakes tied to a deep wastewater disposal well are raising safety questions, amid a nationwide natural gas drilling boom.

On New Year's Eve, a magnitude-4.0 quake outside Youngstown, Ohio, shook the ground as far north as Toronto. Earthquake experts tied the event, the latest and largest in a series stretching back to March, to a 1.7-mile-deep wastewater disposal well, prompting state officials to shut it down.

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(AP)

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday for the first time that fracking — a controversial method of improving the productivity of oil and gas wells — may be to blame for causing groundwater pollution.

The draft finding could have significant implications while states try to determine how to regulate the process. Environmentalists characterized the report as a significant development though it met immediate criticism from the oil and gas industry and a U.S. senator.

The practice is called hydraulic fracturing and involves pumping pressurized water, sand and chemicals underground to open fissures and improve the flow of oil or gas to the surface.

by Liz Szabo - USA Today - November 24, 2011

H1N1 strain of the swine flu virus Photograph: Photographer: C. S. Goldsmith an/AP

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed three cases of a new flu virus, which originated in pigs but apparently spread from person to person, in three Iowa children.

However, there's no reason to fear the beginning of a new pandemic, says Arnold Monto, a flu expert and professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

"I don't think this is anything to worry about for the moment," Monto says. "We have known that swine viruses get into humans occasionally, transmit for a generation or two and then stop. The issue is whether there will be sustained transmission (from person to person)- and that nearly never happens."

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By harnessing the collective power of citizens and engaging communities in their own response and recovery, social media have the power to revolutionize emergency management. Yet, many challenges—
including guidelines for use by response agencies, demonstration of value, and characterization of reliability—must be addressed if the potential of social media is to be fully realized in emergency response and relief efforts in the United States. Please join us for this presentation and panel discussion, which will be chaired by Dr. Clarence Wardell of CNA and will feature findings from the report, 2011 Social Media + Emergency Management Camp: Transforming the Response Enterprise.