Category Archives: Water

550,000 abandoned mines, $50 billion to clean up the worst of them

Posted on December 9, 2016 by

[ Abandoned mines can cause soil erosion, heavy metal contamination (i.e., cyanide, lead, arsenic, mercury, uranium), and acid drainage that threatens thousands of streams and rivers. The EPA estimates it would cost $50 billion to reclaim abandoned and inactive mine … Continue reading →

Posted in Congressional Record U.S., Mercury, Pollution, Water | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

There are over 300,000 contaminated soil and water sites in the U.S.

Posted on December 6, 2016 by

[ There are too many problems requiring too much energy to solve after oil decline that we should have spent our energy on while it was still bountiful for the sake of future generations.  Along with climate change and nuclear … Continue reading →

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Why human waste should be used for fertilizer

Posted on September 16, 2016 by

[ At John Jeavons Biointensive workshop back in 2003, I learned that phosphorous is limited and mostly being lost to oceans and other waterways after exiting sewage treatment plants.  He said that it’s dangerous if done incorrectly and wasn’t going … Continue reading →

Posted in Soil, Waste, Water | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Benefits of promoting soil health in agriculture U.S. House hearing 2014

Posted on August 8, 2016 by

                    [ At last, 10 years after I first published “Peak soil: Why biofuels destroy ecosystems and civilizations“, Congress had a hearing that educated house members on why preserving topsoil is … Continue reading →

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We’ll all be Flint Michigan someday: U.S. water infrastructure is falling apart

Posted on January 29, 2016 by

NRC. 2006. Drinking Water Distribution Systems: Assessing and Reducing Risks Committee on Public Water Supply Distribution Systems: Assessing and Reducing Risks.  National Research Council, National Academies Press. [ According to this Free National Research Council report, most water systems and … Continue reading →

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Arctic ice melt to release 1 trillion pieces of plastic into sea – a major threat to marine life

Posted on June 5, 2015 by

[Also see September 2015: Plastic for dinner: A quarter of fish sold at markets contain human-made debris. Original article here] Lewis, R. May 27, 2014. Arctic ice melt to release 1 trillion pieces of plastic into sea Increasing ice melt … Continue reading →

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External costs of coal: probably over $500 billion per year in USA

Posted on May 4, 2014 by

Paul R. Epstein, et al. 2011. Full cost accounting for the life cycle of coal in “Ecological Economics Reviews.” Robert Costanza, Karin Limburg & Ida Kubiszewski, Eds. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1219: 73–98. This paper tabulates a wide range of … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemicals, CO2 and Methane, Coal, Hazardous Waste, Water | Comments Off on External costs of coal: probably over $500 billion per year in USA

Algal blooms more toxic due to climate change and crop fertilizer runoff

Posted on November 30, 2013 by

Paerl, H.W. et al. October 25, 2013. Blooms Bite the Hand That Feeds Them. Science Vol. 342 no. 6157 pp. 433-434  Eutrophication from climate change, dams, higher carbon dioxide concentrations, drought, and nutrients from farm and urban runoff is increasing … Continue reading →

Posted in Disease, Water | Comments Off on Algal blooms more toxic due to climate change and crop fertilizer runoff