Environment Tag

...Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has called the leak an "environmental disaster," and the Los Angeles Unified School District shuttered two area schools for the rest of the year. Politicians and environmentalists in California are particularly sensitive to the toll the leak may take on the environment, especially after Gov. Jerry Brown doubled down earlier this year on the state's efforts to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

The Environmental Protection Agency botched the clean-up effort at the Gold King Mine by rushing to complete the job instead of taking precautions that would have prevented the disastrous toxic spill into the Animas River. A 132-page report released Thursday by the Interior Department and Bureau of Reclamation found that the Aug. 5 accident was not “inevitable,” as the EPA’s own internal review had concluded, but could have been avoided if the agency had followed engineering practices used at other inactive mines. ...According to the report, the agency committed a pivotal error by failing to gauge the level of wastewater behind the collapsed rock and soil at the mine, which could have been done by using a drill rig to “bore into the mine from above and directly determine the level of the mine pool prior to excavating backfill at the portal.”

The two members of Congress wrote to Loretta Lynch, the attorney general, on Wednesday, saying they were concerned by the results of two separate investigations by Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times, which found that ExxonMobil scientists confirmed fossil fuels were causing climate change decades ago, but publicly embarked on a campaign of denial. “ExxonMobil’s apparent behavior is similar to cigarette companies that repeatedly denied harm from tobacco and spread uncertainty and misinformation to the public,” Ted Lieu and Mark DeSaulnier, both Democratic members of Congress from California, wrote. “We ask that the DoJ similarly investigate Exxon for organizing a sustained deception campaign disputing climate science and failing to disclose truthful information to investors and the public.”

State and federal officials on Wednesday investigated what caused a 2-foot-diameter underground pipeline to leak thousands of gallons of crude oil that polluted several miles of wildlife-rich beach and ocean along the scenic Santa Barbara coast. Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline said that in a "worst-case scenario," up to 105,000 gallons of oil spilled Tuesday from its ruptured onshore pipeline and that an estimated 21,000 gallons swept down a storm drain that empties into the Pacific. The company said a control room operator noticed "abnormalities" and shut down the pipeline around 11:30 a.m. PT (2:30 p.m. ET). Around the same time, Santa Barbara County firefighters responded to a report of a strong gasoline smell at Refugio State Beach and found oil pouring into the ocean.

California regulators approved sweeping, unprecedented restrictions Tuesday on how people, governments and businesses can use water amid the state’s ongoing drought in the hope of enticing residents to conserve more water. The State Water Resources Control Board approved rules forcing cities to limit watering on public property, encouraging homeowners to let their lawns die and imposing mandatory water-savings targets for hundreds of local agencies and cities that supply water to California customers. Gov. Jerry Brown sought to tighten the already strict regulations, arguing that voluntary conservation efforts have not yielded the water savings needed amid a four-year drought. Brown ordered water agencies to cut urban water use by 25 percent from levels in 2013, the year before the drought emergency was declared.

National Mall Trashed After Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day Concert Oh, the delicious, delicious irony. Yesterday was Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day, which was celebrated with a concert and other festivities on the National Mall. While the concert itself was powered by solar energy, the attendees could have learned a lesson or two about taking care of planet Earth. For instance, check out these trash and recycling cans I spotted near the National Mall, close to the Washington Monument:

scenes from the Earth Day concert on the Mall pic.twitter.com/3kKQOe2qax — Christine Rousselle (@crousselle) April 18, 2015

That means that when the latest version of the government's dietary guidelines comes out, it may push even harder than it has in recent years for people to choose more fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains and other plant-based foods — at the expense of meat. The beef and agriculture industries are crying foul, saying an environmental agenda has no place in what has always been a practical blueprint for a healthy lifestyle. The advisory panel has been discussing the idea of sustainability in public meetings, indicating that its recommendations, expected early this year, may address the environment. A draft recommendation circulated last month said a sustainable diet helps ensure food access for both the current population and future generations. A dietary pattern higher in plant-based foods and lower in animal-based foods is "more health promoting and is associated with lesser environmental impact than is the current average U.S. diet," the draft said.

After fifty years of trying to eradicate the incredibly destructive pocket gopher, a small but exploding population of these pests lives and breeds in the innumerable shell holes and ground fractures caused by the Ft. Lewis artillery range. A subset of these gophers -- of which we have no shortage – have been given endangered species protection by the US Fish and Wildlife Agency. Why give endangered status to a species that is in fact so out of control that it can only be called a pest? Well, because the males in this small sub-population apparently have larger-than-average reproductive organs. That’s not proven, by the way – merely asserted – but it was enough for the anti-growth, anti-human eco-weenie zealots in Thurston County to put draconian restrictions on what people can do own their own property in the name of protecting these fragile, delicate, large-membered gophers that were bred on an active artillery range. Since these are obviously conservative gophers the irony becomes almost unbearable. ...