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Wednesday, Sep 08th

Natural Resources News Service

Fish Reproduction Linked to WastewaterPrint
Monday, 14 November 2005
Written by Natural Resources News Service

Even after being treated, wastewater is causing some male fish to lose their sexuality and resulting in a crash in reproduction levels, according to a study by the National Water Research Institute in Ontario, Canada. The study adds to a recent barrage of evidence that fish are being harmed by trace levels of pollution flowing from sewage plants.

A five-month study of fathead minnows showed a 50 percent decline in reproduction among fish exposed to high levels of treated wastewater effluent. Male fish also exhibited a significant loss of secondary sex characteristics, the physical attributes that make them attractive to female fish, the likely explanation for a decline in egg production.

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DOE Predicts More Coal PlantsPrint
Tuesday, 01 November 2005
Written by Natural Resources News Service

Amid growing concerns around the country over pollution from coal-fired power plants, the U.S. Department of Energy quietly released a report this week showing a continuing surge in construction of the generators.

Electric utilities currently have plans to build 129 new coal-burning plants by 2025, with the largest numbers on the drawing boards in Illinois (13), Kentucky (8), Florida (7), Pennsylvania (7) and Montana (6), the DOE said.

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Bush Brother’s Landfill Creates Mess in VirginiaPrint
Thursday, 27 October 2005
Written by Natural Resources News Service

In the heated race for Virginia governor, Republican candidate Jerry Kilgore is running away from both George W. Bush and his youngest brother Marvin, a central figure in a nasty landfill dispute in the usually tranquil Shenandoah Valley.

Kilgore, a former state attorney general, is in a horse race with Democratic Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine to replace Gov. Mark Warner. Virginia governors are only allowed one four-year term, and Warner’s successor will be chosen Nov. 8.

The waste-disposal controversy involving Marvin Bush was highlighted this month by Rolling Stone, picked up by a small Virginia newspaper and has since been getting some attention on political and environmental weblogs.

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DEA May Spell Relief for Rivers in MainePrint
Tuesday, 18 October 2005
Written by Natural Resources News Service

After years of resistance, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) appears ready to consider a relaxation of federal laws governing expired pharmaceuticals that have impeded national efforts to keep expired and unused pharmaceuticals out of water supplies. The shift coincided with the latest in a wave of scientific studies showing the crippling effects of these drugs on aquatic life.

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One EPA Basher Replaced By AnotherPrint
Wednesday, 28 September 2005
Written by Natural Resources News Service

The removal of Rep. Tom DeLay from second-in-command of Congress may seem like a breath of fresh air for the environment, but his fill-in as House majority leader is quickly quashing that notion.

DeLay, indicted this week on campaign-finance charges in his home state of Texas, is a former pest exterminator who calls EPA “the Gestapo of government,” as CNN’s Candy Crowley pointed out yesterday.

But DeLay’s temporary – and possibly permanent – replacement in the Republican leadership post, Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, is no environmentalist either. DeLay and Blunt both received zero ratings on the most recent League of Conservation Voters scorecard, and both were heavily financed in the 2004 election by energy companies and other industries with the biggest pollution problems.

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