Recent Environmental News
Upcoming: 2nd Annual Health Effects of Shale Gas Extraction Conference
On November 18, 2011 the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health will host the school's 2nd annual conference on the Health Effects of Shale Gas Extraction. 7:30 AM - 5:00 PM. No cost to attend. Registration is required. Learn more»
So what's the rush to drill for gas?
By Bernard D. Goldstein, M.D. - A seasoned environmental health professional looks at the Marcellus Shale. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (8/17/11) - Read more»
Down Under the Farm: Concerns grow about Marcellus Shale gas drilling near food production
"We know there is a potential for contamination, we just don't know to what extent." - Pittsburgh City Paper (6/2/11) - Read more»
Experts address benefits, hazards of shale drilling
What has been on many people’s minds not only for months but for the last several years--the drilling for natural gas in Marcellus shale--attracted more than 100 people on Friday. - Allied News (4/30/11) - Read more»
E.P.A. Steps Up Scrutiny of Pollution in Pennsylvania Rivers
Radioactivity levels are “at or below” safe levels in Pennsylvania rivers, state regulators said on Monday, based on water samples taken last November and December from seven rivers. - The New York Times (3/7/11) - Read more»
Program aims to educate public on shale drilling
A new program to help the public monitor Marcellus Shale well development and report problems at drill sites has been launched by the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Healthy Environments and Communities and a Fayette County environmental group. The Marcellus Citizens Stewardship Project will offer free training to individuals on how to assess the sights, sounds and smells produced by shale drilling operations in their communities and report their observations via online forms to an interactive Marcellus drilling data site, "FracTracker," established by the university center. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1/18/11) - Read more»
Pa. allows dumping of tainted waters from gas boom
The natural gas boom gripping parts of the United States has a nasty byproduct: wastewater so salty, & so polluted with metals like barium & strontium, that most states require drillers to get rid of the stuff by injecting it down shafts thousands of feet deep. But not in Pennsylvania, one of the states at the center of the gas rush. In Pennsylvania, the liquid that gushes from gas wells is only partially treated for substances that could be environmentally harmful, then dumped into rivers & streams from which communities get their drinking water. - Associated Press (1/4/11) - Read more»
Predicting the World’s Next Water Pollution Disaster
When an estimated 184 million gallons (697 million liters) of industrial waste spilled into Hungary’s Marcal River in early October, arsenic & mercury threatened to taint water supplies & degrade rivers, both at the site & for hundreds of miles downstream. In some ways, Hungary’s toxic mud disaster was a wake-up call, shining a spotlight on potential water pollution hotspots around the globe. Where might disaster strike next? - National Geographic (12/21/10) - Read more»
Pollution, high death rates mar Rachel Carson's Pa. hometown
In Springdale Borough, the suburban Pittsburgh hometown of the scientist, naturalist & writer Rachel Carson, they're still wrestling with the kind of public health issues she started battling almost 50 years ago with the publication of the landmark environmental book "Silent Spring." - The Republic (12/15/10) - Read more»
Region at risk: Can higher rates of death be linked to air pollution?
Children still run and play in the Kerona neighborhood of Shippingport, the Beaver County community that lies along the smokestack-studded valley of the Ohio River. But they aren't Chad Hysong's kids. The 35-year-old father of two young girls moved his family west, into Ohio, five years ago to get out of the pollution plumes from all those smokestacks that he claims caused them an endless cycle of respiratory problems; out of a place where white ash falling from the sky pitted his car's paint and chrome and where high concentrations of arsenic were found in the soil around his house and the water in his hot tub. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (12/12/10) - Read more»
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