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Archive of Environmental News - August 99
Summary:
 Find out how YOUR power consumption impacts
the environment
Environmental Reports for OKALOOSA
COUNTY 
Earth View - A fascinating, real-time
look at our home from above...
Development-protecting seawalls debated
- The beach at ocean Shores receded by 35 feet in the winter of 1996, after the
850-foot-long rock seawall was installed. Geologists say it would have receded another 35
feet, and taken out the condos, had the wall not been there. Other areas along the south
coast are seeing similar erosion...
Peregrine Falcon Off Endangered List
- The world's fastest bird, once driven to the brink of extinction in the United States by
now-banned pesticides, is soaring off the endangered species list. Interior Secretary
Bruce Babbitt planned to remove the peregrine falcon from the endangered list Friday in a
ceremony at a Boise, Idaho, center for breeding birds of prey...
Salt Water Threatens Rivers - Salty
seawater is creeping upstream in some Eastern rivers, potentially threatening municipal
water supplies as the drought continues. Reduced streamflow in rivers such as the
Delaware and Hudson is allowing the encroachment, the U.S. Geological Survey
reports. On the Hudson River, the salt front is about five miles downstream from the
water intakes for the city of Poughkeepsie, north of New York City, the Survey said...
HYPOXIA IN THE GULF OF MEXICO
- Scientific investigations in the Gulf of Mexico have documented a large area of the
Louisiana continental shelf with seasonally-depleted oxygen levels (< 2mg/l). Most
aquatic species cannot survive at such low oxygen levels. The oxygen depletion, referred
to as hypoxia, begins in late spring, reaches a maximum in midsummer, and disappears in
the fall...
Northwest Florida's Environmental
Scorecard - This page is dedicated to learning about environmental pollution
in our area. If you have any news or concerns about the health of our environment contact us and we'll do our best to make public the
situation...
Amazon Forest Fading Faster - Brazil's Amazon
rain forest is being destroyed or badly damaged more than twice as fast as normally
believed, according to a study that relied on airplane surveys and on-the-ground
interviews instead of satellite images. The researchers said their method more accurately
measured the effects of logging and burning in the 1.3 million-square-mile rain forest...
Closed Fishing Area
Will Protect Gag Grouper Spawning - The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
today praised the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council for adopting a proposal
yesterday to help ensure the survival of the gag grouper, one of Florida's most
economically important fish species...
 Okaloosa
County Drinking Water - An Environmental Profile - Congress enacted the Safe
Drinking Water Act in 1974 to ensure that every water supplier provides drinking water
that meets minimum health-based safety standards, which are set by EPA. EPA has set
health-based limits for over 80 contaminants that may be found in drinking water. These
contaminants include metals (e.g., lead), fertilizers (e.g., nitrates/nitrites),
pesticides (such as atrazine), and micro-organisms (such as coliforms)...
The National Ocean Service's
MapFinder - The National Ocean Service's (NOS) MapFinder Web service provides
direct Internet access to NOS imagery and data holdings for coastal photography, nautical
charts, historical maps, coastal survey maps, environmental sensitivity index maps,
hydrographic survey outlines, water level stations, estuarine bathymetry, and geodetic
control points.
A 'Dead Zone' Grows in the Gulf of
Mexico - It can stretch for 7,000 square miles off the coast of Louisiana, a
vast expanse of ocean devoid of the region's usual rich bounty of fish and shrimp, its
bottom littered with the remains of crabs and worms unable to flee its suffocating grasp.
This is the Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone," which last summer reached the size of
the state of New Jersey...
House Votes To Revive Parks Program
- The House voted Tuesday to revive a moribund program that has helped states purchase
parkland, handing a symbolic victory to pro-environment lawmakers. By 213-202,
lawmakers voted to spend $30 million next year from the land and water conservation fund
for grants to all 50 states. Under the program, states receiving the federal grants
must provide an equal amount of money...
Heat Breaks in Much of Midwest -
Though temperatures began to drop across the Midwest, the death toll from last week's
record-breaking heat rose even higher, with another 30 deaths here blamed on the heat and
humidity...
Changing
today’s consumption patterns for tomorrow’s human development - a United Nations
Report - World consumption has expanded at an unprecedented pace over the
20th century, with private and public consumption expenditures reaching $24 trillion in
1998, twice the level of 1975 and six times that of 1950. In 1900 real consumption
expenditure was barely $1.5 trillion... |
