Environmental
Reports for OKALOOSA COUNTY 
Earth
View - A fascinating, real-time look at our
home from above...
November
02, 2000 - Russian
waterways contaminated - WASHINGTON (AP) - Dangerous
radioactivity has been found in waterways flowing from a
Russian nuclear complex in Siberia at levels higher than
would come from 10,000 commercial nuclear reactors, U.S.
and Russian nuclear watchdog groups said Wednesday. The
groups reported evidence that pollution from the Siberian
Chemical Complex constitutes the largest nuclear river
contamination anywhere in the world. They demanded an
immediate end to dumping of nuclear waste from the
complex, site of secret nuclear weapons development during
the Soviet years and where an explosion spread
radioactivity in 1993. The exact source of the
radioactivity was not determined during testing in August
by environmentalists from the U.S. group and the Siberian
Scientists for Global Responsibility, he said. The
Government Accountability Project is a nongovernmental
legal and environmental group that watches the nuclear
industry and defends nuclear whistle-blowers. The Siberian
group is a nongovernmental organization that monitors
nuclear pollution.
November
02, 2000 - Arctic
reserve safeguards urged - WASHINGTON (AP) - About 250
scientists urged President Clinton to impose safeguards
against oil drilling at the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge and "ensure the conservation of this unique
arctic ecosystem." In a letter to Clinton, the
scientists said Wednesday that "five decades of
biological studies and scientific research have
confirmed" the need to protect the refuge's
1.5-million-acre coastal plain from development. Clinton
has opposed congressional efforts to allow drilling in the
refuge in the northeastern corner of Alaska. Many
environmentalists have urged him in recent months to make
the refuge's coastal strip a protected monument before he
leaves the White House, but White House officials have
insisted no such action is under discussion. Vice
President Al Gore, the Democratic nominee to succeed
Clinton, strongly opposes oil drilling in the refuge. His
GOP rival, Gov. George W. Bush, has said opening the
refuge to oil development would be a major part of his
energy strategy. Bush has argued that drilling can be
conducted without harming the refuge's ecosystem or
wildlife.
November
02, 2000 - Energy
Dept. wasted $3.4 bln - WASHINGTON (AP) - The Energy
Department has wasted much of the $3.4 billion it has
spent over the last decade on developing new technology
for cleaning up nuclear weapons waste, says a report of
the House Commerce Committee's Republican majority. The
report, released Wednesday, said the DOE's Office of
Science and Technology has "squandered hundreds of
millions of dollars on technologies that have not proved
useful" in the massive cleanup effort. Congress
created the technology development program in 1989 in
hopes that it would help the government deal with the
environmental legacy left from a half-century of nuclear
bomb making. The cleanup and restoration is expected to
cost almost $200 billion and take more than 70 years to
complete. The DOE called the science and technology
development program essential to the long-term cleanup
effort and disputed claims that the program has not
produced results.
November
02, 2000 - Marines
seek Camp LeJeune parents - WASHINGTON (AP) - The
Marine Corps is trying to notify the parents of an
estimated 10,000 children born at Camp Lejeune, N.C.,
between 1968 and 1985 that they may have consumed
water contaminated with compounds that have been
linked to birth defects and childhood cancers such as
leukemia. The substances, believed to have come from a
dry cleaning business, were found in 1982 in drinking
water systems that supplied houses on Camp Lejeune,
although the wells were not capped until 1985. Camp
Lejeune is the largest Marine Corps base in the
eastern United States. Based on a relatively small
sampling of Camp Lejeune families, the federal Agency
for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry published a
report in 1998 identifying a potential link between
the contaminated water and birth defects.
November
01, 2000 - Senate OKs
Everglades project - WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate
gave the go-ahead Tuesday for a $7.8 billion project
to rescue the Florida Everglades, one of the largest
environmental restoration efforts ever undertaken by
the federal government. The Senate passed by voice
vote a measure that authorizes $1.4 billion for 10
construction and four pilot projects. Together they
represent the first step in an enterprise expected to
take some three decades and $7.8 billion to complete.
Florida would pay half that cost. The Everglades
provision is part of a broader water resources bill
worked out by House-Senate negotiators that now goes
to the House for a final vote. The administration has
strongly endorsed the Everglades plan restoring the
natural sheet flow of water interrupted by years of
human interference.
February 08, 2001 -
Looking
For A Green Machine? Find Clean Car Information On The
Net - © 2000 Environmental
Defense, Environmental Defense Web Sites
Provide Consumers Free Tools For Finding Greener Cars,
Two free Environmental Defense web sites now provide a
clearinghouse for the latest environmental information
about autos. The car ratings on ForMyWorld.com,
recently updated to include the 2001 model year,
provide a "Green Score" for all cars and
trucks from the past two model years. The free
Tailpipe Tally on www.environmentaldefense.org/tailpipe
allows consumers to quickly make head-to-head
environmental comparisons of up to four vehicles at
once from model years 1978 to 2001...
February 06, 2001 -
How
much of Blade Runner has come true? - BBC News © 2001,
"We love to look for echoes of our present in the
sci-fi films of the past. A new UN report suggests 1982's
rather bleak Blade Runner may be in danger of proving all
too accurate. The world's climate could soon resemble the
urban smog shown in the popular science fiction movie
Blade Runner, suggests a report by UN scientists working
for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change..."
Archive
of Environmental News - February
2001