In The News / Jul 30

• Chemicals in rivers linked to sexual changes in fish, researchers say.

  Alberta researchers say gender-bending fish swimming in the province’s southern rivers raise serious questions about whether the water is safe for people to drink. Canadian Press

• House rejects bill to aid sick 9/11 responders.

  A bill that would have provided up to $7.4 billion in aid to people sickened by World Trade Center dust fell short in the House on Thursday, raising the possibility that the bulk of compensation for the ill will come from a legal settlement hammered out in the federal courts. Associated Press

• Trussville parents say tainted water at Camp Lejeune, N.C., caused childrens' brain cancer.

  A tainted water supply at the military base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., caused brain cancer in the two children of a Trussville couple, a federal lawsuit filed last week alleges. Birmingham News, Alabama

• New database shows oilsands pollution slow, steady drip: scientist.

  A new database that compiles thousands of government and industry records on Alberta's oilsands lays out in painstaking detail how the industry is a constant source of low-level pollution to the area's land, air and water, says the scientist who pulled it all together. Canadian Press

• Texas proposes new rules for shale gas drilling.

  Texas environmental regulators have formally proposed beefing up regulations on oil and gas drilling, in an attempt to reduce air pollution caused when companies use new technology to extract natural gas trapped in deep shales. Associated Press

• Feds charge Tonawanda coke with environmental crimes.

  The Tonawanda Coke Corporation and its Environmental Control Manager Mark Kamholz are charged with 20 federal crimes; most of them are violations of the federal Clean Air Act. People who live by the plant have been complaining of air quality and high cancer rates for years. Buffalo WGRZ TV, New York

• Michigan oil spill prompts evacuations, finger-pointing.

  An oil spill this week from an underground pipeline connecting the U.S. to Canada has prompted local health officials to call for the evacuation of as many as 50 homes and recommend residents living close to the river to stop using well water for drinking and cooking. Wall Street Journal

• Michigan among states with most pipeline accidents.

  Michigan is more familiar than most states with oil spills and other pipeline accidents, according to a report released Thursday by the National Wildlife Federation. Michigan had 61 "significant incidents" over the past decade, the ninth-largest number in the country. Gannett News Service

• Oil and gas pipeline fatalities peak in NM, Tex., study finds.

  New Mexico and Texas have seen more people killed by oil and gas pipeline accidents since 2000 than any other states, concludes a new study of refinery and pipeline accidents and pollution released Thursday by the National Wildlife Federation. New Mexico Independent, New Mexico

• BLM issues final approval for huge Utah oil and gas project.

  Incorporating what land managers call a historic and unprecedented agreement between environmentalists and an oil and gas production company, the BLM on Thursday released its final environmental impact statement on the West Tavaputs Natural Gas Full Field Development Plan. Salt Lake Deseret Morning News, Utah

• EPA rejects challenge to climate rules.

  The Environmental Protection Agency Thursday rejected an effort to keep it from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, saying that e-mails released in last fall’s “Climategate” scandal gave it no reason to reconsider the science of global warming. Politico

• Greening one of the world's greenest places: Yellowstone National Park.

  Even if you’ve never set foot in Yellowstone National Park, you know its iconic natural splendors. What you may not know is that while its status as a national park means its "protected," that doesn’t mean its 2.2 million acres are safe.  Far from it, in fact. Fast Company

• Mexico's environment: A breath of fresh air.

  Hemmed in by mountains and volcanoes, Mexico City is the perfect smog-trap. Yet the smog is lifting. The average concentration of ozone, one of the most common pollutants, is about half its level in the early 1990s, when the air was at its dirtiest. Economist

• Environmentalists say pollution makes baptism at sacred spot in Jordan River unsafe.

  Environmentalists claim that the hallowed spot along the Jordan River where Christians believe John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ has become too filthy for human use. Washington Post

• Problems still rampant at Cedar Creek sewage plant.

  Thirty-four years ago, two of Bay Park’s sludge storage tanks blew to smithereens. Today, methane is still spewing uncontrollably into the surrounding communities from inoperable gas valves atop similar silos of sludge at Nassau County’s troubled Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant. Long Island Press, New York