The Japanese and American engineers stood atop a tsunami “refuge hill” near Sendai, Japan, and looked across an endless, muddy landscape of structures wrecked by the March 11 tsunami. One of the investigators stretched a long measuring pole into a surviving tree. Its branches apparently had been broken by a massive stone monument—commemorating a previous tsunami of 77 years ago—that was launched from its hilltop pedestal by the latest tsunami. “Three meters,” he said, indicating how much higher the water must have been than the hill. “About 10 feet.” The 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami that devastated northeast Honshu Island left
A congressional budget deal on April 8 averted a shutdown of federal agencies, but some of the pact's roughly $38 billion in spending cuts fall on construction programs. The Transportation Dept.'s $2.5 billion in 2011 high-speed passenger rail funding was zeroed out. Lawmakers also rescinded $400 million in unobligated high-speed rail funds from 2010. Federal Transit Administration capital grants were sliced by $680 million. Other cuts include $997 million from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency aid for state revolving funds that finance sewage-treatment and drinking-water projects. Some reductions will not result in cuts in construction projects. For example, appropriators list a
Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy is reporting that workers have successfully stemmed the flow of fluids from a well that blew out April 19. The blowout resulted in thousands of gallons of drilling waste fluids leaking into local fields, streams and Towanda Creek. Related Links: Natural Gas Well Blows Out In Bradford County, Pa. The well blowout occurred during hydrofracking operations at a well operated by Chesapeake around 11:45 p.m.on April 19. Although the well emitted what Chesapeake is calling “limited amounts of gas,” gas plume modeling performed by both the Bradford County Emergency Management Agency and Chesapeake suggests that “any
The Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments on April 19 in an environmental case that could have broad ramifications on the ability of states and private parties to file public nuisance claims against utilities that emit greenhouse gasses. At issue in the case, American Electric Power v. Connecticut, is whether states and individuals can sue utilities under federal common law for contributing to global warming, and force them to reduce emissions of CO2. Legal observers say it is one of the most significant environmental cases since the landmark 2007 Mass. v. EPA, which gave the Environmental Protection Agency broad legal
The restoration of the Gulf of Mexico is expected to get a boost as a result of an agreement between the Natural Resource Trustees for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and BP. The agreement, announced on April 21, stipulates that BP will pay $1 billion for “early” restoration projects related to the Gulf spill. According to administration officials, BP is providing the restoration funds voluntarily. “This agreement accelerates our work on Gulf Coast restoration and in no way limits the ability of all the Natural Resource Trustees from seeking full damages from those who are responsible as the process moves
Late on April 19, a natural gas well in Bradford County, Pa. blew out and spewed thousands of gallons of drilling waste fluids into local fields, streams and Towanda Creek. Related Links: Drilling for Treasure The well blowout occurred during hydrofracking operations at a well operated by Oklahoma City�based Chesapeake Energy around 11:45 p.m. Tuesday evening. Although the well emitted what Chesapeake is calling “limited amounts of gas,” gas plume modeling performed by both the Bradford County Emergency Management Agency and Chesapeake suggests that “any natural �gas releases will not pose a risk to the area’s public safety,” says Brian
A U.S. Energy Dept. facility in Idaho that has stored melted fuel from the Three Mile Island nuclear plant since 1999 has not done enough to address crumbling concrete modules encasing radioactive material, says the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The facility holds damaged fuel from TMI unit 2, whose partial meltdown in 1979 resulted in the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history. The concrete modules are “showing significant cracking and degradation,” though they were built to last 50 years, NRC says. DOE has determined the problem is worsening, NRC says. The cracks have no impact on the safe storage of
In a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Tennessee Valley Authority has agreed to shut some coal-fired generating units and install new or upgraded pollution-control equipment on others to cut air-pollution emissions at 11 of its powerplants. The pollution-control improvements will cost an estimated $3 billion to $5 billion. Under the settlement, announced on April 14, TVA will shut 18 of its generating units, which equal about 16% of its coal-fired electric power capacity. EPA says the measures will cut TVA nitrogen-oxide emissions by 69% and sulfur-dioxide emissions by 67%, compared with 2008 levels. The settlement addresses alleged
Fishermen's Energy, a Cape May, N.J.-based offshore wind energy developer, said April 6 that it has received permits from New Jersey regulators to build a six-turbine, 24-MW wind farm off the Atlantic City coast. Daniel Cohen, president of the firm, says the pilot project “will be the catalyst needed to jump-start” the state's offshore wind industry. A spokeswoman says the firm has received two coastal permits and a water quality certificate and is expecting Clean Water Act approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in May. Transmission line installation is set to begin in December, with the pilot project
The Abu Dhabi-based owner of a planned $11-billion railway network across the United Arab Emirates has selected a Parsons Corp.-AECOM joint venture as the project's program manager, say both company sources who did not wish to be named and published reports in the Middle East. The owner, Etihad Rail Co., formerly Union Railway, has declined requests to confirm either the selection or contract award. The joint venture would replace a team of Parsons and Paris-based SYSTRA, whose PM contract was canceled in January, just two months after Union Railway announced its selection. Reasons for the termination were not disclosed publicly