Photo By Getty Images The Atlantic Ocean topped a Winthrop, Mass., seawall during a massive, slowing-moving snowstorm that hit the Northeast in February 2013. Related Links: Extreme Weather Pushes Water Utilities to Adapt Pipelines, Powerplants and Refineries All at Risk Transportation Officials Seek Storm-Surge Solutions 58 Big-City Mayors Focus on Reducing Building Energy Use New York Ponders Plan For Next Storm Engineers Focus On Big Delta Threats Subway tunnels built for normal weather conditions are flooded by a superstorm; roads constructed for historic temperature means are buckling under extreme heat; levees built for one-in-100-year storms are tested every few years
Photo by AP Wideworld Electrical distribution systems are vulnerable to violent winds and ice storms. Often, utilities respond by reconstructing their power lines underground. Related Links: New Climate Cycle Marked by Storms, Floods & Drought Storm Surge Switches Grid to 'Off' Smarter Grids Finding Limits The threat of climate change, a rising sea level and increased storm surge are not news to those who work in Port Fourchon. There, at the southern tip of Louisiana, the oil and gas companies that serve 18% of the oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico know what to do when hurricanes
Photo by AP Wideworld A flurry of pending reports are expected to address the issues of sustainability and resiliency in transportation infrastructure. Related Links: New Climate Cycle Marked by Storms, Floods & Drought Louisiana Officials' Goal Is Hurricane Resistant Bridge From cold-ironing at port harbors and beehive programs at airports to porous pavements, recycled asphalt aggregate and "green roads" rating systems, the transportation industry's efforts to address climate change have been growing over the last decade. But Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the devastation of Superstorm Sandy last fall have increased the sense of urgency about responding to severe weather
Related Links: EPA's Contaminant Candidate List page EPA's page on Chromium in drinking water Pushed by public health concerns and pressure from environmental advocates, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to move forward in 2013 with more stringent regulations related to inorganic and organic contaminants in drinking water. Those regulations likely will drive engineering and construction projects at municipal drinking-water plants, industry sources say."I think what the future holds is a lot of additional treatment to deal with regulations we see on the horizon," says Tim Worley, executive director of the American Water Works Association's (AWWA) California-Nevada region, which held
Related Links: Israel To Tackle First Major Industrial Pollution Cleanup Website of EnGlobe Corp. In a competition that drew international bids for a first-of-its-kind project in Israel, two government ministries have picked Canada’s EnGlobe Corp. for a $55-million cleanup of the Kishon River, a dumping ground for untreated industrial and municipal wastes for decades.Last month, the company, based in Quebec City, Quebec, won the global tender that was issued jointly by the country's Environmental Protection Ministry and the Kishon River and Drainage Authority. EnGlobe, which specializes in bio-remediation approaches, beat out about 20 companies from North America and Europe that
Related Links: EPA page on ELG rule, with settlement agreement New EPA Stormwater Permit Omits Numeric Turbidity Limit The National Association of Home Builders, the Utility Water Act Group, the Wisconsin Builders Association and the Environmental Protection Agency have reached a settlement in the industry groups' long-running lawsuit over the agency's 2009 rules to control the discharge of pollutants from construction sites. The agreement should allow contractors to breathe a collective sigh of relief, construction officials say.In December 2009, under court order, the agency finalized effluent limitation guidelines (ELGs) for the construction and development industry to establish the minimum technology
Related Links: More on Transocean case More on BP case More funds will go toward Gulf Coast cleanup and restoration as a result of a settlement announced on Jan. 3 between Transocean Deepwater and the federal government. In the settlement, Transocean Deepwater Inc. has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Clean Water Act and pay $1.4 billion in civil and criminal penalties for its role in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. Transocean was the operator of the drilling platform at the Macondo well that blew out in April 2010. Under the order, lodged with the U.S. District Court in
These days, Haim Haddad, owner of the Coney Island Beach Shop, plugs a tiny, square digital device into his cellphone or iPad to process credit-card payments.
Approximately 10% of the 126,000 sites in the United States that currently contain contaminated groundwater are unlikely to be completely restored for decades, a new report from the National Research Council concludes.