John Hennessy III,
P.E.
In San Benito County, CA, a citizens’ group, Aromas Cares for the Environment, waged a successful campaign for new environmental protections to protect against oil and gas fracking operations. The fracking safety ordinance was passed by the County Board of Supervisors on June 18, 2013.
California communities like Aromas should not have to protect themselves alone. We need an immediate statewide moratorium on fracking.
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NATIONAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL Water scarcity has long been a fact of life across much of the southwestern United States. People have ingeniously adapted to this reality for centuries, from the irrigation structures built by the Hohokam people nearly a millennium ago to some of the largest concrete structures on earth erected during the dam-building […]
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Infrastructure experts from around the country welcome the Obama Administration back to the Whitehouse, and express the urgency of turning our attention toward infrastructure.
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NATIONAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL
Executive Summary
This paper analyzes the problem of wastewater generated from the hydraulic fracturing process of producing natural gas, particularly with regard to production in the Marcellus Shale.
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NATIONAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL
Every region of the United States is potentially vulnerable to adverse water- related impacts from climate change. Some states are taking action by reducing the greenhouse gas pollution that contributes to climate change and by planning for projected climate change-related impacts. However, many states are not. Nonetheless, the effects of climate change on the nation’s water resources already are being observed. According to the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), warmer temperatures are causing changes to the water cycle that include:
NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL
An estimated 10 trillion gallons a year of untreated stormwater runs off roofs, roads, parking lots, and other paved surfaces, often through the sewage systems, into rivers and waterways that serve as drinking water supplies and flow to our beaches, increasing health risks, degrading ecosystems, and damaging tourist economies. But cities of all sizes are saving money by employing green infrastructure as part of their solutions to stormwater pollution and sewage overflow problems
POLITICAL ECONOMY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
The pursuit of energy efficiency in commercial and multifamily buildings would lead to more than 114,000 new jobs in many industries hard hit by the recession. The President’s Better Buildings Initiative seeks to tap into that job creation potential with a suite of policies designed to encourage the pursuit of energy efficiency…
NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL
While the nation continues to grapple with a troubling housing market and a rash of mortgage defaults, new research has emerged drawing a direct link between “location efficiency”—a measure of the transportation costs in a given area—and mortgage foreclosure rates. The study shows that factors such as neighborhood compactness, access to public transit, and rates of vehicle ownership are key to predicting mortgage performance and should be taken more seriously by mortgage underwriters, policymakers, and real estate developers.
NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL, NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION, PIPELINE SAFETY TRUST, SIERRA CLUB
Tar sands crude oil pipeline companies may be putting America’s public safety at risk. Increasingly, pipelines transporting tar sands crude oil into the United States are carrying diluted bitumen or “DilBit”—a highly corrosive, acidic, and potentially unstable blend of thick raw bitumen and volatile natural gas liquid condensate—raising risks of spills and damage to communities along their paths.Currently, tar sands crude oil pipeline companies are using conventional pipeline technology to transport this DilBit. These pipelines, which require higher operating temperatures and pressures to move the thick material through a pipe, appear to pose new and significant risks of pipeline leaks or ruptures due to corrosion, as well as problems with leak detection and safety problems from the unstable mixture.
NATIONAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL
This analysis shows that climate change will have significant impacts on water supplies throughout the country in the coming decades, with over 1,100 counties facing greater risks of water shortages due to the effects of climate change. While water management and climate change adaptation plans will be essential to lessen the impacts, they cannot be expected to counter the effects of a warming climate. One reason is that the changes may simply outrun the potential for alternatives such as modifying withdrawals, increasing water use efficiency, increased water recycling, enhancing groundwater recharge, rainwater harvesting and inter-basin or inter-county transfers to make up for water deficits.
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