water
Washington (AFP) - The US Environmental Protection Agency on Friday classified two so-called "forever chemicals" as hazardous substances, meaning those responsible for releasing them will have to pay to clean up contamination. The two chemicals, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), are the most studied and most widely detected among the "forever chemicals" known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). Exposure to these substances "has been linked to cancers, impacts to the liver and heart, and immune and developmental damage to infants and children," th...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - US President Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday announced the first nationwide tap water standards to protect the public from toxic "forever chemicals" linked to serious health harms ranging from cancers to developmental damage in children. Invisible and present in the water, soil, air and food supply, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) accumulate inside our bodies and never break down in the environment. A new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule would reduce PFAS exposure in the water supply of some 100 million people, preventing thousands of deaths and...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - The Hubble Space Telescope has observed the smallest planet outside our solar system to contain water vapor in its atmosphere, a "landmark discovery" that brings astronomy a step closer to characterizing Earth-like worlds. At around twice Earth's diameter, planet GJ 9827d orbits a red dwarf star 97 light-years away in the constellation Pisces, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) said in statements on Thursday. The team behind the finding are examining two scenarios: either the planet is a "mini-Neptune" with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere laced with water, or it's a warmer ...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - Bottled water is up to a hundred times worse than previously thought when it comes to the number of tiny plastic bits it contains, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences said Monday. Using a recently invented technique, scientists counted on average 240,000 detectable fragments of plastic per liter of water in popular brands -- between 10-100 times higher than prior estimates -- raising potential health concerns that require further study. "If people are concerned about nanoplastics in bottled water, it's reasonable to consider alternatives like t...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday announced it would require the removal of the nation's remaining lead pipes within a decade, preventing an estimated 22 million people from potential exposure to the toxic metal in their drinking water. The new action comes after successful lawsuits filed by multiple states and nonprofits acting on behalf of impacted communities, which are disproportionately low-income and from racial minorities. "Today's proposed action significantly advances President Biden's commitment to remove every lead service line in America to protec...
AFP
New York (AFP) - New York state sued PepsiCo on Wednesday, pointing to the soda giant's plastic waste as a scourge of waterways and blasting the company's "misleading" statements on the environment. The civil suit, filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James in the state Supreme Court, seeks a finding that PepsiCo contributed to a "public nuisance" in the Buffalo River; the imposition of financial penalties and compensatory damages on the company; and an order that PepsiCo cease the sale of single-use plastic on goods that do not warn of the environmental ills. "All New Yorkers have a bas...
AFP
Lemmon Valley (United States) (AFP) - Beneath a bone-dry Nevada lakebed, close to the dusty desert where the Burning Man festival is held each year, an ambitious water project is reshaping this pocket of the US West. A giant, natural underground aquifer containing enough water to supply 25,000 homes annually is fed by rainfall and snowmelt from the surrounding volcanic mountains. For the past few years, a little-known company called Vidler Water Resources has been quietly pumping much of this water out through a buried pipeline, under the mountains -- and straight into the rapidly sprawling n...
AFP
Los Angeles (AFP) - New houses that rely on dwindling groundwater supplies around one of the United States' biggest cities are to be banned, officials said Thursday, in a sign of the strains that drought and climate change are causing across the US west. Water managers in Arizona say there is a significant shortfall in the Phoenix area, and that any more development in the fast-growing city must rely on other sources of water -- such as under-strain rivers. "Over a period of 100 years, the Phoenix (area) will experience 4.86 million acre-feet of unmet demand for groundwater supplies," the Ariz...
AFP
Los Angeles (AFP) - Western US states said Monday they have reached an agreement to cut the amount of water they take from the dwindling Colorado River, which is threatened by a quarter of a century of drought and worsening climate conditions. The plan comes after years of bitter wrangling, with states refusing to give ground even as the water course has reached crisis point, threatening drinking water supplies for 40 million people and imperiling electricity generation across the American West. Under the proposal, the federal government will pay a reported $1.2 billion to water districts, Nat...
AFP
Los Angeles (AFP) - The US government announced Monday that several western states have reached an historic agreement to conserve water from the dwindling Colorado River, which is threatened by a quarter century of drought and worsening climate conditions. Under the proposal, the river basin's states commit to save three million cubic acre feet (3.7 billion cubic meters) of water through the end of 2026, when new guidelines will be needed. "There are 40 million people, seven states, and 30 Tribal Nations who rely on the Colorado River Basin for basic services such as drinking water and electri...
AFP
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