Water Pollution

Scientists Finally Count Dead Birds from BP Gulf Oil Disaster

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By Glynn Wilson – It was July 5, 2010, while BP’s Deepwater Horizon was still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico and I was watching helpless from Gulf Shores, Alabama, that I began to ask the question: Where Oh Where Have All the Wildlife Gone? Are most of the birds already dead from the oil,…

Walter Energy Capitulates on Building New Coal Export Terminal in Mobile

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Birmingham Company Agrees to Sell Property to Alabama State Docks – By Glynn Wilson – In an unusual turnaround from its ambition to build a new coal handling export terminal along the riverfront in Mobile, Alabama, Walter Energy has reached an agreement “in principle” with the State Port Authority to sell both the Blue Creek…

Oil Pipeline Through Mobile’s Drinking Water Flunks First Flood Test

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By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – The first foreign substance flowing into Mobile’s drinking water from the new crude oil pipeline is not oil. It’s mud — and whatever welding and other construction debris got stirred into the disturbed earth of the pipe’s broad right-of-way through the watershed of the metro area’s reservoir Big…

Mobile Bucks National Trend, Sides With Polluting Industry Over Tourism and the Environment

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By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — While many local and state governments across the country are joining the federal government in turning away from the development of fossil fuel production in favor of clean, renewable energy to fight climate change due to global warming and create the good, high paying jobs of the future,…

Governor Bentley Finally Releases Alabama Water Management Plan Report

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By Glynn Wilson – Now that the Alabama Legislative Session of 2014 is safely over and Governor Robert Bentley is virtually assured of winning the Republican Party’s primary in June without any tea party opposition from the far right, Bentley’s office finally released the water management plan report being sought by environmental groups for the…

Mobile Planning Commission Defies Citizen Protests, Approves Blue Creek Coal Terminal

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By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – The video to show how foggers work to suppress coal dust didn’t work. An engineer pitching a coal terminal to the Mobile planning commission on March 20 had the opening scene of the video on a screen looming over the big crowd at the meeting to decide if…

Canadian Tar Sands Crude Oil Threatens to Flood the Gulf Coast by Rail

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Watch and Share the Video – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — Larry Godfrey owns the Escatawpa Hollow Campground and Canoe Rental along the Escatawpa River on the Alabama-Mississippi line just about 40 miles down the Canadian National Railroad line from New Augusta, Mississippi, where a train carrying tar sands crude oil and other…

Mobile Alabama’s Historic Africatown At Risk From Tar Sands Oil Storage Tanks, Pipelines

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Watch and Share the Video – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — Joe Womack of Africatown is not happy with the administration of his old school, the Mobile County Training School, from where he graduated in 1968. He is not happy with the administration of his home town of Mobile. And he’s afraid for…

Is the Mobile Watershed Oil Pipeline A Done Deal?

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By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. – Is an oil pipeline through the watershed of Mobile Alabama’s sole source for fresh drinking water a done deal? One local paper says so. I made the trek to Mobile for the final week of Mardi Gras and to get the latest on the pipeline. I interviewed Larry…

EPA’s Gina McCarthy Delivers Obama Administration Position on Rebuilding America’s Infrastructure With Green Jobs

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The EPA’s Gina McCarthy, a teacher from Boston, delivered one of the keynote addresses on repairing America’s infrastructure with green jobs Monday afternoon at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs annual conference, delivering the Obama administrations position before a new and powerful coalition of unions and environmentalists under the umbrella of the Blue…

Environmental Groups File Lawsuit Challenging Oil Pipeline in Mobile Watershed

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By Glynn Wilson – The fight over an oil pipeline through the drinking water supply for Mobile, Alabama has landed in court. Environmental groups are challenging a permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Plains Southcap, LLC pipeline routed through the Big Creek Lake watershed. The lawsuit filed Friday in Federal…

Auburn Scientists Confirm Deadly Bacteria in BP Tar Balls

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By Glynn Wilson – The Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, and the waves of tar balls deposited on the beaches shortly thereafter, prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to produce a tar ball fact sheet. Among the factoids was one stating that those sticky, coin-sized clumps of…

EPA Proposes Carbon Pollution Standards for New Power Plants

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By Glynn Wilson – The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new Clean Air Act standards to cut carbon pollution from new power plants “in order to combat climate change and improve public health,” according to the announcement sent out Friday morning. The new standards are set to go into effect by June 1, 2014. The…