Bundanoon, located in the picturesque Southern Highlands of New South Wales and boasts a population of just 2,000, voted by a huge majority in favour of the move with a show of hands at a public meeting. Huw Kingston, a local businessman and organiser, said almost 400 people turned up to the Bundanoon Memorial Hall, with only two casting dissenting votes."It was the biggest ever turnout in the community here at Bundanoon - it's overwhelming support,'' he said. "We can now continue with our route of making Bundanoon Australia's first bottled water-free town."We can go forward with the strength of the community and the businesses right behind us.''Shops in the town will now be banned from stocking and selling bottled water and filtered water fountains will be placed on Bundanoon's main street so people can fill their bottles for free. Visitors to the town will also be discouraged, but not banned, from drinking bottled water.Locals decided to act when drinks company Norlex Holdings announced plans to tap an underground reservoir in the town, truck the water up to Sydney and then send it back in bottles.
Bundanoon, located in the picturesque Southern Highlands of New South Wales and boasts a population of just 2,000, voted by a huge majority in favour of the move with a show of hands at a public meeting.
Huw Kingston, a local businessman and organiser, said almost 400 people turned up to the Bundanoon Memorial Hall, with only two casting dissenting votes.
"It was the biggest ever turnout in the community here at Bundanoon - it's overwhelming support,'' he said. "We can now continue with our route of making Bundanoon Australia's first bottled water-free town.
"We can go forward with the strength of the community and the businesses right behind us.''
Shops in the town will now be banned from stocking and selling bottled water and filtered water fountains will be placed on Bundanoon's main street so people can fill their bottles for free. Visitors to the town will also be discouraged, but not banned, from drinking bottled water.
Locals decided to act when drinks company Norlex Holdings announced plans to tap an underground reservoir in the town, truck the water up to Sydney and then send it back in bottles.
He said a catalyst for the campaign was an application by Sydney company Norlex Holdings Pty Ltd to build a local water extraction plant, raising people's awareness of the issue. The application was rejected but an appeal is before the courts. The campaign has spread beyond Bundanoon, prompting the government of New South Wales (NSW), Australia's most populous state, to also look at ways to cut down on bottled water. Organisations like conservation group WWF have campaigned against bottled water, saying resources are wasted in bottling and transporting water which may be no safer or healthier than tap water while selling for up to a thousand times the price. NSW Premier Nathan Rees this week announced an immediate ban on state departments and agencies buying bottled water. "Tap water isn't just better for the environment, it's better for your wallet - you can refill your drink bottle 1,350 times for the average cost of a bottle of spring water," Rees said.
He said a catalyst for the campaign was an application by Sydney company Norlex Holdings Pty Ltd to build a local water extraction plant, raising people's awareness of the issue. The application was rejected but an appeal is before the courts.
The campaign has spread beyond Bundanoon, prompting the government of New South Wales (NSW), Australia's most populous state, to also look at ways to cut down on bottled water.
Organisations like conservation group WWF have campaigned against bottled water, saying resources are wasted in bottling and transporting water which may be no safer or healthier than tap water while selling for up to a thousand times the price.
NSW Premier Nathan Rees this week announced an immediate ban on state departments and agencies buying bottled water.
"Tap water isn't just better for the environment, it's better for your wallet - you can refill your drink bottle 1,350 times for the average cost of a bottle of spring water," Rees said.
Aurora is leasing Twin Lakes water to Nestlé. The Twin Lakes decrees are pretty senior in priority. In times of low water -- say, a drought -- the river is governed by calls in any given stretch. Calls are made when someone with a decreed water right asks for their water. If current demand in that stretch exceeds the volume of water called for, water is doled out in order of priority, oldest first. So, again in a given stretch, a decreed party might just fall out of priority. This is determined by the decree and ditch company or project rules. Ditch companies generally allocate water equally -- so much water per share. The water that Aurora is leasing to Nestlé is for augmentation. The water will be released from storage at Twin Lakes to the Arkansas mainstem to pay the river for the water that Nestlé plans to pump at Hagen Spring. They'll always pay this water to the river unless they fall out of priority which has been rare. Remember, Twin Lakes water comes from the Colorado River Basin on the west slope. The folks that will be effected in a drought are those junior to Aurora's Twin Lakes rights. Nestlé plans to truck 200 acre-feet or so of spring water per year to Denver for bottling.
The water that Aurora is leasing to Nestlé is for augmentation. The water will be released from storage at Twin Lakes to the Arkansas mainstem to pay the river for the water that Nestlé plans to pump at Hagen Spring. They'll always pay this water to the river unless they fall out of priority which has been rare. Remember, Twin Lakes water comes from the Colorado River Basin on the west slope. The folks that will be effected in a drought are those junior to Aurora's Twin Lakes rights.
Nestlé plans to truck 200 acre-feet or so of spring water per year to Denver for bottling.
Plastic, chemicals and toxic bombs: the waters off the Belgian shore are increasingly polluted. Scientists fear for the survival of marine flora and fauna. When thousands of tourists quit the beach in Ostend at the end of a nice summer day, they leave behind heaps of trash. Plastic bags, cigarette butts, dirty diapers and a host of tins and bottles. After a busy weekend, the Ostend municipal beach-cleaning services collect up to ten tonnes of refuse - a process that has a catastrophic impact on the flora and fauna there. The juggernaut they use to sweep the beach along the tide line turns over the sand up to ten centimetres deep, raising a great quantity of organic matter to the surface and damaging the microbiotic organisms in the sand. What is more, a lot of the plastic disappears under the sand. "You don't see it, but our beach is largely composed of plastic at present," says Pavel Klinckhamers of Greenpeace Netherlands. But not all the plastic comes from tourists. On the contrary, by far the bulk of it is from refuse thrown overboard by the boats, whether on purpose or by accident. It is estimated that year in, year out, between two and ten thousand containers go by the board. Sea fowl take them for food and eat them. A 2003 Dutch study showed that 95% of the northern fulmars washed ashore have plastic in their stomachs, as do many beached seals. The number of oil-covered marine birds that drift ashore has gone down, on the other hand, which goes to show that the international efforts to combat illegal oil dumping in the North Sea are not in vain. Back in the 1980s, all the beached fowl were covered in oil; nowadays, only one quarter of them are. But that is still a quarter too many. Sailors are stubborn.
Plastic, chemicals and toxic bombs: the waters off the Belgian shore are increasingly polluted. Scientists fear for the survival of marine flora and fauna.
When thousands of tourists quit the beach in Ostend at the end of a nice summer day, they leave behind heaps of trash. Plastic bags, cigarette butts, dirty diapers and a host of tins and bottles. After a busy weekend, the Ostend municipal beach-cleaning services collect up to ten tonnes of refuse - a process that has a catastrophic impact on the flora and fauna there. The juggernaut they use to sweep the beach along the tide line turns over the sand up to ten centimetres deep, raising a great quantity of organic matter to the surface and damaging the microbiotic organisms in the sand. What is more, a lot of the plastic disappears under the sand. "You don't see it, but our beach is largely composed of plastic at present," says Pavel Klinckhamers of Greenpeace Netherlands.
But not all the plastic comes from tourists. On the contrary, by far the bulk of it is from refuse thrown overboard by the boats, whether on purpose or by accident. It is estimated that year in, year out, between two and ten thousand containers go by the board. Sea fowl take them for food and eat them. A 2003 Dutch study showed that 95% of the northern fulmars washed ashore have plastic in their stomachs, as do many beached seals.
The number of oil-covered marine birds that drift ashore has gone down, on the other hand, which goes to show that the international efforts to combat illegal oil dumping in the North Sea are not in vain. Back in the 1980s, all the beached fowl were covered in oil; nowadays, only one quarter of them are. But that is still a quarter too many. Sailors are stubborn.
After a series of incidents that could endanger the security at a nuclear plant in Sweden, officials in the Scandinavian country have called for new security measures. The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) has placed the Ringhals nuclear plant, in the southwest of the country, under special supervision after a series of incidents. "The agency has on several occasions pointed out deficiencies that have been followed by measures from Ringhals, but the problems still remain," said Swedish Radiation Safety Authority official Leif Karlsson. According to reports, the first incident occurred late in 2008 and involved the failure of an automatic safety system to switch on. The second, at the start of 2009, involved faulty control rods that are designed to regulate nuclear activity. The nuclear watchdog also cited weaknesses in how officials at the nuclear plant carried out routines and how instructions were adhered to. Ringhals' four reactors produce up to one-fifth of Sweden's electricity.
The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) has placed the Ringhals nuclear plant, in the southwest of the country, under special supervision after a series of incidents.
"The agency has on several occasions pointed out deficiencies that have been followed by measures from Ringhals, but the problems still remain," said Swedish Radiation Safety Authority official Leif Karlsson.
According to reports, the first incident occurred late in 2008 and involved the failure of an automatic safety system to switch on. The second, at the start of 2009, involved faulty control rods that are designed to regulate nuclear activity.
The nuclear watchdog also cited weaknesses in how officials at the nuclear plant carried out routines and how instructions were adhered to.
Ringhals' four reactors produce up to one-fifth of Sweden's electricity.
Powertech Uranium Corp. said Wednesday it...has entered into option agreements with two landowners to buy 3,585 acres of land and its mineral and water rights adjacent to the company's Centennial Project... The company wants to use chemically treated water to dissolve uranium ore underground and pump it out for processing into fuel for nuclear power plants. The mining process is known as in-situ leaching.
The company wants to use chemically treated water to dissolve uranium ore underground and pump it out for processing into fuel for nuclear power plants. The mining process is known as in-situ leaching.
http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090709/NEWS01/907090344/1002/CUSTOMERSERVICE02 http://www.powertechexposed.com/Powertech_files_new_NOI.htm
The newly found monkey was first spotted by scientists in 2007 in the Brazilian state of Amazonas and is related to the saddleback tamarin monkeys, which are known for their distinctively marked backs, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said. The small monkey, which is mostly gray and brown and weighs less than half a pound, has been named Mura's saddleback tamarin after the Mura Indian tribe of the Purus and Madeira river basins where the new sub-species was found. It is 9.4 inches tall with a 12.6 inch tail. "This newly described monkey shows that even today there are major wildlife discoveries to be made," Fabio Rohe, the lead author of a study confirming the new discovery, said in a statement released by the WCS.
The small monkey, which is mostly gray and brown and weighs less than half a pound, has been named Mura's saddleback tamarin after the Mura Indian tribe of the Purus and Madeira river basins where the new sub-species was found.
It is 9.4 inches tall with a 12.6 inch tail.
"This newly described monkey shows that even today there are major wildlife discoveries to be made," Fabio Rohe, the lead author of a study confirming the new discovery, said in a statement released by the WCS.
Rhino poaching around the world is set to reach a 15-year high, conservation groups have warned.They say demand for the threatened animals' horns is being driven by the traditional medicine trade in Asia. The groups estimated that the number of rhinos being killed in southern Africa had risen four-fold in recent years. The findings were presented at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in Geneva. "Rhinos are in a desperate situation," said Heather Sohl, species policy officer for conservation group WWF.
Rhino poaching around the world is set to reach a 15-year high, conservation groups have warned.
They say demand for the threatened animals' horns is being driven by the traditional medicine trade in Asia.
The groups estimated that the number of rhinos being killed in southern Africa had risen four-fold in recent years.
The findings were presented at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in Geneva.
"Rhinos are in a desperate situation," said Heather Sohl, species policy officer for conservation group WWF.
