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Coal-ash waste poses risk across the nation
The billion-gallon wave of toxic coal-ash sludge that burst from a power-plant retention pond and buried 300 acres of rural Tennessee hints at a far larger problem: hundreds of similar threats nationwide. More than 1,300 coal-ash waste sites are dotted across the United States, about half of them actively used, federal data show. Some are landfills. The rest are `surface impoundments` (storage lagoons), which, like the one in Tennessee, mix ash with water.
Coal ash has some beneficial uses. It can be mixed with concrete to make roads, for example. But storing coal ash in a retention pond - common ... |
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New soil map for African farmers
Responding to sub-Saharan Africa`s soil health crisis, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) announced this week an ambitious new effort to produce the first-ever, detailed digital soil map for all 42 countries of the region. This project combines the latest soil science and technology with remote satellite imagery and on-the-ground efforts to analyze thousands of soil samples from remote areas across the continent to help provide solutions for poor farmers, who suffer from chronically low-yielding crops largely because of degraded soils.
Efforts to improve African soils, ... |
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Reissue patent RE 40,448
Patent RE40,448 has been recalled by the US Patent Office for reexamination of it broad claims reading on the use of emulsions other microemulsions as a result of a request filed by counsel for RNAS. The decision of the Patent Office (see Reexamination Communication), supports the invalidating prior art cited by the requester. Until the owners of the patent can demonstrate patentability over this art these claims must be considered invalid. The technology was developed by Solutions IES using US government funded research and the government and its contractors have a royalty free right to use the claimed subject matter regardless of the outcome of the reexamination. In the area of foreign equivalent patents, the decision in the Australian opposition proceeding has construed essentially the same claims to be limited to microemulsions and proceedings are underway to require the owners to make the necessary amendments to these claims. The opposition in Europe is still pending after the initial filing of the opposition and the patent owners’ response. Patent claims that are limited to the use of microemulsions do not apply to the use of our Newman Zone emulsion products.
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- US$2.6m for brownfields environmental job training
Thirteen communities in 12 states will share US$2.6 million in job training grants geared toward cleaning up contaminated properties and turning them ...
- Soil maps generate reliable quaternary geologic map
Geologists, archeologists, anthropologists, ecologists, engineers, and natural resource managers routinely use National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) ...
- Organic soils continue to acidify despite reduction in acidic deposition
Following the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 and 1990 acidic deposition in North America has declined significantly since its peak in 1973. Consequently, ...
- Preventing soil erosion in continuous corn
With recent increase in the cost of energy and subsequent explorations into alternative energy sources, the increased harvest of corn residue for cellulosic ...
- Renewed cooperation between CIHEAM and FAO
The International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM) based in Paris and FAO will strengthen their cooperation under an agreement ...
- Describing Soils: Calibration tool for teaching soil rupture resistance
A new calibration tool was recently developed to help students and soil scientists calibrate their thumb and forefinger for the correct amount of pressure.
C.A. ...
- 3-D laser scanning: A new soil quality measurement
Soil researchers pay close attention to bulk density, as it is one of the most common soil measurements and it is often used as a measure of soil quality. ...
- Models simulate nitrate dynamics in Garonne, Southwest France
The over-enrichment of fresh, transitional, and marine waters with nitrogen (N) can lead to problems associated with eutrophication, such as a change ...
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