China Plagued by Serious Air and Groundwater Pollution

Most of China’s underground water unfit for human contact

An official report on China’s state of environment during 2014, released by the country’s Ministry of Environmental Protection,  reveals “serious air and groundwater pollution,” said a report.

More than 90 percent of Chinese cities monitored for air quality failed to meet the standard for PM2.5 pollution.

Acid rain was detected in nearly a third of 470 cities monitored last year.

About 62% of nearly 5,000 stations monitored for water quality contained “poor” or “extremely poor” water. And only 10.8 percent of the monitored sites passed the pollution tests.

About one-third of surface water and nearly two-thirds of groundwater were found to be unfit for human contact.

“There was almost no shallow groundwater of Grade I quality [in 2013] and only sporadic existence of groundwater at Grade II-III quality, putting the amount of groundwater at unfit for human touch at 77.8%. Deep groundwater fared only slightly better at 73.55%,” said a report. [The figures are not comparable, possibly due to reporting errors or omissions.]

• Groundwater in the ‘very bad’ category in 2014 increased to 16.1% from 15.7% in 2013.
• Groundwater in “bad” & “very bad” categories increased from 59.6% in 2013 to 61.5% in 2014.

State of Emergency Declared in Wyoming amid Floods, Mudslides

Severe weather, floods, mudslides, landslides… wreak havoc throughout Wyoming

Wyoming Gov. Mead has issued an Executive Order declaring a State of Emergency in response to flooding in the Cowboy State.

I am very concerned about the weather-related damage across Wyoming and the toll it is taking on our citizens and communities, said Governor Mead. Mudslides have closed some roads in Sunlight Basin near Cody, Wind River Canyon and Togwotee Pass and flooding has caused damage in Niobrara, Johnson and other counties.

The Executive Order is available on the Governors website at http://governor.wyo.gov/media/documents/

Arkansas town evacuated as Red River rises

Small town of Garland City, located about 20 miles from in Texarkana, Arkansas, was evacuated early Friday, after Miller County emergency management officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for the town’s 250 residents.

Although the town’s levee had been weakened and was leaking, it had not failed, and the evacuation was ordered as a precaution, officials said.

Emergency management officials sounded a siren and went door-to-door to warn residents.