Rocket fuel found in milk from Texas supermarkets
A toxic component of rocket fuel has been found in supermarket milk at levels exceeding the federal government’s currently recommended safe dose for drinking water, according to a peer-reviewed scientific study published Sept. 19.
Researchers at Texas Tech University report in the journal Environmental Science and Technology that perchlorate was “unambiguously detected” in seven of seven cow’s milk samples from grocery stores in Lubbock.
Perchlorate levels in the milk ranged from 1.7 to 6.4 parts per billion — all higher than the US EPA’s most recent proposed safety standard of 1 ppb. Enforceable federal standards are not expected for at least five years, but the State of California has set 4 ppb of perchlorate as the “action level” at which a public water supply should be shut down.
Perchlorate, the explosive main ingredient of solid rocket and missile fuel, can disrupt the thyroid gland’s ability to make essential hormones. For fetuses, infants and children, disruptions in thyroid hormone levels can cause lowered IQ, mental retardation, loss of hearing and speech, and motor skill deficits.
Perchlorate, most of it leaking from military bases or defense plants, contaminates more than 500 drinking water supplies in at least 20 states, serving well over 20 million people. Among major perchlorate-polluted sources is the Colorado River, which is used to irrigate 1.4 million acres of cropland in California and Arizona. (Environmental Working Group)

Suit aims to protect northeastern wolves
No one is sure whether wolves live in the Maine woods, but wildlife biologists agree that without federal protection, these predators that once ruled Northeastern forests will never stage a successful comeback.
This week, the National Wildlife Federation announced its plan to sue the US Fish and Wildlife Service for violating the Endangered Species Act by not taking these wolves into consideration.
In April, the service decided to downgrade gray wolf protection from endangered to threatened in a giant region stretching from Wisconsin to Maine. The decision was based mostly on the fact that wolves have rebounded in the Great Lakes region, where they have established healthy populations and migrated into new territories. Federal biologists decided the recoveries were enough to remove protection from wolves across the entire eastern United States. The NWF, however, believes that Northeastern wolves must be considered independently as a distinct population segment in order to have any chance of recovery.
Historic records prove wolves once abounded throughout the region, and studies have indicated that the Northeast, particularly Maine and New York, still has thousands of acres of prime wolf habitat.
If the case is successful, federal biologists will be required to research wolf populations here and write a recovery plan, which would likely take several years and could include everything from habitat protection measures to wolf reintroduction. (Bangor Daily News)

ELF claims responsibility for incendiaries
On Sept. 23, the Earth Liberation Front released a communiqué claiming responsibility for incendiaries left at a pumping station supplying a water bottling plant owned by Nestlé Waters North America (formerly known as the Perrier Group of America) in Mecosta County, Michigan. According to news reports, the incendiaries failed to ignite and were removed from the station without incident.
Controversy has surrounded the Ice Mountain Plant for the past several years. Local activist groups assert that the bottling plant has a negative impact on the local environment and that it violates state and federal water rights. Three Native American tribes have launched a lawsuit against Nestlé on the basis that rivers and ultimately the Great Lakes will be affected by its operations.
“... The people of Michigan have stated very clearly that we do not want a Perrier Bottling Plant. Clean water is one of the most fundamental necessities, and no one can be allowed to privatize it, commodify it, and try and sell it back to us.
“We will not allow the commodification of life to continue. Action must, and will, be taken, for it is our only chance,” the communiqué read in part.
The Earth Liberation Front is an international underground organization that uses direct action in the form of economic sabotage to stop the destruction of the natural environment. Since 1997, the ELF has caused over $100 million in damages to entities who profit from the destruction of life and the planet. (Frontline Information Service)

Arctic ice shelf splits
The largest ice shelf in the Arctic has fractured, releasing all the water from the freshwater lake it dammed.
The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf is located on the north coast of Ellesmere Island in Canada’s Nunavut territory.
The huge mass of floating ice, which has been in place for at least 3,000 years, is now in two major pieces.
The scientists who report the break-up in the journal Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) say it is further evidence of ongoing and accelerated climate change in the north polar region.
Researchers say the fracturing — which has been developing since the spring of 2000 — is the end result of a three-decade-long decline.
The immediate consequence of the rupture has been the loss of almost all of the freshwater from the Northern Hemisphere’s largest epishelf lake (a body of mostly freshwater trapped behind an ice shelf).
The loss of fresh and brackish water has changed the environment for the microscopic animals and algae living in the area.
“These are very rare and unusual ecosystems and they have been studied as possible analogues for life on a colder Earth and life on other planets,” said researcher Martin Jeffries, “And if we are losing them, we are losing the opportunity to study life earlier in Earth history and elsewhere in the solar system.” (BBC)

Anti-biotech effort takes root in Mendocino County
A campaign to make Mendocino County the first in the United States to ban genetically modified crops is brewing inside a century-old building in downtown Ukiah.
There, at the nation’s only certified organic brew pub, owners Allen and Els Cooperrider are collecting signatures for an initiative they hope will resonate in a region best known for artisans, aging hippies and alternative farmers.
Their goals are both local and global — preventing genetic contamination of Mendocino County’s robust organic produce industry and defying the seemingly unstoppable worldwide spread of genetically engineered crops.
Already, similar efforts are taking root in neighboring counties, drawing Northern California deeper into the international debate about the benefits and dangers of crops engineered to resist pests or withstand herbicides.
The Mendocino movement — aimed at the March ballot — will likely draw opposition from the biotechnology industry, which doesn’t want crop bans to get a foothold in the nation’s largest farm state.
Resistance to genetically modified foods has spurred protests from Switzerland to Sacramento — where a few thousand demonstrators rallied in June against the advance of biotechnology.
Opponents of biotech foods fear that tinkering with genes could create long-term environmental and health problems. (Sacramento Bee)