Environment

The New England Fishery Management Council is asking the Trump Administration to slow its push for offshore oil and gas developments on the East Coast. 

An Executive Order signed in April urges oil exploration in the mid and south Atlantic. Currently, five companies are seeking permits to conduct what are called seismic surveys in these areas. 

A bill that advocates say would have improved water quality standards in the state will not become law this session.

The bill would have directed the Department of Environmental Services to conduct a review of the safe drinking water standards for perfluorochemicals.

These industrial chemicals have been found in communities across the state – including near the Saint-Gobain plant in Merrimack and the former Pease Airforce Base in Portsmouth.

The city of Portsmouth and the town of Greenland are asking the state to help pay for public water at homes whose private wells may be at risk of water contamination.

Residents living near the Coakley Landfill in Greenland fear their private wells are drawing contaminated water from the superfund site which received municipal and industrial waste in the 70s and 80s.

Officials in Greenland had previously asked Portsmouth, which operates the only public well in Greenland, to extend water lines to about 300 homes near the landfill.

Nashua and Portsmouth have joined a growing number of cities around the country committing to the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.

In the days since President Donald Trump decided to pull the U.S. out of the global climate accord, over 270 mayors across the country have signed on to a plan to stay in.

Now the cities of Portsmouth and Nashua have added their names to the list. Jack Blalock is mayor of Portsmouth.

In the wake of a bear family’s relocation after two cubs entered a Hanover household, New Hampshire communities are reconsidering their responsibilities as environmental stewards and asking the question, “What does it take to live with bears?”

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement, officials in the town of Durham are looking for ways to stay involved locally.

New Hampshire imports all of its fossil fuels, meaning a lot of money leaves the state to keep our lights on. Local clean energy companies want to change that, by transitioning to renewable sources like solar and biomass. 

Congresswoman Annie Kuster expressed support Monday for New Hampshire’s green energy economy  and opposition to Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord. Speaking in Peterborough alongside clean energy advocates, Kuster said the state should stay committed to the goals of the Paris agreement and invest in New Hampshire energy.

The EPA has awarded $200,000 for the redevelopment of an old paper mill site along the Connecticut River.

Figuring out what to do with old mill buildings is an ongoing - and expensive - challenge for many New England towns. This site, the old Robertson Mill, actually sits on an island in the Connecticut River, right between New Hampshire and Bellows Falls, Vermont. You can hear the nearby falls from here on the property.

"It’s one of the old mill buildings that this town, really...a lot of this economy was built upon."

By the end of this century, scientists predict the ocean on New Hampshire’s coast will rise anywhere between 4 and 6.5 feet above where it is today—a consequence of climate change. But when the sea rises, groundwater rises to keep up. That would spell trouble for roadways, even roads inland from the ocean, according to a new study from UNH.

Three juvenile bears in Hanover that were initially targeted to be destroyed have been trapped and relocated.

New Hampshire Fish & Game had said last week the three bears and their mother had to be killed, after two of the cubs entered a home. But Governor Chris Sununu then intervened, saying the bears should be released in a remote location.

The state senate has passed a bill that would require the Department of Environmental Services to re-evaluate its standards for perfluorochemicals, a water contaminant.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office has reached a settlement with New England Dragway in Epping over violations of state environmental laws.

At issue were alterations the company made to about three and a half acres of wetlands during an upgrade of their facilities in 2012.

According to the attorney general’s office, the company later realized they made the alterations without the required permits and self-reported the violation to the state.

The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services on Wednesday released a set of annual reports on the health of New Hampshire’s lakes. The reports offer information on the water quality and plant and animal life of almost every lake in New Hampshire.

State biologist Kirsten Nelson says the information is intended for residents, so they can stay informed about the health of their environment.

New restrictions are coming to southern New England's lobster fishery in an attempt to save the area's population of the crustaceans.

The population of lobsters off of Connecticut, Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts has declined as waters have warmed.

An arm of the interstate Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted on Tuesday to pursue new management measures to try to slow the lobster decline. Management tools will include changes to legal harvesting size, reductions to the number of traps and seasonal closures to fishing areas.

Plans for a new, universally accessible trail near the plaza dedicated to New Hampshire's famous fallen icon, the Old Man of the Mountain, have run into some hurdles.

Wednesday marks 14 years since the 40-foot-tall granite formation resembling a man's face fell 1,200 feet to the ground. Since then, the Old Man of the Mountain Profile Plaza in Franconia Notch was dedicated.

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department says the state's white-tailed deer population once again has shown no evidence of chronic wasting disease, based on data gathered during the 2016 hunting season.

Biologist Dan Bergeron says a total of 268 tissue samples from deer killed by hunters tested negative for the disease.

Chronic wasting disease is a neurological disorder that is fatal to white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk and moose.

The department says 5,817 deer have been tested in New Hampshire since testing began in 2002.

Lawmakers in the state senate heard testimony Tuesday on a bill that would force the state to lower the safe drinking standards for perfluorochemicals, a water contaminant.

Right now the state Department of Environmental Services uses a threshold of 70 parts per trillion when testing drinking water for PFCS, an industrial chemical used in non-stick pans and other products. That limit is based on the federal standard established by the Environmental Protection Agency.

State and federal officials plan to release dye into the Oyster River this week in an effort to study how water flows from a sewage plant along the river.

Beginning Tuesday night, officials with state and federal environmental agencies will inject a reddish dye into the town of Durham’s wastewater treatment plant for about 12 hours.

The experiment is designed to shed light on how wastewater flows from the plant. It could lead to new boundaries for where shellfish harvesting is allowed.

Chris Nash is with the state Department of Environmental Services.

  The state Senate has signed off on a plan to create a commission to investigate a string of rare pediatric cancer cases on the Seacoast.

In early 2016, state officials discovered a so-called cancer cluster in a five-town area of the Seacoast. Two rare forms of pediatric cancer had been diagnosed in that area at significantly higher rates than normal.

The American Lung Association released its annual State of the Air report Wednesday, and New Hampshire is doing better than it has in two decades. 

Air quality in state has improved overall since last year’s report card. Jeff Underhill, a Chief Scientist with the state Environmental Services Air Resources Division, says that’s due to a handful of factors, including cleaner cars and pollution controls for power plants.

State forestry officials are warning warm, dry weather is creating an increased threat of wildfires, especially in the southern part of the state.

-- Updated 4/13 to include statement from ATSDR --

People exposed to high levels of PFCs at the former Pease Air Force Base are expressing frustration over how long it’s taking a federal agency to investigate the health impacts of the contamination.

After the chemicals were found in a well that supplied drinking water at Pease in 2014, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, or ATSDR, was told to investigate.

Members of the timber industry were in the state capitol today, arguing for the passage of a bill that would support the state’s struggling biomass industry.

Last year's drought in New Hampshire was tough on farmers and towns. But it turns out to have been good for moose.

Preliminary numbers from a project that puts tracking collars on moose show that only one of the calves — the most vulnerable group — died from winter ticks this year. A year ago, nearly 75 percent of the calves tracked died.

Moose biologist Kristine Rines says many of the blood-sucking ticks died because they were deprived of moisture. But the ticks still have a long-term advantage, with shorter winters and moose density on their side.