Source: Construction Business Owner, December 2011 By: Robert J. Connor, New Day Underwriting Managers LLC Establish expectations and carefully assess sustainable products to successfully complete LEED projects. The eco-friendly construction movement has become a powerful force that has spread throughout the world at an incredible speed and forced designers and contractors to either go green […]

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 30, 2012 Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com The seven municipalities that banded together in recent weeks in opposition to the state’s Marcellus Shale gas drilling law filed a suit Thursday, arguing that lawmakers unconstitutionally intruded on local zoning duties by mandating where drilling can occur. The municipalities — Cecil, Peters, Mount Pleasant and […]

Source: http://enr.construction.com, March 19, 2012 By: Jack Buehrer As New York intensifies its debate over whether to employ hydraulic fracturing techniques to recover shale-gas deposits in the Marcellus shale formation, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is sticking to his pledge to “let the science and the facts” determine if the state’ should lift a two-year moratorium on fracking. […]

Source: http://www.usatoday.com, February 23, 2012 By: Dennis Cauchon Aaron Dinnin’s last job was as a prison guard. Before that, he was a roofer. Today, the 33-year-old West Virginian works in a shale gas field near his home and earns more money than ever before. “This is the best job I’ve ever had,” he says. Expansive […]

Source: Dow Jones News Service, March 12, 2012 Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com (From The Wall Street Journal) Some energy companies, state regulators, academics and environmentalists are reaching consensus that natural-gas drilling has led to several incidents of water pollution — but not because of fracking. The energy officials and some environmentalists agree that poorly built wells […]

Source: http://www.csindy.com, January 26, 2012 By: Pam Zubeck On a brisk morning in mid-October, El Paso County Commissioner Dennis Hisey and two county staffers took a trip. They joined an Ultra Resources engineer, geologist and land manager on a private jet bound for the Pinedale Anticline, an 80-square-mile area in southwest Wyoming that’s rich with […]

Read here about fines being sought from a Pennsylvania drilling company for polluting a stream.

Source: http://www.pittsburghlive.com, January 24, 2012 Two environmental groups and McKeesport’s municipal authority have settled a federal lawsuit that claimed the city was violating state and federal environmental laws by treating wastewater from Marcellus shale drilling operations, according to court documents. Attorneys for both sides and representatives for the city, the municipal authority, Clean Water Action […]

Source: http://www.timesfreepress.com, January 20, 2012 By: Todd South Testimony in a federal criminal trial Thursday focused on how unprotected workers cleared asbestos-covered debris from the site of a demolished Chattanooga textile plant. In the sixth day of trial for three men and two businesses charged with fraud and intentional environmental regulation violations, prosecution witnesses described […]

Source: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com, January 20, 2012 By: Tom Shortell Northampton County has shut down parts of Gracedale nursing home’s basement after tests revealed too-high levels of asbestos, officials confirmed Thursday. Northampton County Executive John Stoffa and Director of Administration Tom Harp said a maintenance shop, carpenter shop, break room and a storage room where wheelchair and […]

Source: http://www.out-law.com What is BIM? Building Information Modelling (BIM) uses software to create a model of a building that reacts to change in the way that the real building would. It is designed to make an integrated and collaborative approach to construction possible. Some users use BIM systems as advanced Computer Aided Design (CAD), others as […]

Read here about low levels of asbestos that have been found in wood chips being sold by a Montana Superfund Site for use in landscaping.