Environment

Topeka, KS –
With demand for so-called "green energy" likely to increase in the future, Kansas could become a major player in renewable energy. That's because Kansas is one of the windiest states. This week in Topeka the annual Wind and Renewable Energy Conference is exploring how Kansas can become a bigger part of the wind power industry.

Click on the link to liste to Stephen Koranda's story.

Jefferson City, MO – A transcript released Tuesday (October 6, 2009) quotes Missouri's Natural Resources chief as saying there was no health risk over the delay in releasing an E-coli report from the Lake of the Ozarks earlier this year.

According to the transcript, DNR Director Mark Templeton said that delaying the release of the report for a month did not pose a public health risk because bacteria die in lake water after about four days. Templeton added that he didn't learn about the results until eight days after the E-coli samples were taken.

Kansas City, MO – Kansas researchers have received a $20 million grant for work on renewable energy and climate change issues.

The funding from the National Science Foundation was announced Tuesday by the University of Kansas and Wichita State University, which are involved in the research. Also involved are Kansas State University and Haskell Indian Nations University, in Lawrence.

Kansas City, MO – High bacteria levels may have been fairly common at the Lake of the Ozarks this summer. Newly released Missouri water records show a spike this year in bacteria levels at two state beaches.

Results from E. coli tests at the popular central Missouri tourist attraction were high enough in 2009 that the state's two beaches should have been closed 11 times since May. That's more than twice the number of times those beaches were to be closed from 2003 until 2008. It's also more than this year's closings at every other Missouri waterway.

Kansas City, MO – Officials with the Johnson County Parks and Recreation Department say there will be tight security as efforts to reduce the deer herd in Shawnee Mission Park get under way.

Lawrence, KS – Coal has long been used as a cheap and plentiful energy source. But there is growing pressure to reconsider the environmental and health effects of burning coal, as opponents say that cheap energy from coal turns out to be no bargain. Health Reporter Bryan Thompson has more.

St. Louis, MO – Missouri governor Jay Nixon has put the director of the Department of Natural Resources on two weeks unpaid leave. The action came after the governor learned an E.coli-contaminated beach at the Lake of the Ozarks was open during Memorial Day weekend. Governor Nixon says the department told him last week that the beach in question had been closed, but Nixon says he learned otherwise from a newspaper report: