Environment

The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services has found two more lakes in New Hampshire that have been infested with milfoil, an invasive aquatic plant. DES announced  that Otter Pond in Greenfield and Naticook Lake in Merrimack both have well-established milfoil infestations.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association released temperature data for the past six months on Monday. Reports that NOAA’s data shows this to be hottest first half of the year yet in the Granite state.

New Hampshire wasn’t the only state to break records: all told twenty-eight states had their hottest first six months on record, and for another 15 states the temperatures ranked in the all-time top-ten.

Officials with New Hampshire Fish and Game have confirmed that bats infected with White Nose Syndrome have been detected in Rockingham County for the first time.

White nose was first detected on bats in Rockingham in 2010, but this March was the first time bats were visibly infected with the fungus. Fish and Game biologist Emily Brunkhurst says the disease has devastated bat populations in the Northeast.

Two New Hampshire Energy efficiency programs are teaming up to try to weatherize more New Hampshire homes. The Community Development Finance Authority is combining its weatherization program with Public Service of New Hampshire’s.

The Department of Environmental Services is working to have  a former auto-parts factory and landfill in Farmington declared a Superfund site. DES officials are confident the site will be accepted into the federal program.

Representatives of five New Hampshire towns say the Environmental Protection Agency is imposing wastewater limits on the Great Bay that are a financial burden. They made their case to two members of the Congressional Committee on Oversight at a field hearing held in Exeter Monday. While towns and regulators haggle over the cost of improving waste water treatment, time may be running out for the Great Bay estuary.

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