Rancher Jon Pedotti walks on the cracked remains of a parched lake bed of his 1,561-acre ranch located along San Simeon Creek in the Santa Lucia Mountain foothills of Cambria, California during a drought on October 1, 2014. (Photo: Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Posted in Climate change Politics Water

Groups call on CFTC to shut down water futures market

“In this time of global-warming-induced drought in California, the last thing we need is to gamble on our precious water resources.” by Julia Conley, Common Dreams December 21, 2021 Warning Wall Street against commodifying what has…

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Posted in Analysis Sustainability Water

Why the second-driest state rejects water conservation

Utah has some of the highest per-capita water use and is the fastest-growing state. Yet a powerful group that steers Utah’s water policy keeps pushing for costly infrastructure over meaningful conservation efforts. by Thursday, December 16,…

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Lake Mead, the nation’s largest freshwater reservoir, has been losing water because of epochal drought since 2000. Credit: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Posted in Climate change The West Water

40 million people rely on the Colorado River. It’s drying up fast.

One of the country’s most important sources of fresh water is in peril, the latest victim of the accelerating climate crisis. by Abrahm Lustgarten Friday, August 27, 2021   The Water Crisis in the West On…

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Posted in Arizona Climate change Colorado River

Arizona’s current historic drought may be ‘baseline for the future’

by Alyssa Marksz, Cronkite News May 27, 2021   WASHINGTON –    Arizona and other Western states just lived through the driest year in more than a century, with no drought relief in sight in the near…

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Dry conditions across the West follow a hot, dry year of record-setting wildfires in 2020. Communities were left with scenes like this, from California’s Creek Fire. Amir Aghakouchak/University of California Irvine
Posted in Analysis Water Wild Fire

Another dangerous fire season is looming in the Western U.S., and the drought-stricken region is headed for a water crisis

May 13, 2021 2.17pm EDT Updated May 13, 2021 3.54pm EDT by Mojtaba Sadegh, Boise State University; Amir AghaKouchak, University of California, Irvine, and John Abatzoglou, University of California, Merced   Just about every indicator of…

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Community members participate in a March 9, 2013 "No More Fukushimas" and "Walk for a New Spring" protest in Croton-on-Hudson, New York in opposition to the Indian Point nuclear power plant. (Photo: Vanessa/Flickr/cc)
Posted in Energy News

Indian Point nuclear plant shutting down in New York

The Indian Point facility, notes one of its critics, was built “where a severe accident would jeopardize the health of millions of people and where no large-scale evacuation plan would be remotely feasible.” by Brett Wilkins,…

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Posted in Analysis Pro Publica Water

America’s drinking water is surprisingly easy to poison

The cyberbreach at a plant in Oldsmar, Florida, which could have resulted in a mass poisoning, was a reminder of a disturbing reality: Despite a decade of warnings, thousands of water systems around the country are…

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Posted in Disaster Relief News Water

‘It’s like nobody cares’: After two weeks without running water, Jackson, Miss. pleads for help

“Water is a basic necessity and it just brought a lot of frustration, anger, and disappointment,” said one of the city’s residents. “If you don’t know when it’s coming back, what is being done to help…

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Posted in First Peoples News Water

Pascua Yaqui win water funds, first of $150 million for Arizona projects

by Sarah Oven, Cronkite News Wednesday, January 27, 2021 Washington    – Pascua Yaqui Council members called it “a blessing” Tuesday. They were talking about $900,000 in federal funds that will be used to bring water to…

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Posted in Biden Administration Columns Wade Rathke

Replacing lead service lines – perfect infrastructure project

by Wade Rathke January 22, 2021 New Orleans    Recently, Social Policy was lucky enough to have fifty contributors offer ideas suggesting priorities for the new Biden administration. There were some amazing recommendations, and we’ll dig…

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Posted in Climate change First Peoples News News Pipelines

Indigenous women urge Biden to stop pipelines and respect Treaty Rights

“Joe Biden, we are asking you to stand on the right side of history and humanity by putting an immediate end to the deadly pipelines destroying our Earth, our communities, and all life.” by Jessica Corbett,…

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Posted in Investigations Pro Publica Water

Timber Tax Cuts Cost Oregon Towns Billions. Then Polluted Water Drove Up the Price.

Rural communities in Oregon paid millions of dollars for clean, safe drinking water because the state didn’t protect their watersheds from logging-related contamination. by Tony Schick, Oregon Public Broadcasting, and Rob Davis, The Oregonian/OregonLive Thursday, December…

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Posted in Analysis Environment Sustainability Water

In a last-minute rule change, the Trump administration rolls back water-saving standards for showerheads

by Robert Glennon, University of Arizona Saturday, December 19, 2020 For more than 25 years, Congress has directed U.S. government agencies to set energy and water efficiency standards for many new products. These measures conserve resources…

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Posted in Common Dreams Environment News Sustainability Water

Michigan Gov. moves to shut down Line 5 Pipeline to protect Great Lakes

‘This Is a Really, Really Big Deal’ “Enbridge has imposed on the people of Michigan an unacceptable risk of a catastrophic oil spill in the Great Lakes that could devastate our economy and way of life.”…

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Posted in Analysis Environmental Justice Toxic Chemicals

Permit for controversial $9 billion plastics plant in “chemical alley” to be put on hold

Proposed emissions from the plant would triple the levels of cancer-causing chemicals in one of the most toxic areas of the U.S., but the Army Corps of Engineers intends to suspend the permit. by Lylla Younes …

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Posted in Climate change Dams News The Revelator Water

5 Reasons to rethink the future of dams

The United States must grapple with a legacy of 90,000 dams, many unsafe or unwanted. by Tara Lohan Wednesday, October 28, 2020 The tide has shifted on dams. Once a monument to our engineering prowess, there’s…

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Posted in Columns Environment EPA Lead Wade Rathke Water

Getting the lead out

by Wade Rathke September 29, 2020 New Orleans   We have to take progress where we can get it in these dark days at perhaps the tail end of the Trump administration. There are scores of…

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A refining plant in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. New research indicates that industrial air pollution may explain the disproportionate rate of coronavirus deaths in West Baton Rouge and other parishes in the state’s chemical corridor. (Patrick Dennis/The Times-Picayune and The Advocate)
Posted in Air Polution Analysis Coronavirus Environment Pro Publica Toxic Chemicals

New research shows disproportionate rate of coronavirus deaths in polluted areas

The type of pollution emitted by many chemical plants in Louisiana’s industrial corridor is correlated with increased coronavirus deaths, according to new peer-reviewed research from SUNY and ProPublica. by Lylla Younes, ProPublica, and Sara Sneath The…

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Posted in Common Dreams Environment News

AGs sue Trump council over gutting of bedrock US environmental law

‘Reckless and Unprecedented’ “This administration’s insidious attack on one of our most important environmental laws is an attack on the democratic process itself.” by Jessica Corbett, staff writer Friday, August 28 A coalition of 27 U.S….

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Posted in News The Conversation Water Wild Fire

Wildfires can poison drinking water – here’s how communities can be better prepared

The Camp Fire inferno spread at a speed of one football field per second, chasing everyone – including water system operators – out of town. The 2018 Camp Fire north of Sacramento burned everything in its…

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Posted in Environment News Water

Decades-long campaign forces Nevada Board to kill huge Las Vegas groundwater pipeline

by Meteor staff The Center for Biological Diversity announced late last week that a 31-year struggle to stop a massive groundwater pipeline development came to a stunning conclusion when the Southern Nevada Water Authority board voted…

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Posted in Common Dreams News Toxic Chemicals While we were looking elsewhere

After dams fail, Dow admits floodwaters in Midland, Michigan ‘commingling’ with toxic chemical storage ponds

“This has the potential to be a major environmental disaster.” by Eoin Higgins, staff writer Wednesday, May 20, 10 AM EDT Floodwaters unleashed by a dam failure in central Michigan have reached a Dow Chemical facility…

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Posted in Economy Environment News The West

Megadrought brings dry future to West, growing U.S. cities

by  Alexandra Tempus May 7, 2020 In 2002, Utah was reeling from four years of dry conditions that turned the state “into a parched tinderbox,’’ as the Associated Press reported at the time. “Drought Could Last…

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Posted in Art Climate change Energy The Conversation

Solar farms, power stations and water treatment plants can be attractions instead of eyesores

Infrastructure as art: Jacob van Ruisdael, ‘Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede,’ c. 1670. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, CC BY-ND   by  Margaret Birney Vickery, University of Massachusetts Amherst Amid the economic and social fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic,…

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