 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Climate Change Risk The U.S. government’s internal watchdog added two new items to its list of high-priority risks to the federal government: financial risk from climate change-related catastrophes and insufficient data from weather-monitoring satellites. The Government Accountability Office’s high-risk list – which emphasizes areas vulnerable to fraud, waste or mismanagement, or areas in need of [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in its first-ever inventory of the state of federal flood control systems, found that 22 percent of the levees surveyed were rated “unacceptable”, according to the Associated Press. The corps, claiming the threat of terrorism and sabotage, would not say why those levees were so rated. Some 40 percent [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Shortages in water, food, and energy comprise one of four “megatrends” that U.S. government intelligence analysts said would cause radical economic and political changes in the next 18 years. The other trends, Bloomberg reported, include the United States’ fade from dominance, the rising power of individuals over the state, and a booming middle class. U.S. [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
States in the midwestern United States, still reeling from this summer’s drought, are turning to the White House for help securing enough water from the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. President Barack Obama has received letters from officials in 30 states, the Associated Press reported, asking him to play a role in a dispute about whether [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
At least 283 people have died in the Philippines following the landfall of Typhoon Bohpa, which triggered floods and landslides across the southern islands, AlertNet reported. Rescuers are struggling to find survivors, but efforts are being hampered by destroyed roads and downed communication systems. In Papua New Guinea, the large Ok Tedi copper mine may [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Scientists are beginning to study the ecological function of cities, tracking and measuring the flow of atmospheric gases, water, carbon, and pollutants through the urban ecosystem, Nature reported. The research could be essential for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and creating sustainable cities. Water Levels Global sea level rise is outpacing United Nations projections by 60 [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, introduced legislation that would set up a federal water infrastructure financing program modeled after a program that provides low-interest loans for transportation projects.The Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) would give priority to water and wastewater projects of national or regional significance, covering a gap in existing federal [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
In Kansas, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers drained billions of gallons of water from three reservoirs to support Missouri River barge traffic, which has suffered after this summer’s drought. But Kansas-area residents and businesses, the Kansas City Star reported, have complained bitterly about the decision to support a dwindling barge industry at the expense [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Officials from states in the upper Missouri River basin are upset with an Army Corps of Engineers proposal to charge the states for the storage and use of ‘surplus’ water in six reservoirs on the nation’s longest river. South Dakota’s attorney general said he would challenge the plan in court, if it is enacted, while [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
As water availability data starts coming in, this year’s water allocations and the potential consequences for irrigation, hydropower, wildfires, and flooding are being assessed — La Niña weather patterns have returned this year, but water supply conditions generally are not as extreme as they were 2011.
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Pipes on Tap On Tuesday a Senate subcommittee will listen to officials from local governments speak about water infrastructure problems. The mayor of Baltimore, the manager of a water system in suburban Washington, D.C. and the director of an Alabama water association will speak. This is the second time in the last three months that [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Water access and use are a concern in Argentina, where 11 percent of the population does not have a piped water source and the average consumption per person is more than three times that of Brazil, the Guardian reported, citing a study by Green Cross Argentina. Shell spilled an estimated 20,000 barrels of oil off [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Pakistan A high-level official from the U.S. State Department met with counterparts from Pakistan last month during the fourth water “dialogue” between the two countries. The U.S. government has given Pakistan money for irrigation, hydroelectric, and water supply projects under the Kerry-Berman-Lugar bill—legislation signed in 2009 that authorizes $7.5 billion in aid to Pakistan. Pakistan [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Invasive Asian silver carp are in North Dakota for the first time, the state’s Game and Fish Department confirmed. The carp — which are spreading through the Mississippi and Missouri river systems — eat plankton and greatly disrupt aquatic ecosystems, The Jamestown Sun reported. Rushing aid to drought-plagued Tuvalu will not help the country unless [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
A year after heavy monsoon rains devastated southern Pakistan, new floods have forced more than a million Pakistanis out of their homes and damaged crops in Sindh province, Bloomberg reported. Water Pollution Accidents There is no “real way” of capturing the fuel that leaked into the Missouri River in Iowa from Enterprise Products Partners’ natural [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Federal Flood Insurance Program Could Go Underwater Climate change could devastate not only landscapes and structures, but a national insurance program that pays for their rehabilitation, according to a soon-to-be-released report from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The study estimates that areas described as ‘flood plain’ could grow by 40 to 45 percent by the [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Georgia officials are smiling after Tuesday’s verdict from a federal appeals panel that overturns a lower court’s ruling that metro Atlanta does not have legal authority to use Lake Lanier for its water supply. The Associated Press reports that the Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the reservoir, will re-evaluate Atlanta’s request for water under [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Towns from Montana to Iowa are bracing for flood waters as heavy rains fall across the region and warm temperatures melt record snowfall.
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Pollution from the Mississippi The deluge comes quickly, but the effects linger. The spring flood on the Mississippi River will produce the largest-ever hypoxic dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey and university scientists. The dead zone will cover a [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Nevada Water Pipeline The Bureau of Land Management has released a draft environmental impact statement for a proposed water pipeline from northern Nevada to the Las Vegas area. The Southern Nevada Water Authority plans to build the 285-mile pipeline if it can secure water rights and a right-of-way permission. The BLM is not involved in [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
| About | | Staff | | In the News | | Ethics & Sponsorship | | Internships | | Board Members | | Contact | | Log In |