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Congress adjourned until after the November elections, leaving quite a bit of work on the table for a short lame-duck session. In addition to anticipated debates about fiscal policy, there are a few water-related bills that might be considered at year’s end. In a hearing last week, Senate committee chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said she [...]
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The Susitna-Watana Hydroelectric Project envisions a dam 700 feet tall capable of producing 600 megawatts from a 39-mile-long reservoir on the Susitna River in south-central Alaska. It would generate half the electricity currently produced in the state’s most populous region, and it would be the largest dam built in the United States since the late [...]
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The House Appropriations Committee passed a spending bill for the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service and 20 related agencies that cut total spending by 4 percent, and by 6 percent compared to the president’s request. The EPA shoulders most of the pain, seeing its budget cut $1.4 billion, [...]
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Statistics Aging water and sewer infrastructure and finding the money to pay for repairs are top concerns for U.S. water utility leaders, according to a survey from Black and Veatch, an engineering and consulting firm. BP released its annual Statistical Review of World Energy, a comprehensive assessment of global energy trends. Energy demand in the [...]
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Because ash and debris from a large fire can wreak havoc on water supply infrastructure, utilities near the High Park fire have begun to shut off certain water intakes and are already planning to replant the forest.
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The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved a bill that would limit the scope of the Clean Water Act to guidelines written by the Bush administration in 2007. Bloomberg BNA reports that a House floor vote should happen soon. The House Appropriations Committee also included language to block the new guidance in a water and [...]
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that a pollution permit, called a NPDES permit in the lingo, will not be necessary for stormwater coming from logging roads. The agency will continue to study the best way to reduce sediment runoff from what it calls “a relatively small subset” of roads that affect stream quality. Powder [...]
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And the People Said… For its study of water use in the Colorado River basin, the Bureau of Reclamation asked for suggestions from the public about how to close the gap between supply and demand. The people responded. The bureau received more than 140 proposals, none of which is binding in any way. Slightly more [...]
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Peer Reviewers for Fracking Study The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting nominations for qualified scientists to review its draft study of groundwater contamination in a Wyoming town. The draft, released in December, found compounds that are associated with natural-gas drilling processes in two monitoring wells. To nominate someone, send the person’s name, address [...]
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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 [...]
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House Takes On the EPA The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would bar the Environmental Protection Agency from overturning state decisions on water quality, the Huffington Post reports. Sixteen Democrats voted with the Republican majority. GAO Rebukes the EPA The Government Accountability Office says that the Environmental Protection Agency ‘has not effectively [...]
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US Forest Service Maps its Waters For the past few years, through the marbled halls of government and the glass towers of multi-lateral development agencies, a conservationist buzz phrase has resonated: ecosystem services. The term designates the things nature does—like scrub the air and pollinate flowers—that benefit humans. For forests, one of the key functions [...]
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Discharging selenium into watersheds remains a major problem in the American West
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