The Rundown
- NOAA’s new drought outlook maps have a greener appearance.
- GAO says the federal government’s nuclear waste cleanup could be cheaper if it assumed that people would not be living on the sites in the future.
- USDA will allow an insect species to be pressed into service to control an aquatic invasive plant in the northern states.
- A data center development in eastern Georgia is seeking Army Corps approval for stream and wetland damage.
- Crow Tribe water rights settlement amendment is signed into law.
And lastly, a Kansas senator’s support for providing more water to a wildlife refuge in his state could also benefit his nearby landholdings, an Associated Press investigation found.
“U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall wanted to solve a water rights dispute in rural Kansas that pitted farmers against environmentalists and threatened the health of a cherished wildlife refuge. The avid outdoorsman requested a $4.2 million earmark, records show, to help finance improvements that would increase the flow of water into the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. He did not mention another interest that stood to benefit from the project: his own Rattlesnake Ranch, which borders the preserve.” – Associated Press investigation on Sen. Marshall’s attempts to intervene in a water dispute to secure water for farmers and the wildlife refuge. The solution, which allows farmers to continue using water, is to pump groundwater and deliver it to Rattlesnake Creek via pipeline.
By the Numbers
3,152 Acres: Size of a data center development proposed for Columbia County, Georgia, that is seeking an Army Corps permit to damage streams and wetlands. The White Oak Data Center Project, about 125 miles east of Atlanta, would alter two miles of perennial streams and nearly three miles of intermittently flowing streams. Kinetic Infrastructure Solutions, the project applicant, proposed to purchase credits to compensate for the damage. This means a third party restores ecosystems elsewhere as an offset.
News Briefs
Reducing the Cost of Nuclear Waste Cleanup
What does it mean to clean up a nuclear site? What standards hold?
One sure principle: more human contact, higher cleanup standards.
The problem, according to a Government Accountability Office report, is that the Department of Energy should be looking closer at future land and groundwater uses at waste sites. If homes will not be built at a site, it would reduce cleanup costs.
“A better framework for making realistic assumptions about future land use at DOE’s cleanup sites is needed,” the report states.
“The legal framework often requires DOE to clean up contaminated groundwater to meet drinking water standards, but, according to experts, the assumption that groundwater beneath contaminated sites will be used for drinking water in the future is sometimes unrealistic,” the report adds.
As an example, the GAO cites Rocky Flats, a former nuclear weapons manufacturing complex near Denver that closed in 1989. By designating the site as a nature reserve, the cleanup cost decreased from $23 billion (residential use) to $10 billion (wildlife refuge).
The Energy Department estimates that remediating the 15 nuclear waste sites still requiring cleanup will cost between $641 billion and $840 billion, and be completed by the end of the century.
Tribal Water Rights
President Trump signed a bill that amends a water rights settlement for the Crow Tribe of south-central Montana. The amendment will give the tribe more flexibility in carrying out a water-delivery project that was part of the settlement.
Studies and Reports
Redesigning Drought Maps
NOAA’s seasonal drought outlooks have a greener cast.
The agency says it ordered the design change to make the maps “easier to read, interpret, and communicate.” Instead of all browns and yellows, areas of drought improvement will now be shades of green.
The maps, which debuted last week, also have a new category: drought worsens.
Looking Three Months Ahead
So what is the current three-month drought outlook?
With a strong El Niño, the expectation is that dry conditions will improve in the southern tier of the U.S. through January, but stay the same or worsen in a northern swath that extends from the plains through the northern Rockies to the Cascades.
A word of caution, though. El Niño increases the likelihood of these outcomes but does not guarantee them.
On the Radar
Not Exactly Sharks with Laser Beams
Biological control (noun) – the use of one species to keep another in check.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture agency will allow natural resource managers to release a weevil to chow down on the invasive flowering rush, an aquatic plant now found in 23 states near the Canadian border, especially the Great Lakes and Columbia River basin.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service found no significant impact to using B. nodulosus in this manner.
Native to Asia and Europe, the flowering rush lives in wetlands, lakes, and rivers and alters North American ecosystems. For one, it can outcompete wild rice, an important food for Great Lakes tribes. It can also crowd out waterfowl habitat.
Federal Water Tap is a weekly digest spotting trends in U.S. government water policy. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.
