The Stream, July 14: U.S. Clean-Water Standards

With just a few weeks until the details of a draft plan for the Murray-Darling River Basin are revealed, a new report says that big water cuts could finish small country towns and communities in Australia’s food bowl, ABC News reported.

A bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives could restrict the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s powers to set clean-water standards, and would give farmers, energy companies and other businesses that discharge pollutants into waterways greater certainty that standards won’t be changed, Bloomberg reported. The Obama administration might veto the legislation.

China might double its corn imports this year to cool the fastest inflation since 2008, as shrinking farmland, water shortages and rising food consumption are draining supplies and driving up costs, according to Bloomberg.

Amid tense negotiations for cease-fire, Libyan officials have warned that the rebel-controlled eastern half of the country could be cut off from water supplies without a truce to allow for maintenance on a power plant that pumps water up from underground aquifers in the south, Associated Press reported.

The Guardian reports on Japan’s “nuclear gypsies,” the contract workers who traditionally perform the dirtiest, most dangerous jobs for Japan’s power utilities. Thousands of engineers and laborers have been hired to take part in the clean-up of the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.

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