Congress, Michigan Legislature Asked to Fix Leaks in Great Lakes Compact

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It’s been more than a year since eight states agreed to prevent large-scale diversions from the Great Lakes, the most abundant source of clean freshwater on the planet. The passage of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact, completed after ten years of campaigning by public interest organizations, legislative leaders, and governors of both parties, was meant to permanently secure the globally significant storehouse of water contained in the Great Lakes.

The Middle East and Midwest Come Together in Water Tech Partnerships

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Great Lakes Wastewater Treatment TechnologyThe Mideast is proving to be a popular destination for Midwestern political officials to pitch water technology trade deals. . Both Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and Michigan Lt. Gov. John Cherry have been touting the freshwater potential of their states to businessmen in Israel to promote economic growth in the burgeoning field of water technology.

Texas Legislators Raise Awareness About State’s Water Woes

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More than 600 Texas lawmakers and water policy experts came together in Fort Worth this week for The Water Event conference to raise awareness about the state's water crisis. The two-day forum called attention to legislation that aims to confront the state's depleting water resources while its population swells.

Nuclear Fallout: Nevada Takes Hard Look at Contaminated Groundwater From Historic Testing Grounds

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The Yucca Flat area of the Nevada Test Site is scarred with subsidence craters from underground nuclear testing[/caption]Decades of nuclear weapons testing has contaminated an estimated 1.6 trillion gallons of groundwater in the Nevada desert, a region where clean water is scarce and getting scarcer.

Peter Gleick: Giving Desalination Another Black Eye — Poseidon’s Financial Shell Game

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Last week, I wrote about the demand by the Poseidon Group to receive two major public subsidies to build a private desalination plant at Carlsbad near San Diego. After years of claiming that they needed no public support to build this plant, this claim has finally been proven false. The private profits they need will only be possible with public subsidies.

Is New York’s Marcellus Shale Too Hot to Handle?

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By Abrahm Lustgarten ProPublicaAs New York gears up for a massive…

Peter Gleick: California Water Bills. Is the New Water Legislation Better than Nothing?

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A lot of people have asked me my opinion about the new water legislation just passed in Sacramento. Here is a longer version of my piece in the New York Times Bay Area blog page

Peter Gleick: Doing Desalination Wrong: Poseidon on the Public Dole

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Many people believe that desalination of seawater is the ultimate solution to California (and the planet's) water problems. I've written about desalination in previous posts (see here and here), and have made it clear that I love the idea. In theory. And in select locations.

Climate Change Is Water Change — Water Experts React to Barcelona Negotiations

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Climate Change Is Water ChangeWater experts have convened in Barcelona to ensure water management strategies are integrated into global climate change negotiations – so far their efforts have fallen on deaf ears.

Rio Grande Threatened by Radioactive Run-off

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Rio Grande Threatened by Radioactive Run-offRadioactive waste is trickling toward New Mexico’s Rio Grande River from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, serving as a grim reminder of the site’s Cold War history, and potentially threatening northern New Mexico's drinking water.

More Bad News for Arctic Sea Ice

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More Bad News for Arctic Sea IceA recent expedition to the Beaufort Sea revealed that “multiyear” Arctic sea ice is in effect, nonexistent, Reuters reports. Multiyear ice has “stiffer” composition than first year ice, and makes navigation through Arctic regions extremely difficult, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

Peter Gleick: Who Is Stealing California’s Water?

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Someone is stealing our water. Many someones. But who and how much? No one knows today, mostly because the agency responsible for keeping an eye on water rights and use--the State Water Resources Control Board--is blind, deaf, and dumb. Blind, because they don't look. Deaf, because they don't listen to or act on most requests to investigate water rights allocations and use. Dumb, because they don't talk about these issues. "Asleep at the switch," as a colleague describes it.