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Hear Ye, Hear Ye Last Thursday the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs heard testimony on tribal water rights settlements. Federal officials talked about the Obama administration’s preference for negotiated settlements instead of litigation. Some 16 negotiations are in progress, two of which—the Blackfeet and the Navajo-Hopi—have legislation under consideration in Congress. The chair of the […]
As water levels dropped three meters (10 feet) in India’s Brahmaputra River, fears surfaced that China was diverting water near the river’s origin in Tibet, Agence France-Presse reported. The cause of the water shortage remains unknown. Africa’s Lake Chad is shrinking—it is now one tenth the size it was in the 1960s—but local residents have […]
Water Law The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by five U.S. states seeking an order requiring that additional steps be taken to keep invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes, Reuters reported. Poland has not yet complied with EU legislation on water protection, including the monitoring of water quality, the European Commission […]
Energy The shale oil boom in the United States is putting a big squeeze on small towns in North Dakota and Montana that are suddenly seeing a rapid influx of people, traffic, infrastructure, crime and rising demand for housing, according to Reuters. On Friday, a second New York state judge upheld an upstate community’s ban […]
Weather Extremes Thousands of Australians have been forced from their homes because of floods that have risen to record levels in some areas of Queensland and New South Wales, Reuters reported. While the coal industry is largely unaffected, agriculture and properties are likely to sustain significant damage. Bad weather has gripped much of Europe as […]
Three proposals for separating the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River watershed could block the flow of aquatic invasive species while re-envisioning water management in Chicago, a new study says. Image courtesy Great Lakes Commission The three separation alternatives include a down-river single barrier, a mid-system alternative of four barriers on CAWS branches between Lockport […]
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 […]
Costly weather extremes such as drought and floods are becoming more prevalent as climate change progresses, the Associated Press reported, citing a draft of a new study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The growing populations in vulnerable locations around the world will likely exacerbate the problem. Only 5 percent of the $97 billion […]
Wastewater Standards The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a schedule for regulating wastewater from shale gas drilling and from coalbed methane extraction. The agency will publish draft rules for public comment in 2013 for coalbed methane and in 2014 for shale gas. The longer timetable for shale gas owes to the greater amount of data […]
South Sudan is facing a climate crisis that threatens to deteriorate into a famine situation similar to the disaster in the Horn of Africa, according to the country’s minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management. Global food insecurity is likely to continue in some regions in 2011-2012, the United Nations warned last week, according to […]
Global Change Research Program A federal program for studying environmental change and its effect on society has released a draft version of its strategic plan for the next decade. Comprising 13 agencies and cabinet-level departments, the Global Change Research Program was established by Congress in 1990. The draft plan anticipates that climate-change risk assessment and […]
In Washington Last week the federal government began tearing down two dams on Washington state’s Elwha River. The $350 million project is the world’s largest dam-removal and river-restoration. The National Park Service is maintaining a website with daily photos monitoring the project’s progress. In Oregon and California The Department of the Interior released several peer-reviewed […]
