• Water

Six States Back Colorado River Water Sharing Plan, Arizona on the Fence

• Arizona
• climate change
• colorado river
• Department of Interior
• Drought
• Lake Mead
• shortage
• tribes
• water

Tomorrow is the deadline for a deal among the seven states that share water from the Colorado River, and one state, Arizona, is holding out.  The water plan agreed to by the other states back in December, confronts the long-running drought in the region, the resulting dwindling supply of water from the River, and how the states can ensure river water does not get overused.  Arizona was the only state that required the plan be approved by its Legislature, which according to the Associated Press, has made the negotiations on the drought contingency plan more complex. What if Arizona does not meet the deadline?  Then the Department of Interior will allegedly ask the other states for their views on how to divide the limited pool of water, and then the federal government will rule unilaterally.  

• Water

Navy Denies Camp Lejeune Toxic Water Claims

• Camp Lejeune
• claims
• denied
• drinking water
• Marine Corps
• pollution
• toxic
• victims
• VOCs

Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer last week denied claims for financial compensation from 4400 claims (some claims were made on behalf of groups of people) that alleged people exposed were made ill by contaminated drinking water at the Marine Corps’ Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.   The claims have been filed since 1999, and all together the claims totalled $963 billion, with one claim alone for $900 billion.  Stars and Stripes reported that the health benefits for impacted persons are not impacted – they can still receive free health care for claims related to exposure.

• Water

Salty runoff creating “chemical cocktails” in drinking water

• biodiversity
• Flint
• lead
• road salt
• salinity
• salt
• watershed

Last Week we wrote about the detriment that road salt can have on waterways, plants, and animals and how runoff is causing dead zones in lakes. It turns out that the story doesn’t stop there and all that salt is actually reacting with soil and water pipes to form toxic substances that can poison drinking water and harm the environment. The Revelator recently published an article examining a report published last month that found that not only is salinity increasing in many surface waters, but when you add salt to the environment it can mobilize heavy metals, nutrient pollution and other contaminants that are combining to create new “chemical cocktails” in rivers, streams, and reservoirs.

• Water

Buried Antarctic lake reveals water bears and clues to previous warming

• Antarctica
• ice core
• research
• sediment

Lake Mercer is a subglacial lake deep below the Antarctic Ice and it’s sat untouched by humans for millennia– until now. As  Nature News & Comment reported scientists drilling into a buried Antarctic lake 600 kilometers from the South Pole have found surprising signs of ancient life: the carcasses of tiny animals preserved under a kilometer of ice.

• Water

U.S. Farms Poisoning Drinking Water Supplies

• agriculture
• cows
• dairy
• drinking water
• manure
• nitrates
• pollution
• toxic
• water

The Wall Street Journal published a stinging critique of big agriculture’s impact on rural drinking water supplies, which they say are being spoiled “by fewer, more-intensively worked farms, bigger cows and shifting crop mixes.”  As a result, these large farms are more productive than ever, but as a result, the percentage of U.S. drinking water with nitrates concentrations above safe levels is rising.

• Water

One Funny Thing: a carousel for ducks

Honestly the best part of this ice disk are the ducks taking a ride on it 😂❤️🦆 pic.twitter.com/0Lz9qlUHaW — Taylor Gleason (@TaylorGWGME) January 15, 2019 Freezing temperatures have brought ice as well as a surprising new feature to the town of Westbrook, Maine, according to the New Scientist. An enormous circle of ice has formed […]