Feds to fund Mississippi clean up from Minnesota to the Gulf

The river that begins as a trickle in Itasca State Park and ends 2,350 miles later at the Gulf of Mexico will get a $320 million infusion from the federal government to improve water quality.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a program Thursday that will provide the money over the next four years to Minnesota and 11 other states in the Mississippi River basin.

Calling the river "a critical national resource," Vilsack said the Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative will attempt to reduce excessive nitrogen and phosphorus runoff from farms that enters the river through its tributaries and creates a "dead zone" each summer in the Gulf of Mexico. The nutrients cause vast algae blooms that eventually die, sink to the bottom and are consumed by bacteria that rob the water of most of its oxygen.

In 2009, the dead zone covered about 3,000 square miles, slightly larger than Delaware. Although the zone was somewhat smaller than in other recent years, scientists and environmental leaders have expressed alarm since the 1990s about the large amounts of chemicals moving through the river and the repercussions on the gulf's ecosystem.

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What's ugly, smells, kills dogs? Blue-green algae

Waterways across the upper Midwest are increasingly plagued with ugly, smelly and potentially deadly blue-green algae, bloomed by drought and fertilizer runoffs from farm fields, that's killed dozens of dogs and sickened many people.

Aquatic biologists say it's a problem that falls somewhere between a human health concern and a nuisance, but will eventually lead to more human poisoning. State officials are telling people who live on algae-covered lakes to close their windows, stop taking walks along the picturesque shorelines and keep their dogs from drinking the rank water.

Peggy McAloon, 62, lives on Wisconsin's Tainter Lake and calls the algae blooms the "cockroach on the water."

"It is like living in the sewer for three weeks. You gag. You cannot go outside," she said. "We have pictures of squirrels that are dead underneath the scum and fish that are dead. ... It has gotten out of control because of the nutrient loads we as humans are adding to the waters."

Blue-green algae are common in waters but not every lake develops serious problems until plentiful "man-induced" nutrients like phosphorous arrive, said Jim Vennie, a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources expert. The toxins released by the algae can be deadly. Symptoms include rash, hives, runny nose, irritated eyes and throat irritation.

No people have died in the U.S. from the algae's toxins, according to Wayne Carmichael, a retired aquatic biologist and toxicology professor in Oregon.

Many, however, have gotten sick: "Sooner or later, we are going to have more acute human poisoning," Carmichael said.

The scum has killed dozens of dogs over the years — including at least four in Oregon, three in Wisconsin and one in Minnesota this summer. Wisconsin wildlife experts are warning duck hunters with dogs to be extra cautious this fall. "If the water is pea-soup green, be sure to have clean water along to wash the dog off," Vennie said. "Don't let it drink the water."

Fewer than 100 lakes in Wisconsin typically have some problems with algae bloom each summer and the ones in western Wisconsin causing so much discomfort this year are being fueled by a perfect storm, Vennie said. The last month has seen little rain, warm, sunshiny days and little wind.

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Polluted Lake Okeechobee getting dirtier

Water managers, environmental agencies and conservation groups have been talking about cleaning up Lake Okeechobee for decades.

The water quality has only gotten worse. Much worse.

Two environmental groups on Wednesday released an e-mail from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that shows a troubling buildup of the key nutrient phosphorus -- whose presence in the lake has almost quadrupled since the 1970s and almost doubled since the 1990s.

With current concentrations approaching 200 parts per billion -- considered 20 times too polluted for the Everglades -- the dirty lake looms as major and expensive problem for an Everglades restoration effort who cost is already expected to top $20 billion.

Jerry Phillips, Florida director of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which released the September memo with the Civic Council Association, called the declining water quality, primarily flowing in from ranches and suburbs north of the lake, ``the elephant in the living room'' of Everglades restoration.

``If you don't start addressing the issue, you aren't going to get any true restoration on the south side,'' he said.

Phillips blamed lax regulation by the EPA and Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

A spokeswoman for the EPA's regional office in Atlanta said the agency was crafting a response. In a lawsuit settlement with environmental groups earlier this year, the agency agreed to set legal limits for farm and urban runoff that pollutes Florida's waterways.

The South Florida Water Management District, which is overseeing Everglades cleanup for the state, issued a written statement saying lawmakers had approved a North Everglades plan in 2007 to address the issues and had spent $1.8 billion to improve water quality in the Everglades. Most of that has gone into constructing almost 40,000 acres of pollution cleanup marshes designed to scrub runoff from sugar farms south of the lake.

North of the lake, the district said it is working with farmers and cattle ranches to reduce fertilizer use and runoff. It is also constructing a 2,700-acre treatment area to clean water before it flows into the lake.

The memo, written by Eric Hughes, a wetlands biologist based in the EPA's Jacksonville office, said an average of 572 tons of phosphorus flows into the lake each year -- four times the target the state is supposed to reach by 2015.

Excess phosphorus, a nutrient in manure and fertilizer, can choke native plants and fuels the growth of cat-tails and other exotic plants in the Everglades and algae blooms in rivers and lakes.

from the Miami Herald

Vietnam Finds Itself Vulnerable if Sea Rises

For centuries, as monsoon rains, typhoons and wars have swept over them and disappeared into the sunshine, the farmers and fishermen of the Mekong Delta have drawn life from the water and fertile fields where the great river ends its 2,700-mile journey to the sea.

The rhythms of life continue from season to season though, like much of the country, the delta is moving quickly into the future, and industry has begun to pollute the air and water.

But everything here, both the timeless and the new, is at risk now from a threat that could bring deeper and longer-lasting disruptions than the generations of warfare that ended more than 30 years ago.

In a worse-case projection, a Vietnamese government report released last month says that more than one-third of the delta, where 17 million people live and nearly half the country’s rice is grown, could be submerged if sea levels rise by three feet in the decades to come.

In a more modest projection, it calculates that one-fifth of the delta would be flooded, said Tran Thuc, who leads Vietnam’s National Institute for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Sciences and is the chief author of the report.

Storm surges could periodically raise that level, he said, and experts say an intrusion of salt water and industrial pollution could contaminate much of the remaining delta area.

The risks of climate change for Vietnam go far beyond the Mekong Delta, up into the Central Highlands, where rising temperatures could put the coffee crop at risk, and to the Red River Delta in the north, where large areas could be inundated near the capital, Hanoi.

Climate experts consider this nation of an estimated 87 million people to be among the half-dozen most threatened by the weather disruptions and rising sea levels linked to climate change that are predicted in the course of this century.

If the sea level rises by three feet, 11 percent of Vietnam’s population could be displaced, according to a 2007 World Bank working paper.

more from the NY Times

'Millions at risk' as deltas sink

Damming and diverting rivers means that much less sediment now reaches many delta areas, while extraction of gas and groundwater also lowers the land.

Rivers affected include the Colorado, Nile, Pearl, Rhone and Yangtze.

About half a billion people live in these regions, the researchers note in the journal Nature Geoscience.

They calculate that 85% of major deltas have seen severe flooding in recent years, and that the area of land vulnerable to flooding will increase by about 50% in the next 40 years as land sinks and climate change causes sea levels to rise.

"We argue that the world's low-lying deltas are increasingly vulnerable to flooding, either from their feeding rivers or from ocean storms," said Albert Kettner from the University of Colorado in Boulder, US.

"This study shows there are a host of human-induced factors that already cause deltas to sink much more rapidly than could be explained by sea level alone."

Most of the at-risk river basins are in the developing countries of Asia, but there are several in developed nations as well, including the Rhone in France and the Po in Italy.

The Po delta sank by 3.7m during the 20th Century, mainly from methane extraction, the researchers say.

more from the BBC

EPA Turns the Lights on Mountaintop Removal

The Environmental Protection Agency made good on its promise today to assert greater scrutiny and "use the best science and follow the letter of the law" with regard to controversial mountaintop removal mining permits in the Appalachian coalfields. In a highly anticipated announcement, the agency declared that all seventy-nine pending permits in four states would "likely cause water quality impacts" and sent them on for additional review under the Clean Water Act.

Does today's big announcement end the practice of mountaintop removal--which has clear-cut more than 1.2 million acres of deciduous forests, employed billions of pounds of ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosives to blow up 500 mountains, packed and sullied an estimated 2,000 miles of streams with mining waste, and left coalfield communities in economic ruin?

The short answer from the EPA: no.

But while the agency has gone out of its way to make clear that this announcement does not "constitute a change" in policy or usurp the Army Corps of Engineers's authority over such permits, today's news comes as a telling harbinger that the rule of science, law and interagency cooperation just might be returning to the Appalachian coalfields.

"The administration pledged earlier this year to improve review of mining projects that risked harming water quality," EPA administrator Lisa Jackson announced in a statement. "Release of this preliminary list is the first step in a process to assure that the environmental concerns raised by the seventy-nine permit applications are addressed and that permits issued are protective of water quality and affected ecosystems."

According to the EPA, this preliminary list of projects will be evaluated over the next 15 days, at which time "issues of concern regarding particular permit applications will be addressed during a 60-day review process triggered when the Corps informs EPA that a particular permit is ready for discussion."

more from The Nation

Israel mourns the dying Dead Sea

There can be few sights sadder than a seaside restaurant that has been abandoned by the sea.

Dropping south on Route 90, the Israeli highway that stretches the length of the Jordan River, we turned left at the service station selling Dead Sea mud for skin-toning and salt crystals for your bath.

A few hundred metres on is a wrecked concrete building baking in the sun, one of those melancholy Middle East ruins that look as if they became redundant almost as soon as they were built.

Except this one is different. Walk into what is left of the lobby and you notice the remains of a once stylish bar.

Look ahead and you see two crescent arms enclosing a dining terrace, adorned with an outsized crusader map of the River Jordan. It is of course recognisable, despite the large hole in the concrete just up from Jericho.

The restaurant was sited so that guests could drop off the terrace straight into the sea. You do not really swim in the Dead Sea, you bounce about, and it is easy to imagine flopping into the salty waters after a hearty lunch.

Except that the sea has now gone, you can see it glittering in the sunshine just less than a mile away.

Where the sound of lapping water once mixed with chinking glasses and the clatter of plates, there is now just desert dust.

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How Safe Is Your Water?

Is your drinking water safe? That depends on several factors: the source; the treatment the water receives, if any; and the quality of the pipes in your home.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency, reports of Americans falling ill from drinking tap water are rare, and mostly involve people who are already in frail health. But it is not known how many people suffer unreported stomach upsets from bacterial contamination, or even more serious problems, like long-term exposure to contaminants like lead, from drinking tap water.

The Environmental Protection Agency regulates the community water systems that supply drinking water to most Americans. Every water system is required to publish a yearly “consumer confidence report” detailing contaminants or violations of water quality standards. You can see the report for your water system by contacting the system directly. To find your water system, visit www.epa.gov/enviro/html/sdwis/sdwis_query.html.

If your water comes from your own well, the E.P.A. advises that you test it annually, especially if you see signs of trouble like corroded pipes, strange odors or stained laundry.

Your municipality, county or state health department may offer free or low-cost testing services; otherwise, you can use a laboratory certified in your state. The E.P.A. has a list at www.epa.gov/safewater/labs/index.html. For further information on well water quality, the E.P.A. suggests consulting nonprofit groups like the American Ground Water Trust (www.agwt.org).

Health departments can offer guidance to well owners on which contaminants to test for. Ask about the presence of radon or heavy metals like arsenic in underground rocks or soils. Tell the laboratory if you live near a farm, an industrial cattle-feeding operation, a gas station, a mine, a factory, a dump or any kind of operation that might produce contaminants that can find their way into ground water.

If your water is contaminated, there are a few steps you can take.

If the issue is corroded pipes in your home, consider replacing them. If your well is contaminated by bacteria, you can have it disinfected. (Be vigilant about testing in the future.) Or you can drill a deeper well.

For a few hundred dollars, you can install a “point of entry” system to filter contaminants, like heavy metals or bacteria, out of water where it enters your home. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the E.P.A. say such filters can help people whose immune systems are weakened by H.I.V., chemotherapy, steroid treatments or other factors. Some experts also recommend them for people who are very young, very old, pregnant or frail.

A number of organizations, including Underwriters Laboratories (www.ul.com/global/eng/pages/) certify units that meet or exceed E.P.A. standards.

You can also use filters that can be attached to the tap or used in pitchers. They differ in quality and the contaminants they remove, so figure out what you need before you buy. Consumers Union, an independent testing organization, rates these filters (www.consumersunion.org). If you use these devices, you must be vigilant about replacing the filter components as scheduled. If you neglect this, even low levels of contaminants can collect in your filter, making it a potential trouble source.

One knotty issue is the presence in the water supply of residues from prescription drugs, personal care products like sunscreen or shampoo, or other substances that scientists call “emerging contaminants.” The E.P.A. says researchers have found these compounds in water almost everywhere they have looked. They attribute this to improved sensors as well as greater prevalence.

Many of these substances seem impervious to water treatment regimes. But are they a problem for people? So far, that question remains unresolved.

from the NY Times

Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Human Suffering

Jennifer Hall-Massey knows not to drink the tap water in her home near Charleston, W.Va.

In fact, her entire family tries to avoid any contact with the water. Her youngest son has scabs on his arms, legs and chest where the bathwater — polluted with lead, nickel and other heavy metals — caused painful rashes. Many of his brother’s teeth were capped to replace enamel that was eaten away.

Neighbors apply special lotions after showering because their skin burns. Tests show that their tap water contains arsenic, barium, lead, manganese and other chemicals at concentrations federal regulators say could contribute to cancer and damage the kidneys and nervous system.

“How can we get digital cable and Internet in our homes, but not clean water?” said Mrs. Hall-Massey, a senior accountant at one of the state’s largest banks.

She and her husband, Charles, do not live in some remote corner of Appalachia. Charleston, the state capital, is less than 17 miles from her home.

“How is this still happening today?” she asked.

When Mrs. Hall-Massey and 264 neighbors sued nine nearby coal companies, accusing them of putting dangerous waste into local water supplies, their lawyer did not have to look far for evidence. As required by state law, some of the companies had disclosed in reports to regulators that they were pumping into the ground illegal concentrations of chemicals — the same pollutants that flowed from residents’ taps.

But state regulators never fined or punished those companies for breaking those pollution laws.

This pattern is not limited to West Virginia. Almost four decades ago, Congress passed the Clean Water Act to force polluters to disclose the toxins they dump into waterways and to give regulators the power to fine or jail offenders. States have passed pollution statutes of their own. But in recent years, violations of the Clean Water Act have risen steadily across the nation, an extensive review of water pollution records by The New York Times found.

In the last five years alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times. The violations range from failing to report emissions to dumping toxins at concentrations regulators say might contribute to cancer, birth defects and other illnesses.

However, the vast majority of those polluters have escaped punishment. State officials have repeatedly ignored obvious illegal dumping, and the Environmental Protection Agency, which can prosecute polluters when states fail to act, has often declined to intervene.

Because it is difficult to determine what causes diseases like cancer, it is impossible to know how many illnesses are the result of water pollution, or contaminants’ role in the health problems of specific individuals.

But concerns over these toxins are great enough that Congress and the E.P.A. regulate more than 100 pollutants through the Clean Water Act and strictly limit 91 chemicals or contaminants in tap water through the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Regulators themselves acknowledge lapses. The new E.P.A. administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, said in an interview that despite many successes since the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972, today the nation’s water does not meet public health goals, and enforcement of water pollution laws is unacceptably low. She added that strengthening water protections is among her top priorities. State regulators say they are doing their best with insufficient resources.

The Times obtained hundreds of thousands of water pollution records through Freedom of Information Act requests to every state and the E.P.A., and compiled a national database of water pollution violations that is more comprehensive than those maintained by states or the E.P.A.

n addition, The Times interviewed more than 250 state and federal regulators, water-system managers, environmental advocates and scientists.

That research shows that an estimated one in 10 Americans have been exposed to drinking water that contains dangerous chemicals or fails to meet a federal health benchmark in other ways.

Those exposures include carcinogens in the tap water of major American cities and unsafe chemicals in drinking-water wells. Wells, which are not typically regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, are more likely to contain contaminants than municipal water systems.

Because most of today’s water pollution has no scent or taste, many people who consume dangerous chemicals do not realize it, even after they become sick, researchers say.

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