Sunday, December 17, 2017

Water-Themed Art

From the Nerdly Painter

Science Inspired, Science Infused, Science Enabled ART

Threads of Water - the Nerdly Painter

"Threads of water uses layers of transparent acrylic media threaded with more viscous streams of paint to create a feeling of transparency, depth and a play of light and color. Lenses, retroreflective spheres and other glass and polymer objects worked into the paint film cast and manipulate the light hitting the painting in novel ways. These “light effects” move and evolve as the viewer interacts with the painting and moves through the room, and are also sensitive to changing light. The result is a very active work that will exhibit subtle scintillating effects under some conditions."

Go to website to order prints: http://www.nerdypainter.com/portfolio/threads-of-water/

Plastic Trash in Oceans Enters Marine Food Chain

Saturday, December 16, 2017

The Water Crisis by Lifewater

Every 60 seconds a child dies from preventable water-borne diseases. Many of our unsafe water sources are in the remote and rural corners of our world. All family members are affected by the water crisis – moms, dads, sons, and daughters. Lack of safe water impacts all areas of life.

Read more at the Lifewater website: https://lifewater.org/water-crisis/

The USGS Water Science School

The best thing I've found on the Internet this week is the USGS Water Science School. They offer sections for Teacher's Resources, adults and kids, a picture gallery, and the site is available in Spanish and Chinese.

Here's a list of topics you can explore on their website.

Explore the website: https://water.usgs.gov/edu/

Friday, December 15, 2017

Water Crisis - A short introduction

Friday, December 8, 2017

How are literature, film, and visual art used for water activism?

Thursday, December 7, 2017

4Ocean - International Clean Up Movement

Help Clean Up Our Oceans With 4Ocean

Visit website: https://4ocean.com/

Friday, December 1, 2017

No Shimmer: Why Scientists Want to Ban Glitter

Credit: Dragon Images/Shutterstock

Quoting article by Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor:

It's sparkly, it's festive and some scientists want to see it swept from the face of the Earth.

Glitter should be banned, researcher Trisia Farrelly, a senior lecturer in environment and planning at Massey University in New Zealand, told CBS. The reason? Glitter is made of microplastic, a piece of plastic less than 0.19 inches (5 millimeters) in length. Specifically, glitter is made up of bits of a polymer called polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which goes by the trade name Mylar. And though it comes in all sizes, glitter is typically just a millimeter or so across, Live Science previously reported.

Microplastics make up a major proportion of ocean pollution. A 2014 study in the open-access journal PLOS ONE estimated that there are about 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic weighing a total of 268,940 tons (243,978 metric tons) floating in the world's seas. Microplastics made up 92.4 percent of the total count.

Read full article here:

No Shimmer: Why Scientists Want to Ban Glitter

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Visit Water World

No, Water World is not an amusement park. And, it's not the movie, either. - It's actually about water!

Visit the Water World website to read articles on:

Drinking Water
Waste Water
Urban Stormwater
Water Utility Management

Click here: http://www.waterworld.com/index/more-news.html

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Here's a headline from 2009:

It’s Now Legal to Catch a Raindrop in Colorado

By KIRK JOHNSONJUNE 28, 2009

Todd S. Anderson used to keep his rain harvesting a secret. Rick Scibelli Jr. for The New York Times

Quoting article:

DURANGO, Colo. — For the first time since territorial days, rain will be free for the catching here, as more and more thirsty states part ways with one of the most entrenched codes of the West.

Precipitation, every last drop or flake, was assigned ownership from the moment it fell in many Western states, making scofflaws of people who scooped rainfall from their own gutters. In some instances, the rights to that water were assigned a century or more ago.

Now two new laws in Colorado will allow many people to collect rainwater legally. The laws are the latest crack in the rainwater edifice, as other states, driven by population growth, drought, or declining groundwater in their aquifers, have already opened the skies or begun actively encouraging people to collect.

“I was so willing to go to jail for catching water on my roof and watering my garden,” said Tom Bartels, a video producer here in southwestern Colorado, who has been illegally watering his vegetables and fruit trees from tanks attached to his gutters. “But now I’m not a criminal.”

Who owns the sky, anyway? In most of the country, that is a question for philosophy class or bad poetry. In the West, lawyers parse it with straight faces and serious intent. The result, especially stark here in the Four Corners area of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, is a crazy quilt of rules and regulations — and an entire subculture of people like Mr. Bartels who have been using the rain nature provided but laws forbade.

###

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/us/29rain.html

Monday, October 30, 2017

Water Pollution

Another image of the horrors of water pollution around the globe.

Source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/user-media.venngage.com/476755-11f386f90a8864465cc8267c2e2eef9e.jpg

Sunday, October 22, 2017

A Blog Devoted to Plastic Pollution

"Quotes About Plastic Pollution"

- A blog

"Sooner or later, we will have to recognise that the Earth has rights, too, to live without pollution. What mankind must know is that human beings cannot live without Mother Earth, but the planet can live without humans." by Evo Morales

Source: http://quotesgram.com/quotes-about-plastic-pollution/

Ready To Give Up Plastic Yet?

"Shocking images show how bottles, bags and rubbish are choking oceans"

Source: https://www.icetrend.com/shocking-images-show-how-bottles-bags-and-rubbish-are-choking-oceans/

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Biogradable Water Bottle

Wow, you've got to read this article. Congratulations to Icelandic product design student Ari Jónsson on developing this amazing biodegradable bottle.

Photo by Ari Jónsson

This biodegradable water bottle breaks down when it’s empty

Excerpt here:

Your water bottle could one day start to biodegrade the moment you finish drinking, if a visionary piece of design becomes reality.

The brainchild of Icelandic product design student Ari Jónsson, the bottle holds its shape until you’ve drained it. As soon as it’s empty, the bottle will start to decompose.

As he argued in Dezeen Magazine: “Why are we using materials that take hundreds of years to break down in nature to drink from once and then throw away?”

How does it work?

The bottle is made from a powdered form of agar – a substance obtained from algae. When this powder is mixed with water it becomes a jelly-like material, which can be moulded into a shape of your choosing.

Jónsson explained in an article with Co.Exist that the mix of algae and water produces the perfect lifespan for the bottle. It needs liquid to hold its shape, but once it’s empty it begins to break down.

He argues that the water is entirely safe to drink, although it might take on a bit of a salty taste after a while. You could even eat the bottle, which is said to taste a bit like “seaweed jello”.

At the moment the design is little more than a concept, but Jónsson hopes it will get people thinking about the problem and consider developing their own solutions.

Read full article here: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/04/this-biodegradable-water-bottle-breaks-down-when-it-s-empty?utm_content=buffer397b6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Friday, September 15, 2017

Hurricane Irma Devastates the Caribbean

"For the first time in 300 years, no one is living on Barbuda"
-CNN

(CNN) When Hurricane Irma ravaged the island of Barbuda in the Caribbean, the ferocious storm "extinguished" the isle's way of life and left the beautiful spot "uninhabitable." And, now, for the first time in a few centuries, no one lives there.

Remains of a house in Barbuda

Tortola, British Virgin Islands

St. Martin

Saturday, September 2, 2017

Get Some Glass!

The best purchase I may have ever made yesterday at IKEA:

Glass bottles for my water and other beverages. Only $2.38 (79 baht) at the IKEA in Bangkok, Thailand.

Thanks IKEA, for making glass bottles affordable. Everyone should use them!

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Climate Refugees: Coming Soon

I've posted information like this before, but it is worth repeating in light of upcoming airing from CBS:

The people of Kiribati could become the world's first climate refugees

Stay tuned:

Some people in the South Pacific could become the world’s first climate change refugees due to rising sea levels. For “CBSN: On Assignment,” CBS News correspondent Seth Doane visits the low-lying island nation of Kiribati where about 100,000 people live. Watch the full report on Monday, Aug. 21, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and CBSN

Read more here: https://wdef.com/2017/08/19/the-people-of-kiribati-could-become-the-worlds-first-climate-refugees/

Six-year Ban on Plastic Water Bottles Ended - Thanks, Trump

Who knew plastic water bottles in national parks would be a political issue? The common good over corporate profit, right? Not so under the Trump administration.

If the original Bill was indeed flawed, why not fix it instead of ending the ban?

National parks put a ban on bottled water to ease pollution. Trump just sided with the lobby that fought it.


Hikers wade through the Virgin River along the “Narrows” in Zion in 2014.		(Ross D. Franklin/AP)

The Trump administration has ended a six-year-old ban on selling bottled water at some national parks that was aimed at easing plastic pollution and the huge amount of waste being recycled.

In a statement that closely tracked the arguments of a campaign by the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) in opposition to the ban, the National Park Service said the 2011 action under the Obama administration “removed the healthiest beverage choice at a variety of parks while still allowing sales of bottled sweetened drinks.”

The move follows a review of the policy “in close consultation with Department of Interior leadership,” according to the statement Wednesday. The department declined to elaborate.

The decision came three weeks after the Senate confirmation of David Bernhardt as deputy interior secretary. Bernhardt is a former lobbyist with the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, which has represented one of the largest water bottlers in the United States, Nestlé Waters. Nestlé distributes the Deer Park brand.

Another quote from the article: “Under Trump, the Department of the Interior appears to be working hand in hand with the bottled-water industry to do its bidding,” said Lauren DeRusha Florez, associate campaign director for Corporate Accountability International, a nonprofit groups that takes on the tobacco, fast-food and fossil-fuel industries.

Read the full article by Darryl Fears here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/08/17/national-parks-banned-bottled-water-to-ease-pollution-trump-just-sided-with-the-lobby-that-fought-it/?utm_term=.85f3ffec4712

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

The Gulf Of Mexico's Dead Zone

More bad news, water lovers:

The Gulf Of Mexico's Dead Zone Is The Biggest Ever Seen

The teal blue area along the Louisiana coastline represents a "dead zone" of oxygen-depleted water.
Resulting from nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in the Mississippi River, it can potentially hurt fisheries.

NASA/Getty Images

Quoting the NPR article:

It has become a rite of summer. Every year, a "dead zone" appears in the Gulf of Mexico. It's an area where water doesn't have enough oxygen for fish to survive. And every year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration commissions scientists to venture out into the Gulf to measure it.

This week, NOAA announced that this year's dead zone is the biggest one ever measured. It covers 8,776 square miles — an area the size of New Jersey. And it's adding fuel to a debate over whether state and federal governments are doing enough to cut pollution that comes from farms.

The debate actually goes back many years, at least to 1985, when Don Scavia was a scientist at the NOAA. He and his colleagues asked some scientists, for the first time, to go look for a dead zone in the Gulf.

"We expected it to be there," Scavia recalls. They expected to find it because they knew that the Mississippi River delivers a heavy load of nutrient pollution, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus, into the Gulf.

Farmers use those nutrients on fields as fertilizer. Rain washes them into nearby streams and rivers. And when they reach the Gulf of Mexico, those nutrients unleash blooms of algae, which then die and decompose. That is what uses up the oxygen in a thick layer of water at the bottom of the Gulf, in a band that follows the coastline.

The record-breaking dead zone this year is the result of unusually heavy rains in the Midwest, which flushed a lot of nutrients into the Gulf.

The dead zone is invisible from the surface of the ocean. Scientists lower instruments into the water to measure oxygen levels near the bottom. But Scavia describes it as a kind of hidden environmental disaster. "You know, it's 8,000 square miles of no oxygen. That can't be good!" he says. Potentially, it could have huge economic costs as well, because it imperils Louisiana's shrimp industry.

Read full article from NPR here: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/08/03/541222717/the-gulf-of-mexicos-dead-zone-is-the-biggest-ever-seen

Monday, August 7, 2017

Is Boxed Water Better?

Here are the folks who will tell you why boxed water is better:

BETTER PACKAGING.
BETTER PLANET.

Bottled water is convenient. The way it’s produced isn’t. Our boxes are more eco-friendly than plastic bottles and are more efficient to produce and ship. Every choice we make is a step toward a healthier lifestyle. Make Boxed Water one of your steps.

PUTTING THE PLANET FIRST

It’s our responsibility to take care of the planet. We offer a convenient, environmentally-friendly alternative to plastic bottled water. We are 100% recyclable and ship flat to our regional filling locations; reducing our carbon footprint compared to plastic.

SUSTAINABLE BY DESIGN

Roughly three-quarters of each of our boxes is made of paper, fully recyclable and free of BPAs and phthalates. Our paper comes from well-managed forests which are continually being replanted to replace harvested trees, helping offset our carbon footprint and allowing us all to breathe easier.

Saturday, August 5, 2017

Water Supply Decline In East Asia

Climate plays role in decline of one of Asia's most critical water resources

Photo from: http://www.writeopinions.com/yangtze-plain

Source: Kansas State University

Quoting the article:

Climate variability -- rather than the presence of a major dam -- is most likely the primary cause for a water supply decline in East Asia's largest floodplain lake system, according to a Kansas State University researcher.

The fluvial lake system across China's Yangtze River Plain, which serves nearly half a billion people and is a World Wildlife Fund ecoregion, lost about 10 percent of its water area from 2000-2011, according to Jida Wang, assistant professor of geography. Wang and colleagues published their findings for the lake system's decline in the American Geophysical Union's journal Water Resources Research.

"Many people's first intuition is that the culprit must be the Three Gorges Dam because it impounds so much water in the Yangtze River, but our fingerprinting study undeniably shows that the dam is not the decline's primary cause," Wang said. "Climate variability is the predominant driver of this decadal dynamic."

Wang collaborated with Yongwei Sheng, of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Yoshihide Wada, of Austria's International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. They found that roughly 80 percent of the observed lake decline is the result of simultaneous climate variability closely related to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, which has caused droughts and flooding in the region.

Read full article here: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170803103146.htm

Houston Zoo will no longer sell plastic water bottles

Congratulations to Houston Zoo!

Good news via Ban The Bottle:

Ban The Bottle is reporting that the Houston Zoo has taken the important step to ban plastic water bottles following their momentous announcement banning plastic bags in 2015.

Read on, water lovers:

HOUSTON (KTRK) —

In 2015, the Houston Zoo removed plastic bags in the gift shops to protect animals in the wild, by eliminating an estimated 80,000 plastic bags from entering landfills and the environment each year. Now, two years later, the zoo-based conservation organization has gone one step further and eliminated single-use plastic water bottles from all concession stands.

The zoo provides veterinary care for rescued wild sea turtles that have consumed plastic every year. The elimination of single-use plastic water bottles will have a significant, wildlife saving, impact on the environment by reducing the amount of plastic waste by nearly 300,000 single-use plastic bottles in just one year.

Guests now have two choices when purchasing water at the zoo – an aluminum reusable water bottle (pre-filled with water) or a JUST Water recyclable, paper-based water bottle at any of the restaurants or kiosks. JUST Water bottles are made up of 82 percent renewable resources, leaving behind a much smaller carbon footprint than bottles made entirely of plastic. The bottle itself is made of paper from certified forests and the plastic cap is made from sugarcane, making JUST Water bottles 100 percent recyclable.

The zoo also has water bottle refilling stations throughout its grounds. There are two types of refilling stations- free standing, green fountains and silver, chilled fountains attached to walls, made possible by a partnership with Texas Plumbing Supply.

These fountains are easily recognizable by the “Save Sea Turtles Here” signs. Using reusable water bottles and refilling them at these stations helps save sea turtles in the wild by keeping this waste out of the ocean. Plastic bottles and bags can make their way to Houston’s waterways and end up in the ocean, home to animals like sea turtles, sting rays, sharks, and an array of fish.

“The zoo is committed to saving animals, and their habitats, in the wild and this is just one more way we can inspire guests to take simple actions and join us in protecting wildlife,” says Peter Riger, vice president of conservation education. “We are using this action specifically to highlight the need to protect marine animals from debris. It also allows our guests to play a direct part in making a difference on our planet.”

Read full article here: https://www.banthebottle.net/articles/houston-zoo-will-no-longer-sell-plastic-water-bottles/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BanTheBottle+%28Ban+the+Bottle%29

Sunday, July 30, 2017

More than 8.3 billion tons of plastics made

Another article on plastic that needs to be shared around the world. Stop using plastic, people!

This article is from Science Daily:

More than 8. 3 billion tons of plastics made: Most has now been discarded

Humans have created 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics since large-scale production of the synthetic materials began in the early 1950s, and most of it now resides in landfills or the natural environment, according to a study published in the journal Science Advances.

Led by a team of scientists from the University of Georgia, the University of California, Santa Barbara and Sea Education Association, the study is the first global analysis of the production, use and fate of all plastics ever made.

The researchers found that by 2015, humans had generated 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics, 6.3 billion tons of which had already become waste. Of that waste total, only 9 percent was recycled, 12 percent was incinerated and 79 percent accumulated in landfills or the natural environment.
If current trends continue, roughly 12 billion metric tons of plastic waste will be in landfills or the natural environment by 2050. Twelve billion metric tons is about 35,000 times as heavy as the Empire State Building.

"Most plastics don't biodegrade in any meaningful sense, so the plastic waste humans have generated could be with us for hundreds or even thousands of years," said Jenna Jambeck, study co-author and associate professor of engineering at UGA. "Our estimates underscore the need to think critically about the materials we use and our waste management practices."

The scientists compiled production statistics for resins, fibers and additives from a variety of industry sources and synthesized them according to type and consuming sector.

Global production of plastics increased from 2 million metric tons in 1950 to over 400 million metric tons in 2015, according to the study, outgrowing most other human-made materials. Notable exceptions are materials that are used extensively in the construction sector, such as steel and cement.
But while steel and cement are used primarily for construction, plastics' largest market is packaging, and most of those products are used once and discarded.

"Roughly half of all the steel we make goes into construction, so it will have decades of use -- plastic is the opposite," said Roland Geyer, lead author of the paper and associate professor in UCSB's Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. "Half of all plastics become waste after four or fewer years of use."

And the pace of plastic production shows no signs of slowing. Of the total amount of plastics produced from 1950 to 2015, roughly half was produced in just the last 13 years.

Read the full article here: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170719140939.htm

'Ditch plastic straws'

Here's a great article on reducing plastic waste:

'Ditch plastic straws' – experts and campaigners on how to cut plastic waste

Lily Cole helps launch charity T-shirts made using recycled plastic to

draw attention to the 15m plastic water bottles used each day in the UK.

Photograph: Dave M. Benett

Marks & Spencer has redesigned and repackaged more than 140 best-selling products to cut plastic use, saving 75 tonnes of packaging a year in the process.

But are retailers and manufacturers doing enough? What more could and should they be doing? We asked a range of packaging experts and campaigners. Here’s what they said.

Lily Cole: ‘Ditch single-use plastic water bottles’

Companies should be proactively designing solutions to reduce plastic waste. Single-use plastic water bottles are perhaps the most damning culprit when there are so many alternatives readily available. I recently supported Brita’s #SwapForGood campaign, committing to avoiding single-use plastic water bottles and carrying around a reusable bottle instead.

Read the full article here: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/30/retailers-manufacturers-reduce-plastic-use-waste-lily-cole-ellen-macarthur

Thursday, July 13, 2017

An Iceberg has broken off Antarctica ice shelf

If you haven't heard the news yet, here it is. Read it and weep. Weep for the Earth, that is.

Here's the gist of the article by USA Today:

What happens now that the iceberg has broken off Antarctica ice shelf?

A giant iceberg nearly the size of Delaware has broken off an Antarctic ice shelf.
Scientists have closely watched the growing crack in the ice shelf over the past few months.
Swansea University professor Adrian Luckman, a scientist with Project MIDAS, answered many of the burning questions about the newly created iceberg.

How is the iceberg tracked?

It is being tracked by many types of satellite data. As for actual photos taken by scientists aboard a survey plane, that won't occur until October, when the Antarctic spring is underway.

Read the full article here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2017/02/02/antarctica-ice-shelf-q-and-a/97406348/

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Ooho! The Edible Water Bottle

This innovative concept of replacing plastic water bottles is getting lots of raves, but detractors are also out there. What do you think about Ooho? In reaching out to my small circle of water activists, I found people who love the Ooho and but some think it still encourages the concept of "gotta have portable water with me no matter what, and as long as it's not from a water fountain."

(http://mentalfloss.com/article/68911/edible-water-bottle-could-change-hydration-forever)

Here's an intro from Interesting Engineering:

'Think outside of the bottle! Those are the words of wisdom from a London-based innovative start-up called Skipping Rocks Lab, a group of researchers and business developers whose aim is to make product packaging obsolete. Their solution to the unsustainable production and disposal of plastic bottles is to make an edible water bottle you can safely eat and drink. It’s called Ooho!"

Read more here: http://interestingengineering.com/meet-ooho-a-sustainable-water-bottle-you-can-eat-and-drink/

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Top 10 Most Endangered Rivers in the US

Is a river near you on the list?

Colorado River snaking along the Grand Canyon at sunset. Arizona.

Photograph by Pete McBride, National Geographic Creative

By Alexandra E. Petri

PUBLISHED April 11, 2017

Water is life, yet climate change and certain public policies may be endangering its future in America, a nonprofit group warns in a new report. The stakes are high, with the current presidential administration having proposed budget cuts that may eliminate some safeguards for clean drinking water and rivers nationwide.

That’s according to American Rivers, a Washington, D.C.-based conservation group, which released its annual list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers on Tuesday. The list outlines rivers that the group warns face an urgent threat or critical decision point in the coming year.

America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2017:

#1: Lower Colorado River (Arizona, California, Nevada)

Threat: Water demand and climate change

#2: Bear River (California)

Threat: New Dam

#3: South Fork Skykomish (Washington)

Threat: New hydropower project

#4: Mobile Bay Rivers (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi)

Threat: Poor water management

#5: Rappahannock River (Virginia)

Threat: Fracking

#6: Green-Toutle River (Washington)

Threat: New mine

#7: Neuse and Cape Fear Rivers (North Carolina)

Threat: Pollution from hog and chicken farms

#8: Middle Fork Flathead River (Montana)

Threat: Oil transport by rail

#9: Buffalo National River (Arkansas)

Threat: Pollution from massive hog farm

#10: Menominee River (Michigan, Wisconsin)

Threat: Open pit sulfide mining

Read full article here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/most-endangered-rivers-us-american-rivers/?google_editors_picks=true

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Another Water Crisis

National Geographic has a section on their website called: Water Crisis News. This is a great resource to check for issues around the world. Below is an intro to one of the current articles:

Wildlife Dying En Masse as South American River Runs Dry

"The Pilcomayo River in Paraguay is littered with dead caiman and fish carcasses as the government scrambles to find a solution.

Vultures rest in the tree’s upper branches, their black bodies in stark contrast to the blanched wood beneath their feet. Below them, caimans and capybaras crawl in sucking mud through the Agropil lagoon, seeking water that is unlikely to arrive for many months. The river has dried up, and there is nowhere for them to go.

Paraguay is in the midst of an ecological crisis."

Read full article here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/pilcomayo-river-paraguay-caiman-capybara-fish-drought-death-water/

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Water At Risk Under The Trump Administration

It's no surprise that the Waters of the United States, WOTUS, are in danger under the Trump administration. Here's an article that highlights the concern on this topic:

Photo: Jim Brandenburg/Minden Pictures

The Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Rule: What It Is and Why It's Important

President Trump has ordered the EPA to begin reviewing the rule that governs how the agency protects waterways. Here's what WOTUS means to wildlife and people alike.

"Keep navigable waters clean." It sounds straightforward, but in practice it's anything but. For decades, the Environmental Protection Agency has struggled with that task, after the Clean Water Act in 1972 gave them the authority to regulate "navigable waters." But "navigable" doesn't cover small streams and wetlands, and water in those areas has a habit of flowing downhill into other, larger bodies of water. Whether the EPA could regulate all that water before it reached someplace navigable was never clear.

Read full article here: http://www.audubon.org/news/the-waters-united-states-wotus-rule-what-it-and-why-its-important

Thursday, December 28, 2017