River Habitat Blog: Sort by Date Archive

The Mississippi River and rivers all around the United States stand to benefit greatly from two lawsuits filed today. If successful, the lawsuits could help limit nutrient pollution -- excessive nitrogen and phosphorus -- which can choke our streams and rivers in algae and create the massive Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

I'm late with the Wednesday Roundup again but I have a good excuse. Several good excuses.

Join us on Wednesday, February 15 at Noon eastern/11 central/10 mountain/9 pacific for a River Network webinar on a fundamental tool of the Clean Water Act – water quality standards.

I hate to do a post that just says "read this," but sometimes a piece of writing is so compelling there is little to add except an exhortation to engage with the thinking. A recent paper -- Water-Use Efficiency and Productivity: Rethinking the Basin Approach -- by Peter Gleick and two of his colleagues at the Pacific Institute is just such a piece.

In the last week it seems like suddenly everyone in the West is talking about the weather -- or the lack of it. The lack of snow and hence snow pack in particular. While it is early in the season and much can still change, the current clear skies seem to be motivating a flurry of media coverage of issues related to snow, climate, flows and related concerns in the region.

Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a draft document detailing new recreational water quality criteria for bacteria. Comments on the draft document are due February 21, 2012.

Scheduled to go into effect this January, the Federal lighting efficiency standard that was signed into law by President Bush as a part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, has now effectively been shot dead in the water. Today, a Federal omnibus bill was passed that prohibits the Department of Energy from spending any money to enforce the efficiency standards. Click the title, image or here to view the entire post.

Did you miss the hottest webinar yet in our Habitat Webinar series – the Clean Water Act Through the Biological Lens with Professor Robert Adler? Never fear, the recorded version is here!

Information overload. Analysis paralysis. Overflowing in boxes. We all wrestle with these issues every day. One small way the Habitat Program staff can help the beleaguered watershed groups of the nation wade through the information morass? The Wednesday Roundup.

The New York Times weighed in yesterday on one of the most important issues of the day (and decade) for anyone who wants safe, clean water -- the issue of which waters are protected by the Clean Water Act.

River Network's Habitat Program is excited to host a well-known Clean Water Act expert -- Bob Adler -- as a guest presenter in our on-going webinar series. River advocates interested in more effectively applying the power of the Clean Water Act to protect and restore aquatic ecosystems would be crazy to miss this chance to talk with one of the country's best thinkers on the issues we all care about....crazy!

Two runners cover 130 miles in 52 hours. Driven salmon swim 900 miles and climb 7,000 feet. Who's crazier?

It isn't the big 4-0, but it sure is getting close. Today, one of the nation's most successful and beloved environmental laws - the Clean Water Act -- turns 39.

Luckily for the Charles River (and all the people who visit it) some people don't see any problem as too big. Or too long-term. Or too gross.