River Network Blogs

The energy management decisions we make today have a huge impact on the water resources of tomorrow. Therefore, water related impacts from electricity production should absolutely be a key factor in every energy policy decision made. Check out this new report by The Great Lakes Energy-Water Nexus team, Integrating Energy and Water Resources Decision Making in the Great Lakes Basin: An Examination of Future Power Generation Scenarios and Water Resource Impacts. Click the title, image or here to view the full post.

For decades, hydroelectric dams have disrupted the migratory and spawning patterns of fish and other river running riparian species, essentially wiping out entire species in some cases. However, the destructive nature of hydroelectric dams could be changed as scientists and engineers at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Alden Laboratories, have recently developed a new "fish friendly" hydroelectric turbine. Click the title, image or here to view the full post.

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!

Since as far back as the 1950s, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a series of reports tracking the loss of wetlands in the United States. This month they released the newest reports, which details the status of our wetlands from 2004 to 2009.

Chairman and Chief Scientist at the Rocky Mountain Institute, Amory Lovins in his recently published book "Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era," argues that the United States can stop its use of oil, coal and nuclear power - entirely - by the year 2050. Check out this video clip form E&E TV's OnPoint show to hear Lovins make his key arguments in support of this excellent theory. Click the title, image or here to view the entire post.

Although fish and others who rely on our rivers don’t see the separation, our legal system has long treated water quality and quantity as unrelated concerns. Water quality is regulated by the federal Clean Water Act, while state laws govern water quantity. For too long, the chasm between quality and quantity has been viewed as unbridgeable.

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.