Salt in water sources becoming worrisome in D.C. region, experts warn By Antonio Olivo August 8, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT The Washington region is growing — a metropolis of nearly 6 million people where area officials are pressing to build another 320,000 homes by the end of this decade. And with that growth comes
Every spring, Dr. Carl Isaacson, a professor of environmental studies at Bemidji State University, sends his students out to collect perch from waters across Minnesota. Then, they study an egg yolk protein found in the perchs’ livers, called vitellogenin, which may provide evidence of endocrine disruption in the state’s aquatic species. Over the past few
About 5,000 fish have died because of algaecides applied to Hartwell Lake in an effort to improve the region’s drinking water. The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and the state’s public-health agency are investigating the fish kill, which affects the area around the Anderson Joint Regional Water System’s intake on the lake. 160 acres
Water suppliers along the drought-stricken Colorado River hope to tackle another tricky issue after the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation installs a new leader: salty water. The river provides water for 40 million people from Colorado to California, and helps irrigate 5.5 million acres of farm and ranchland in the U.S. But all that water also
Surrounded by some of the world’s richest soil and home to two major grain processing plants, Decatur has long been a hub for agribusiness in the United States. One major trade-off comes in the form of excess nutrients, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus, that runoff from fertilizers used on local farm fields and from discharges from
A national environmental organization labeled the Raccoon River one of the country’s most endangered because of toxic algae and nitrates. Des Moines Water Works called it a “catastrophe,” as the Raccoon is the major source for drinking water for a half-million Iowans. Des Moines Water Works, after dumping as much as $250,000 a year into
All the things that go down the drain and end up at the waste water treatment plant are not removed there. Some of the industrial byproducts that end up in sewers, the agricultural chemicals that runoff farmland, and pharmaceuticals that pass through our bodies all can end up in our streams and lakes. Water treatment
The Environmental Protection Agency has determined that the endocrine-disrupting pesticide atrazine and cancer-linked pesticide glyphosate are each likely to harm more than 1,000 of the nation’s most endangered plants and animals. These chemical poisons are causing severe harm to imperiled wildlife since U.S. use exceeds 70 million pounds of atrazine and 300 million pounds of
Nine months ago, Hurricane Maria slammed Puerto Rico and damaged the system that feeds drinking water from the main island to Vieques. Moses West, 59, a retired Army officer from Texas, brought in the machine made by his company to help fill the void. He spends his days beside it, fine-tuning the repurposed 20-foot shipping
An estimated 9 to 10 percent of Wisconsin wells have tested over safe limits for nitrate. Studies have estimated that 90% of nitrate in groundwater comes from spreading of synthetic fertilizers and dairy manure on farm fields, with most of the remainder from septic systems. Nitrate behaves differently. Relatively little lingers near roots where it
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