Staff and wire reports | Posted: May 18, 2010 8:10 pm SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge ruled Tuesday in favor of Central Valley farmers and urban water agencies seeking to loosen restrictions on pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a major source of irrigation and drinking water for much of California. U.S. District Judge […]
By BILL POOVEY (AP) CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The Tennessee Valley Authority will permanently store onsite more than 2 million cubic yards of coal ash from a massive spill as part of the utility’s second phase of clean up. At $270 million, the onsite storage will consist of 25-foot-tall heap with no liner system beside […]
By Julia Scott | May 13, 2010 The water supply of more than two million Californians has been exposed to harmful levels of nitrates over the past 15 years – a time marked by lax regulatory efforts to contain the colorless and odorless contaminant, a California Watch investigation has found. Nitrates are now the most […]
By MICHAEL BURNHAM AND NATHANIAL GRONEWOLD of GreenwirePublished: May 17, 2010 NAKURU, Kenya — The wooded ridge rising to the west of this bustling provincial capital is the home of one of Kenya’s greatest natural resources and one of Africa’s biggest environmental crises. The Mau Forest Complex encompasses almost 1 million acres of wilderness, interspersed […]
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 14, 2010 (ENS) – Clean drinking water is an increasingly scarce resource for millions of people in Iraq, according to a new report released today by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The agency says its engineers are doing their best to improve access to safe water in the face of […]
Four East African states have signed an agreement to seek more water from the River Nile – a move strongly opposed by Egypt and Sudan. Under colonial-era accords, the two countries get 90% of the river’s water. Upstream countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia say it is unfair and want a new deal […]
SANAA (Reuters) – Two people died in a southern Yemeni village where the military intervened to end a dispute over water rights, underscoring tensions sparked by a looming water crisis in the impoverished Arabian peninsular state. Twenty homes were damaged and unarmed residents were forced to flee Shara’ab, in the southern province of Taiz, during […]
By Bob BealeMay 4, 2010 (PhysOrg.com) — The slow death of one of Australia’s iconic wetlands is causing dramatic upheavals in its bird populations, with species from surrounding farmland moving in to replace many small woodland birds as they lose their habitat, a new study has found. Their loss is adding to the widespread decline […]
Yunnan’s worst drought for many years has been exacerbated by destruction of forest cover and a history of poor water management. By Jane Qiu in Beijing Born into a farming family in south Yunnan province, China, Zhu Youyong’s life has always been tied to the soil. At the age of 54, however, Zhu — now […]
By TOM ARUP AND BEN CUBBYMay 12, 2010 JUST 25 per cent of flood plains in the Murray-Darling Basin were inundated with water during the devastating drought that gripped the nation during the past decade, detailed environment modelling by the CSIRO has found. The long-term effects of the lack of water means that the ecological […]
