We now find that under the current amount of warming, the probability of a severe drought year has approximately doubled. — Park Williams, assistant research professor at Columbia University’…
Category Archives: Water
Pharmaceutical pollution widespread in Southeast U.S. streams | Summit County Citizens Voice
GR: We have known about this for at least 20 years, but nothing has been done because of the high cost of filtering urban waste water. Large corporations and stock holders avoid taxes, and what the rest of us pay is insufficient for more than a tot-lot or two and more roads to support further develpment and “progress.”
Bob Berwin: “Traces of pain-relieving substances, diabetes drugs and allergy medicines are widespread in small streams across the Southeast, especially in urban zones like Raleigh, North Carolina, the U.S. Geological Survey found in a new study.
“The USGS in 2014 sampled 59 small streams in portions of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia for 108 different pharmaceutical compounds and detected one or more pharmaceuticals in all 59 streams. The average number of pharmaceuticals detected in the streams was six.
“The EPA is currently developing rules for regulating pharmaceutical pollution, but government watchdogs say the agency’s proposal is much to weak. Other studies have shown that the toxic cocktail of pharmaceutical remnants is already affecting basic stream health. From there, the chemicals are making their way up the food chain and have even turned up in remote Mexican cenotes. Source: Pharmaceutical pollution widespread in Southeast U.S. streams | Summit County Citizens Voice
Climate change, dams, deforestation a vicious cycle for Amazon rivers, lakes
Dams, mining, land-cover changes, and climate change are degrading the streams, rivers, lakes, and forests of the world’s largest river basin at unprecedented rates, according to scientists. From: phys.org
GR: The problems were recognized by Alexander von Humboldt over 200 years ago. What does that say about professional land management and planning agencies?
Arizona water experts call for ‘culture of conservation’
Recommendations from the Arizona Town Hall include more use of reclaimed wastewater and stormwater runoff. From: azdailysun.com
GR: It is interesting that Arizona’s “Water Experts” advocate water reclamation at public expense, but say nothing about slowing growth at developer expense. Oh, BTW, Are you kids still wasting all that water rinsing your toothbrushes? Don’t you know that you are killing off the bunnies and deer?
Elephant seal molt raises mercury levels in coastal water
“Researchers link seasonal fluctuations in toxin with elephant seal fur
“FRISCO — So much mercury has accumulated in the ocean food chain that, when northern California sea lions molt their fur, the toxic substance can traced in the water.
“Mercury is one of those toxins that just keeps building up. It never really goes away, but just changes form. That’s a real problem in the marine environment, because the most toxic variation, methyl mercury, is readily absorbed and accumulates in the bodies of marine organisms.
“In a process known as “biomagnification,” the toxin becomes more and more concentrated as it passes up the food chain. Thus, mercury concentrations in top predators can be 1 million to 10 million times higher than the levels found in seawater.” Sourced through Scoop.it from: summitcountyvoice.com
GR: Mercury is increasing in freshwater and seawater across most of the planet.
Arizona’s new water rush raising tensions
BOWIE — Farmers from California and Arizona are pushing to drill wells and pump unregulated water in Cochise County, triggering intense rivalries and calls for a crackdown.
Some farmers from the drought-parched, increasingly regulated Central Valley of California want to plant pistachios and other crops here, largely to feed China’s growing demand for tree nuts. But others who are already here and pumping water want the state to limit new irrigation. Sourced through Scoop.it from: azdailysun.com
GR: Everyone acknowledges that groundwater is a limited resource that will all be gone one day, but no one acknowledges that the riparian habitats along streams and springs fed by groundwater have either already disappeared or will disappear over the next few years. Such blind ambition is destroying our wildlife. Arizona farmers, “Wealth isn’t just bank balances, it’s also the beauty of our surroundings.”
GarryRogers Nature Conservation 