montana hills

A judge in Montana recently ruled in favor of landowners and ranchers fighting against a housing development project near Helena that could have put further stress on steadily declining groundwater reserves.  Public defiance: Initially, the state and county governments had signed off on a developer’s plans to build 39 homes that would pull their water from […]

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Almond trees in bloom

By Kurtis AlexanderMarch 13, 2024 Climate change is driving up the thirst of crops significantly in California’s San Joaquin Valley, new research shows, adding to the critical water challenges faced by one of the world’s leading agricultural regions. The total water demand of orchards, vineyards and row crops in the area is up 4.4% over the past […]

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Irrigation hardware

North Coast Stream Flow Coalition The Coalition is strongly in favor of regulation for California Groundwater Resources. Groundwater and surface waters constitute a single resource (see: Thomas C. Winter, Judson W. Harvey, O. Lehn Franke, and William M. Alley, Groundwater and Surface Water: A Single Resource, U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1139, 2006). This means that […]

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Logs stacked in a forrest

Mar 5, 2024 ASHEVILLE, N.C., March 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — A new lawsuit alleges the U.S. Forest Service’s practice of setting ‘timber targets’ puts the climate at risk, undermines the Biden administration’s important climate goals, and violates federal law. The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia […]

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dam releasing water

The largest-ever dam removal is underway, a milestone in the nation’s reckoning over its past attempts to bend nature to human will

It was a small moment, with little fanfare, in one of the most remote patches of northern California. Just the rat-a-tat of three Caterpillar excavators gnawing through concrete signaled the beginning of the largest dam removal project in the history of the country, and perhaps the world.

There was no ribbon cutting or ceremonial dynamite detonation. But the demolition on that June day arrived only after decades of argument and activism.

The Klamath River dams, built between the early 1900s and 1960s, fundamentally reshaped one of the West’s most […]

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Supporting Organizations from CEQA Works pdf

California’s leading environmental justice, land use, and conservation organizations—109 in number and representing hundreds of thousands of constituents throughout the state—are writing you at this critical moment. We live in a time of unparalleled threats to our environment and communities. With climate change, every Californian faces increasing risks from wildfires, persistent drought, rising seas, and […]

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California hills under cloudy skies

Abstract Across the world, declining groundwater levels cause wells to run dry, increase water and food insecurity, and often acutely impact groundwater-dependent communities. Despite the ubiquity and severity of these impacts, groundwater research has primarily focused on economic policy instruments for sustainable management or the quantification of groundwater depletion, rather than assessing the impacts of […]

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drinking fountain

Bloomberg Law | Jan. 30, 2024, 2:30 AM PST | By Pat Rizzuto https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/fluoride-science-on-trial-in-case-with-broader-chemical-impacts    Fluoride added to tap water to fight cavities for 75 years   Judge to conduct rare, de novo review of chemical’s science The health effects of a cavity-fighting chemical backed by health providers for decades will be on trial starting Wednesday, marking a […]

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In March 2023, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) determined that the groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) for six critically overdrafted, high-priority groundwater basins in the Central Valley are inadequate. The six basins with inadequate GSPs, from north to south, are the Chowchilla, Delta-Mendota, Kaweah, Tulare Lake, Tule, and Kern County subbasins (please see map below). […]

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San Francisco: Plaintiffs’ attorneys had a good day at the courthouse on Tuesday, January 16th, in San Francisco, as a pre-trial hearing wrapped up before the start of a 9-day federal trial over the neurotoxicity of fluoridation chemicals, according to the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). Key Moments: The trial will take place in person in San […]

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water in stream over rocks

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 was the first major U.S. law to address water pollution. Growing public awareness and concern for controlling water pollution led to sweeping amendments in 1972. As amended in 1972, the law became commonly known as the Clean Water Act (CWA). […] Subsequent amendments modified some of the earlier CWA provisions. Revisions in 1981 streamlined the municipal construction grants process, improving the capabilities of treatment plants built under the program.

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held vs montana

by Sam Bookman, S.J.D. Candidate  8/30/2023 Young people across the United States have been asking courts to compel actions to address climate change. In the past, many federal and state courts have been reluctant to interfere in complex policy decisions that often raise concerns about causation, plaintiff standing, separation of powers, and the lack of […]

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The Fluoride Action Network (FAN) applauds the utilities staff and decision makers of Branson, Missouri–as well as the local residents who spoke up–for taking action to protect the community and public employees from the serious risks posed by the practice of water fluoridation.  On November 14th, the Branson Board of Alderman voted unanimously to repeal their municipal ordinance that allowed […]

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A divided federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld an injunction barring California from requiring businesses to warn consumers that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller, causes cancer.

In a 2-1 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it was unconstitutional for California to require Bayer AG’s (BAYGn.DE) Monsanto unit, which makes Roundup, and some agricultural producers to provide the warning under a state law known as Proposition 65.

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Photo by CDC on Unsplash

By: Cristen Hemingway JaynesPublished: November 20, 2023 “Nonstick,” “waterproof” and “stain-resistant” are all commonplace terms that are self-explanatory. But the “forever chemicals” behind the coatings that give products the ability to resist grease, water and oil are not so well-known, it turns out. A new study conducted by AgriLife scientists at Texas A&M University is the first generalized survey in […]

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Photo by Naja Bertolt Jensen Unsplash

By: Cristen Hemingway JaynesPublished: November 17, 2023 Microplastics — tiny fragments of plastic products and industrial waste — are now so pervasive in Earth’s environment that they are found everywhere from the highest mountain peaks to the deepest parts of the ocean. According to a new report, all aquatic species in the mouths of rivers that flow into the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea are contaminated with microplastics; mollusksare […]

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Photo by Cameron Witney on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/a-man-in-a-field-spraying-pest-from-a-sprayer-xEZaZ577Q-Q

Nov 7 (Reuters) – A divided federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld an injunction barring California from requiring businesses to warn consumers that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller, causes cancer. In a 2-1 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it was unconstitutional for California to require Bayer AG’s (BAYGn.DE) Monsanto unit, which […]

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A map showing health harms experienced by wildlife due to the use of flame retardant chemicals, based on a selection of peer-reviewed studies. Maddie Dolan / Green Science Policy Institute

By: Bridget Reed MorawskiPublished: November 9, 2023Edited by Chris McDermott  Often when we talk about the health implications of particular chemicals, the conversation tends to focus on the human impact, yet animals also suffer when harmful chemicals accumulate in their bodies and ecosystems.  A new map highlights how pervasive the problem is for wildlife around the world by showcasing the […]

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Washed up plastics pollution, Accra, Ghana. Photo: Muntaka Chasant/Wikimedia Commons.

Much has been made — and rightly so — about the potential impact on human health and the Japanese fishing industry if Japan moves forward with its proposal to dump 1.2 million cubic meters — that’s 1.3 million tons —of radioactively contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean from the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant site.

Unfortunately, this looks likely to happen sometime this month or next despite the worldwide outcry. But when I say “happen”, that rather suggests a one-off dump. Instead, the discharge of these liquid nuclear wastes could […]

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EPA Administrator Michael Regan in March 2023. Credit: U.S. EPA

“This is the most significant step the EPA has taken in years to increase transparency about pesticides’ harms,” one advocate said. by Johnathan Hettinger, Investigate MidwestJuly 27, 2023 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency posted searchable databases of pesticide harm for the first time in agency history on Thursday. The databases, which include reports of harm to people, […]

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Water faucet

By Ian JamesSept. 9, 2023 A spokesperson for BlueTriton Brands said in an email that the company and its predecessors “have collected water from Arrowhead Springs in Strawberry Canyon in an environmentally responsible and sustainable way for more than 125 years.” BlueTriton, based in Stamford, Conn., took over the operation when Nestlé Waters North America was […]

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BY HAYLEY SMITH STAFF WRITER SEPT. 19, 2023 UPDATED 6:57 AM PT A water district best known for supplying the celebrity-studded enclaves of Calabasas and Hidden Hills could soon become famous for a very different reason. The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District recently partnered with California-based OceanWell to study the feasibility of harvesting drinking water from desalination pods placed on […]

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Dec. 15, 2022 The Las Virgenes district, which supplies about 75,000 people, is almost entirely reliant on imported water from the State Water Project, a vast network of reservoirs, canals and pipelines that feeds dozens of agencies across the state. But the district faces routine challenges during times of drought, especially when state officials are […]

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June 7, 2022 But getting the desalination project past regulators will be a significant hurdle. The California Coastal Commission, the State Lands Commission, the State Water Resources Control Board, the Division of Drinking Water, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers are just some of the agencies that could be involved […]

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EPA Administrator Michael Regan in March 2023. Credit: U.S. EPA

“This is the most significant step the EPA has taken in years to increase transparency about pesticides’ harms,” one advocate said.  by Johnathan Hettinger, Investigate Midwest July 27, 2023 ​The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency posted searchable databases of pesticide harm for the first time in agency history on Thursday. The databases, which include reports of harm to people, pets, […]

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The sun shines through the mist of Running Eagle Falls in the Two Medicine portion of Glacier National Park.

By Dana DrugmandAugust 15, 2023 “Game-changer ruling” has implications for future climate change lawsuits in the US and around the world. A Montana court ruled in favor of 16 young people who put their state government on trial in June in the first constitutional climate trial in U.S. history. In an order issued Monday, Judge Kathy Seeley […]

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Logging

The wood products industry is massively undercounting its impact on the climate, a new study has found. Through its production of paper, pulp, pellets and lumber, the industry releases at least 3.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year, according to a study published last week in Nature. That is a large number in its own right: more than […]

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Lumber, cut and stacked

Because concrete and steel used to construct buildings are a major source of global greenhouse gas emissions, there is growing interest in “mass timber” — a supposedly lower-carbon option — to replace them. New ways of gluing pieces of wood together to form strong beams and structural panels provide opportunities to use wood even in tall buildings. But new research finds that using wood in construction is likely to increase emissions for many decades, […]

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