Panorama of Horseshoe Bend from Grandview at New River Gorge National River, West Virginia. National Park Service
The U.S. is beginning the new year with a new national park.
<p>The nation's 63rd national park is also the first to be designated as such in the state of West Virginia, <a href="https://www.veranda.com/luxury-lifestyle/a35132939/new-river-gorge-national-park/" target="_blank">Veranda reported</a>. <a href="https://www.nps.gov/neri/index.htm" target="_blank">New River Gorge</a>, in Fayetteville, was officially changed from a national river to a national park as part of the COVID-19 relief bill that passed on Dec. 27, <a href="https://www.cntraveler.com/story/new-river-gorge-national-park-is-made-for-rafting-and-rock-climbing" target="_blank">Condé Nast Traveler reported</a>.</p><p>"Redesignation of the National River to a National Park and Preserve will shine a brighter light on West Virginia and all that it has to offer, and provide another catalyst for our tourism industry and local businesses," Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said in a statement reported by <a href="https://www.wboy.com/top-stories/new-river-gorge-set-to-become-63rd-national-park-and-20th-national-reserve-with-redesignation-legislation/" target="_blank">12 WBOY</a>.</p>
<p>The New River Gorge is already a beloved destination for outdoor enthusiasts. It sees almost one million visitors every year and boasts activities like hiking, fishing, rafting, rock climbing and camping, according to Veranda.</p><p>Despite its name, the river is actually believed to be one of the oldest in North America. It has been important for West Virginians throughout the state's history, serving both Indigenous Americans and railway and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self">coal</a>-mining communities.</p><p>It has been managed by the National Park Service as a national river since 1978, but West Virginia's Congressional delegation hopes its new status will attract more visitors.</p>
<p>Capito, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and U.S. Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV) originally proposed the status upgrade in a 2019 bill, <a href="https://www.wvpublic.org/government/2020-12-22/new-river-gorge-to-be-designated-as-a-national-park" target="_blank">WV Public Broadcasting reported</a>. Capito noted that outdoor recreation is a $9 billion industry for West Virginia, and making the gorge a national park could boost visits by 21 percent.</p><p>Condé Nast Traveler also noted that the efforts to redesignate the river represents a signal that West Virginia is shifting its economy from coal mining to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a> and recreation. The Congress people met with small business owners and outdoor enthusiasts in the state to build support for the new park, and emphasized its economic benefits.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTI2NTk5MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDEzMTYzMX0.LHxI2CBnXa-ACeniAWxAXUe9x8GcJVY6RUGOYlono20/img.jpg?width=980" id="bc7c4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7fc431643c1cb29447b016e496cb19ab" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1463" data-height="1000" />
Rafters enjoy a scenic stretch of the New River Gorge National River. National Park Service
<p>"This designation will increase the international recognition by highlighting West Virginia's world-class beauty and resources. Over the last two years we have met with outdoorsmen, businesses and local leaders and other interested groups to ensure this designation will promote the beauty and rich history of the New River Gorge, while ensuring that the longstanding traditions of hunting and fishing are protected for generations to come," Manchin said in a statement reported by 12 WBOY.</p><p>To accommodate hunting and fishing, the new park will also double as a National Preserve, according to Condé Nast Traveler. It will feature 7,021 acres of protected riverfront and a 65,165 acre preserve where hunting and fishing can take place. </p><p>"The New River Gorge is home to all West Virginia has to offer – our beauty, small businesses, and adventurous tourism opportunities. This legislation will preserve and protect the New River Gorge for generations to come and make our state an even better place to live, work, and raise a family," Miller said in a statement reported by 12 WBOY.</p><p><em>An earlier version of this article said that New River Gorge was the first dual national park and preserve outside of Alaska. However, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/grsa/index.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve</a> in Colorado also has dual status. </em></p>
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An aerial view of the National Wild and Scenic Little Miami River in Maineville, Ohio, on Dec. 3, 2020. Joe Timmerman
By Joe Timmerman
Few leaves are still falling off trees and down the ever-running water of the National Wild and Scenic Little Miami River, where they float through five counties and 111 miles of Southwest Ohio, into the Ohio River and toward the Mississippi before eventually finding their way into the Gulf of Mexico. Today, these 111 miles of Little Miami River are the cleanest that they have been in the last 40 years, and as the world may seem largely disconnected due to the coronavirus pandemic, a connection between people over time is helping to create the river's lasting sustainability.
<p>Since the end of the last Ice Age before this land was known as America, humans have lived along the Little Miami River and enjoyed the resources it provides — drinking the water alongside its banks while hunting for fish within, using the clay to build pottery or structures, and floating on the surface in kayaks or canoes like the leaves still do today. In that time, the river has seen many seasons of change, from shifts in human culture alongside its banks through community development to biological diversities in its rich, natural environment, <a href="http://littlemiami.com/LITTLE%20MIAMI%20RIVER%20ECOLOGY%20AND%20HISTORY.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to the Little Miami Ecology and History report</a>.</p>
<p>When the Little Miami was designated as Ohio's first State Scenic River and included in the National Wild and Scenic River System in 1973, <a href="https://ohiodnr.gov/wps/portal/gov/odnr/discover-and-learn/land-water/rivers-streams-wetlands/scenic-rivers-program" target="_blank">according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources</a>, locals had already been active in its <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> and return to sustainability for more than half a decade. <a href="https://www.littlemiami.org/" target="_blank">The Little Miami Conservancy</a> (LMC), a non-profit organization fueled by passion for the protection of the river, led the effort in Washington to recognize the importance of protecting the Little Miami River as not only a local hidden gem, but as a national treasure.</p><p>The lower section of the river runs right through the heart of Loveland, Ohio, where LMC and its current executive director, Eric Partee, is based. Partee's passion roots from the original director of the conservancy, Glenn Thompson, who in 1967 embodied the idea that their effort isn't about one single person, but rather about everyone coming together to save the river.</p><p>"Someday, a corridor of green will stretch from one end of the river to the other. Individuals and families will enjoy peace and quiet and restoration of spirit that comes with clean water, birds, and trees," a quote from Glenn Thompson that Partee believes the conservancy has lived up to.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTEyODY5MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NTA1Nzk3N30.piiwThj3X1lBU9GHp_ErDiDIWD6SrXBqE25ezB_ACAI/img.jpg?width=980" id="1c9ab" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="951d1a86103962255d1fb94e12581eb5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1667" data-height="2500" />
A ripple in the water caused by a fish moves below fall trees as the sun rises in Loveland, Ohio, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020. The Little Miami River flows through 5 counties and 111 miles of Southwest Ohio, including Clermont County and Hamilton County where Loveland lies between. Joe Timmerman
<p>Since its origin, the conservancy has worked with agencies like the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA), who records the condition of the Little Miami River every 10 years by sampling fish life. In the 1980s, only 4% of the Little Miami River was in full attainment of water quality health, but in recent years, the chart has flipped, and as of 2007, the river is at 96% attainment of health, <a href="https://epa.ohio.gov/portals/35/tmdl/Lower%20LMR_TMDL%20Report_FINAL_FINAL_Nov11.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to OEPA research</a>.</p><p><span>"As early as the turn of the century, this river was very well polluted. (There were) a lot of deformed fish, it was not anything close to exceptional," Partee said in an interview. "It took a lot of discussion, a little bit of arm twisting, and some local funding to fund improvements to the sewage treatment plants to ratchet down on phosphorus, which was the main culprit … when we got the treatment plants to ratchet down on that, biology basically turned around on a dime — from terrible to exceptional."</span></p><p>To make sure the river stays healthy, LMC introduced a set of equipment called YSI Water Quality Sondes, which monitor dissolved oxygen in nine locations throughout the length of the entire Little Miami, according to Partee. Each system monitors oxygen every 15 minutes, allowing for constant awareness of river health to prevent a reversion of quality. The conservancy also takes pride in its work on forest restoration through buying riverfront properties, planting trees, removing invasive species, and working collectively to clean up trash in the effort to grow closer to the initial goal of a corridor of green along the riverbank.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTEyODY5Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNTQxNDMyNn0.aBjqleHZxtgsyzFrgXX3zcmpBjXsYaVVhWOEkGc6J00/img.jpg?width=980" id="198a3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="20b53c79caa02a5f0bbb9fe3d68a24e3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1667" data-height="2500" />
Eric Partee, executive director of the Little Miami Conservancy, holds one of nine water quality sondes that are found all along the length of the river, this one in Milford, Ohio, on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2020. A water quality sonde uses sensors to measure dissolved oxygen in the river, which is recorded every 15 minutes in 3-month spans and is checked once a week by Partee and volunteers of the conservancy. "Ninety-six percent of the river is in full attainment with exceptional habitat quality, it's just in fantastic condition. The challenge is to keep it that way," Partee said. Joe Timmerman
<p>A short walk from the doors of the conservancy is the Loveland Canoe and Kayak Livery, owned by Mark and Robyn Bersani, which is just one of the many businesses along the Little Miami River that rely on its health as their main resource for income. The Bersanis work closely with the conservancy each year by offering and volunteering for cleanups as well as generous donations. This year, along with two other liveries including Rivers Edge and Scenic River, their combined donation to the Little Miami Conservancy's effort was $56,000, according to Bersani.</p><p>"We're involved from a grassroots portion, to actually helping with cleanups, to keeping an eye on the river, as well as donating and continuing to fund the good work that they do," Bersani said in an interview. "It comes down to the people that live along the river, people that visit the river, the people in the community, if the river is going to stay clean. This river is very natural, it looks like it did 300 years ago … it is vital that the citizens all realize they have a role in this."</p><p>Up the road at Loveland High School, Amy Aspenwall, an AP environmental science teacher teaches teenagers the importance of environmental awareness through hands-on experiences in places like the Little Miami River.</p><p>In an interview over Zoom, Aspenwall talked about the importance of students getting out into nature to actually see how humans fit in the environment, because "if you don't see it, it's really not your problem," Aspenwall said. From understanding <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/food-waste">food waste</a> to the water drinking system to sewer treatment facilities, her goal is to allow students the opportunity to realize a sense of civic responsibility.</p><p>"It's important for students to start to think of themselves as a bigger picture rather than just someone following teacher instructions," Aspenwall said. "I want them to start thinking on their own and realize how powerful they are as a consumer."</p><p>Although the Little Miami River is of "exceptional quality," <a href="https://epa.ohio.gov/dsw/tmdl/LittleMiamiRiver#118215922-monitoring" target="_blank">according to a 2010 water quality monitoring report by the OEPA</a>, "the tributaries were generally of a lower quality."</p><p>Michelle Waller, an environmental specialist in the Division of Surface Water at OEPA, discussed the difficulties the river has faced through poor nutrients entering the river due to excess phosphorus from treatment plants and still faces through agricultural runoff from farms, in an interview over Zoom.<br></p><p>Waller said that placing phosphorus limits on the main stem's water treatment plants in recent years proved to show major improvements in river nutrients after the OEPA performed sampling, but other negative sources are out of their reach. "We do not have authority over agriculture the way we do with what we call point sources, the treatment plants," Waller said. "We try to work with local Soil and Water Conservation Districts, they try to get the word out about good farming practices … but there is no real regulatory authority which is a really big problem."</p><p>The majority of land along the Little Miami River is agricultural, unlike other major rivers in Ohio that have industry running alongside their waters. And just like the branches of community that have come together to help preserve the river, many tributary streams and creeks branch out from the Little Miami, though those tributaries can be overlooked.</p><p>As most organizations, including the OEPA and LMC, focus their efforts on upholding the exceptional quality of the main stem of the Little Miami River, there is still work to be done in the tributaries. Partee talked about how there just isn't enough time for LMC to visit every tributary and talk to every landowner. However, near Beaver Creek in Greene County, there is an organization called the Beaver Creek Wetlands Association, which has adopted that very issue. "I think that's probably the best future for the watershed, to have local citizens dealing with multiple tributaries and try to restore or protect it," said Partee.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTEyODY4OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0OTE5MTEwNn0.uyayiXufa8-kE_LzSnK2cvmu1AOTKpIMUR46fFiu1Lw/img.jpg?width=980" id="0fbaf" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e46ec59055d4f4d5b303022f14a9015c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="2500" data-height="1667" />
People bike on a section of the Loveland Bike Trail alongside the Little Miami River in Loveland, Ohio, on Monday, Nov. 8, 2020. Joe Timmerman
<p>Between the shared relationships of the Little Miami Conservancy, OEPA, local government officials, developers, landowners, non-profits, teachers, and local business owners, a community has come together and worked toward the common effort to make a positive, sustainable change in the health of the river.<br></p><p>The timelessness of the Little Miami River will carry on as long as its water continues to run. And as it always has been, it's still up to the people alongside the riverbank to make sure that the water runs clean for generations to come. As the late author Nelson Henderson said, and Eric Partee paraphrased when we talked together, "The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit."</p><p><em>Note: The next OEPA Little Miami River Watershed TMDL Report will be produced and published by 2022, according to the last OEPA TMDL report. </em></p><p><em><a href="https://www.josephmtimmerman.com/" target="_blank">Joe Timmerman</a> is a sophomore journalism and photojournalism student at E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and the School of Visual Communications at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Joe is passionate about finding natural connections between people and sharing those stories he finds.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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For many people, the holidays are rich with time-honored traditions like decorating the Christmas tree, lighting the menorah, caroling, cookie baking, and sipping from the unity cup. But there's another unofficial, official holiday tradition that spans all ages and beliefs and gives people across the world hope for a better tomorrow: the New Year's resolution.
<p>It's believed that ancient Babylonians were the <a href="https://www.cnet.com/health/the-history-of-new-years-resolutions-and-celebrations/#:~:text=4%2C000%20years%20ago%20in%20Babylon%20(around%202000%20B.C.)&text=Most%20historians%20believe%20Babylonians%20were,accordance%20with%20an%20agricultural%20year." target="_blank">first people to make New Year's resolutions</a> some 4,000 years ago. Over time, the popular practice shifted in scope from making promises to the gods about repaying debt to making promises to ourselves about self-improvement. Anyone who has ever made a New Year's resolution probably included something like get more sleep or be less stressed. And though it might not immediately come to mind when you brainstorm strategies for reaching your New Year's goals, it turns out that chamomile tea could be the answer for many of them. </p><p>If you've ever asked yourself why everyone is drinking chamomile tea, we've got the answer here. Read on to learn some of the reasons why this herbal beverage is all the rage.</p>
<p><em>Josh Hall has been a professional writer and storyteller for more than 15 years. His work on natural health and cannabis has appeared in Health, Shape, and Remedy Review.</em></p>
Benefits of Chamomile Tea
<p><strong>Sleep More Soundly</strong></p><p>Pick your grandmother's brain about the best way to fall asleep, and she might tell you to down a nice glass of warm milk. But if you consult with science, research shows that chamomile might be a better option. That's because it contains an antioxidant called apigenin, which can <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2995283/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">promote sleepiness and reduce insomnia and other sleep problems</a>.</p><p>Two research studies even confirmed the power of chamomile throughout the day and before bed. In one of those studies, postpartum women who drank chamomile for two weeks <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26483209" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">experienced better sleep quality than the control group who didn't</a>. Another research effort measured how fast people could fall asleep. Those results illustrated that participants who consumed 270 milligrams of chamomile extract twice daily for 28 days <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3198755/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">fell asleep 15 minutes faster than the control</a>. The chamomile group also had considerably fewer sleep disruptions. </p><p><strong>May Be Able to Keep Your Gut Healthy</strong></p><p>Though the following studies used rats as the subjects, research shows that chamomile can potentially play a beneficial role in digestive health. According to that research, the anti-inflammatory properties in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24463157" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">chamomile extract may be able to protect against diarrhea</a>. Additionally, chamomile may be an effective way to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4177631/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stop the growth of bacteria in our stomachs that contribute to ulcers</a>.</p><p><strong>Reduces Stress and Anxiety</strong></p><p>Few things are more relaxing than curling up with a good cup of tea, so it's logical that chamomile tea can serve a stress reducer. While it lacks the potency of a pharmaceutical drug, long-term use of chamomile has been shown to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27912875" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"significantly" reduce general anxiety disorders</a>. In general, chamomile can act almost like a sedative, and many people enjoy the tea because it puts them in a calm and relaxed state almost immediately. </p><p><strong>Boosts Immune Health</strong></p><p>Vitamin C and zinc are common over-the-counter supplements that people often turn to when they're hoping to avoid becoming sick. While scientists admit that more research must take place to prove chamomile's impact on preventing ailments like the common cold, the existing studies do show promise in this area. </p><p>One study had 14 participants drink five cups of the tea every day for two consecutive weeks. Throughout the study, researchers collected daily urine samples and tested the contents before and after the consumption of the tea. Drinking chamomile resulted in a significant increase in the levels of hippurate and glycine, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2995283/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">both of which are known to increase antibacterial activity</a>. Inhaling steam from a pot of freshly brewed chamomile tea may also ease the symptoms of nasal congestion.</p><p><strong>Minimizes Menstrual Cramps</strong></p><p>This one may come as a surprise, particularly to readers who have tried every possible over-the-counter treatment to reduce period pain. Several research studies have proven that chamomile tea may be able to minimize the pain and cramps that occur during menstruation. Women in that same study also dealt with lower levels of anxiety that they typically felt because of menstrual cramps.</p><p><strong>Help Diabetes and Lower Blood Sugar</strong></p><p>For people with diabetes, regulating blood sugar levels can be a matter of life or death. And while chamomile will never replace prescription-strength drugs, it's believed that it can prevent an increase in blood sugar. A 2008 study on rats showed that chamomile could have a <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf8014365" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">moderate impact on the long-term risk of diabetes</a>.</p><p><strong>Might Improve Your Skin</strong></p><p>Ever wondered why there's been an influx of chamomile-infused cosmetic products? The reason why so many manufacturers now include chamomile in their lotions, soaps, and creams is because it <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5074766/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">acts as an anti-inflammatory on our skin</a>. That means it may be able to soothe the puffiness that plagues us as we age. Those same anti-inflammatory properties can be vital in restoring skin health after we've received a sunburn. </p><p>Before discarding your used chamomile tea bags, try chilling them and placing them over your eyes. Not only will this help with the puffiness, but it can drastically light the skin color around the eye.</p><p><strong>Help With Heart Health</strong></p><p>Some of the most beneficial antioxidants we put into our bodies are what are known as flavones, and chamomile tea is chock full of them. Flavones have the potential to lower both blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which, when elevated, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4814348/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">can lead to heart disease</a>.</p>Why Everyone Is Drinking Chamomile Tea
<p>Now that you know so much about the wonders of chamomile, it shouldn't come as a surprise why the tea is so popular with people of all ages. In addition to tasting great, chamomile offers up benefits that boost the health of body parts both inside and out. As you ponder your own New Year's resolutions, think about how healthy and natural vitamins, supplements, plants, and oils can help guide you on your own personal path to improvement. Happy New Year!</p>An Organic, Eco-Conscious Brand to Try
<div class="rm-shortcode amazon-assets-widget" data-rm-shortcode-id="0da9d8545ec44ebf1a31d6044181ed9e" contenteditable="false"> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N2F8718?tag=ecowatch-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1" target="_blank"> <img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41B2ANHhsdL.jpg" class="amazon-assets-widget__image widget__image"> </a> </div> <p>FGO tea bags are made of hemp fiber paper, free of dyes, adhesive, glue, and chlorine bleach. The tea is also certified USDA Organic by California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF).</p>From Your Site Articles
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The proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline threatens water sources, species habitat, and scenery along the Appalachian Trail. Thomas Cizauskas / Flickr
Opponents of the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline won a reprieve Monday when a federal court issued a stay on key permits that the pipeline needs to cross streams and rivers.
<p>The project, which would carry <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/fracking/" target="_self">fracked</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/natural-gas" target="_self">natural gas</a> through around 300 miles of Virginia and West Virginia, was <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/mountain-valley-pipeline-ferc-2648192229.html" target="_self">given a go-ahead</a> in October by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to restart construction along most of its route following years of legal challenges. The pipeline has already racked up at least 350 environmental regulations and $2.26 million in fines. The environmental groups behind the suit noted that the pipeline operators had told investors they wanted to blast through "critical" streams "as quickly as possible before anything is challenged," the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a> (CBD) reported in a press release emailed to EcoWatch.</p>
<p>"Communities along the pipeline route have been on edge these past several weeks as the company has moved in heavy equipment and started doing work, so we're very glad the court pressed pause on this permit while the water-crossing issues are reviewed further," Peter Anderson, Virginia program manager at <a href="https://appvoices.org/" target="_blank">Appalachian Voices</a>, said in the press release.</p><p>CBD and Appalachian Voices are two of the groups behind the lawsuit, along with <a href="https://chesapeakeclimate.org/" target="_blank">Chesapeake Climate Action Network</a>, <a href="http://indiancreekwatershedassociation.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Indian Creek Watershed Association</a>, <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sierra Club</a>, <a href="https://wvhighlands.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">West Virginia Highlands Conservancy</a>, <a href="https://wvrivers.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">West Virginia Rivers Coalition</a> and <a href="https://wildvirginia.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wild Virginia</a>. The coalition was represented by <a href="http://www.appalmad.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Appalachian Mountain Advocates</a>.</p>
<p>The stay is part of a larger challenge brought by the groups to permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers in September that would allow the pipeline to cross around 1,000 streams, rivers, wetlands and other waterways. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the first two Army Corps permits in 2018, and pipeline opponents hope it will reject the second pair as well.</p><p>The court issued an emergency stay of the permits Oct. 16. Monday's stay will last until the court can make a definitive ruling on the new permits. The environmental groups argue that the new permits violate the Army Corps' responsibility to protect <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">endangered species</a>, <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/mountain-valley-pipeline-construction-blocked-by-fourth-circuit" target="_blank">Bloomberg Law reported</a>.</p>
<p>"This decision will help ensure the pipeline doesn't keep posing catastrophic threats to waterways that people and imperiled species depend on to survive," CBD senior attorney Jared Margolis said in the press release. "Despite the project's clear failure to comply with the law, Mountain Valley keeps pushing this <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate</a>-killing menace. We'll continue working to ensure this destructive pipeline doesn't poison waters and threaten communities along its route."</p><p>The pipeline is being built by Equitrans, NextEra Energy, Consolidated Edison Inc, AltaGas Ltd and RGC Resources Inc, according to <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-energy-pipeline/u-s-court-suspends-key-permits-for-equitrans-mountain-valley-pipeline-idUKKBN27Q0B9" target="_blank">Reuters</a>. Equitrans spokeswoman Natalie Cox said that the stay was disappointing, but that construction would continue along other parts of the route.</p><p>"We are hopeful and expect that once the case is reviewed on the merits of the arguments there will be a different conclusion," Cox told Reuters.</p><p>However, Wild Virginia Conservation Director David Sligh said the stay was a good sign for the pipeline's opponents.</p>
<p>"Convincing a court to stay an agency decision requires plaintiffs to convince the judges that they have a good chance to prove their case after full review," Sligh noted in the press release. "Now, we look forward to doing just that — to show conclusively that the Corps of Engineers abdicated its duty to protect us and our resources."</p><p>Reuters noted that the Mountain Valley Pipeline is one of several <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> pipelines that has been granted approval by the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trump-administration" target="_self">Trump administration</a> only to run into delays as environmental and community groups bring legal challenges. When construction on the pipeline began in Feb. 2018, Equitrans estimated it would cost around $3.5 billion and be completed by the end of the year. The price tag has now nearly doubled to as much as $6 billion.</p><p>Another pipeline in the same region, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, was <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/atlantic-coast-pipeline-canceled-2646347475.html" target="_self">canceled</a> by its owners in July following similar opposition and delays.</p><p>"The MVP has already doubled its timeline and budget, and it's not even close to being finished," Joan Walker, senior campaign representative for the Sierra Club's Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign, said in the press release. "If they were smart, they would quit throwing good money after bad and walk away from this fracked gas disaster like Duke Energy and Dominion Energy did with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline."</p>
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New Jersey Legislature Passes ‘Most Comprehensive’ Plastics Ban in the Nation
25 September 2020
Politics
A plastic bag caught in a tree in New Jersey's Palisades Park. James Leynse / Stone / Getty Images
New Jersey is one step closer to passing what environmental advocates say is the strongest anti-plastic legislation in the nation.
<p>The state Legislature passed a sweeping measure Thursday that would ban <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastic-bags" target="_self">plastic bags</a> from stores and restaurants and single-use food and drink containers made from polystyrene foam, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/nyregion/nj-paper-plastic-bag-ban.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>. The ban is noteworthy for being the first in the country to include supermarket paper bags as well as plastic ones.</p>
<p>"This is the single most comprehensive plastics and paper reduction bill in the nation," former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regional Administrator and <a href="https://beyondplastics.org/" target="_blank">Beyond Plastics</a> President Judith Enck said in a <a href="https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/environmental-leaders-cheer-nj-legislative-votes-pass-single-use-waste-ban-bill-legislation-now-strongest-country/" target="_blank">statement published by Insider NJ</a>. "Building on the success of local laws adopted throughout New Jersey to reduce plastic pollution, the NJ State Legislature listened to the people and not the polluters and embraced a sensible environmental strategy."</p><p>The bill now passes to Gov. Philip Murphy, who intends to sign it, a spokesperson told The New York Times. The bans on bags and containers will go into effect 18 months after he does so, <a href="https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/environment/2020/09/24/nj-plastic-bag-ban-2020-nj-one-step-away-nations-toughest-ban/3506419001/" target="_blank">NorthJersey.com reported</a>.</p>
<p>In addition to banning plastic and paper bags and plastic food containers, the bill will also limit <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastic-straws" target="_self">plastic straws</a> in restaurants so that they will only be available upon request. There are exemptions for newspaper bags; bags used for loose produce, fish or meat; dry-cleaning bags and prescription drug bags.</p><p>The measure effectively settles a long-running debate about whether plastic or paper bags are worse for the environment by banning both. Plastic bags account for about 12 percent of U.S. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastic-pollution" target="_self">plastic pollution</a>, according to The New York Times. But paper bags need more energy, and therefore more <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate</a> pollution, to make. <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/new-jersey" target="_blank">New Jersey Sierra Club</a> Director Jeff Tittle said the new legislation would encourage people to use more sustainable, reusable shopping bags.</p>
<p>However, the ban on paper bags was also the key to getting an important supermarket trade group to support the bill, NorthJersey.com reported. The organization argued that it would cost stores too much to supply customers with only paper bags.</p><p>"The ban on paper bags is critically important to the success of this legislation," New Jersey Food Council President Linda Doherty said ahead of Thursday's vote. "Without a ban, consumers will simply move to paper single-use bags and we will not address the underlying goal of reducing our reliance on single-use products."</p><p>However, the food council originally opposed any sort of statewide bag ban, <a href="https://www.njspotlight.com/2020/09/sweeping-nj-bag-ban-plastic-paper-restricting-polystyrene-foam-food-containers/" target="_blank">NJ Spotlight News reported</a>. It changed its position after as many as 57 communities passed their own separate bans and it decided it would be easier to deal with a single, statewide law than a patchwork of local ones.</p>
<p>Not everyone has been persuaded, however. American Forest and Paper Association President and Chief Executive Heidi Brock said the bill unfairly targeted her industry.</p><p>"The New Jersey Legislature has undermined an environmentally responsible option for consumers," she said in a statement reported by The New York Times. "Furthermore, the ban on paper bags sends an alarming message in devaluing family wage jobs, which are often union labor, in addition to the indirect jobs supported by the paper and wood products industry in the state."</p>
<p>Republican Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi, meanwhile, argued that the bill would put an additional burden on a restaurant industry already struggling because of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic.</p><p>"We're essentially kicking them in the head,'' she said, as NJ Spotlight News reported.</p><p>On the other hand, environmental advocates argued that plastic has long polluted New Jersey waterways. In recent years, more than 80 percent of the litter gathered on beaches by <a href="https://www.cleanoceanaction.org/index.php?id=334" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Clean Ocean Action</a> from Cape May to Sandy Hook has been plastic, NorthJersey.com reported. The material has even been found in some of the state's most pristine rivers and creeks.</p><p>"Now, we can all look forward to picking up less trash on our beaches," Clean Ocean Action executive director Cindy Zipf told NorthJersey.com. "There will be less plastics in the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ocean" target="_self">ocean</a> to cause harm and death to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/marine-life" target="_self">marine life</a>."</p>
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A "trash tsunami" has washed ashore on the beaches of Honduras, endangering both wildlife and the local economy.
<p>The trash is mostly <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastic" target="_self">plastic</a> waste, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/episode/trash-tsunami-blights-honduras-beach-4427746" target="_blank">Voice of America reported</a> Tuesday, and it is polluting the typically pristine tropical beaches of Omoa in the country's north. Honduran officials said Saturday that the refuse was coming from the mouth of the Motagua River in neighboring Guatemala. It poses a problem for the local economy because it depends on the tourism the beaches attract.</p><p>"This wave of trash which came from the Motagua River really surprised us, and even though it caused problems, it has not stopped our activities," Honduran environment official Lilian Rivera said, as <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/trash-tsunami-blights-honduras-beach-111435040.html" target="_blank">Yahoo News reported</a>. "We are committed to cleaning our beaches and keeping them clean, but today we are demanding that authorities in Tegucigalpa take strong actions, actions to find a permanent solution to this problem."</p><p>Tegucigalpa is the capital of Honduras.</p><p>The Hondoran government, meanwhile, has demanded action from Guatemala to stem the tide of plastic, according to Voice of America.</p>
<p>But the plastic flowing from Guatemala's Motagua River is an ongoing problem for the region, as <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/10/27/plastic-pollution-guatemala/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Intercept reported in 2019</a>. The plastic tide is fed by the fact that Guatemala has few managed landfills or wastewater treatment plants. The plastic then washes out in the Caribbean Sea, home to the biodiverse Mesoamerican reef.</p><p>In 2017, the Guatemalan government installed a "bio-fence" in the river to catch some of the waste after the Honduran government threatened a lawsuit over the pollution that reached its beaches. The fence is made of plastic bottles tied together with plastic netting.</p><p>"When it's full, you can practically walk on it," trash removal worker Marco Dubón told The Intercept.</p>
<p>Worldwide, rivers are a major source of ocean plastic pollution: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10155392528501479" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">90 percent of it</a> comes from just 10 rivers, scientists found in 2017. The problem is only growing. A study <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/ocean-plastic-2040-2646793992.html" target="_self">published in July</a> found that around 11 million metric tons of plastic enter marine environments every year, and that number will increase to 29 million metric tons a year by 2040 if no action is taken. Plastic is then a major problem for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/marine-life" target="_self">marine life</a>. Seabirds, turtles and marine mammals can become entangled in plastic or eat it by mistake, <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2018/09/24/plastic-pollution-affects-sea-life-throughout-the-ocean#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20United%20Nations,of%20that%20litter%20is%20plastic.&text=Fish%2C%20seabirds%2C%20sea%20turtles%2C,suffocation%2C%20starvation%2C%20and%20drowning." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">PEW pointed out</a>. This can lead to strangulation, suffocation or death. It is estimated that plastic kills one million seabirds every year and that half of all sea turtles have swallowed plastic.</p>
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Scientists and environmental advocates have long known that microfibers rub off clothing in the washing machine. Wachiwit / iStock / Getty Images Plus
What is the environmental footprint of your favorite pair of blue jeans?
<p>A new study indicates it might be quite large. The study, published in <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00498" target="_blank">Environmental Science and Technology Letters</a> Wednesday, found denim <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/microfibers" target="_self">microfibers</a> had infiltrated all the way to the Canadian <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/arctic" target="_self">Arctic</a> Ocean. Researchers say it's a telling example of the extent of human-generated pollution.</p><p>"It's not an indictment of jeans — I want to be really clear that we're not coming down on jeans," study coauthor and University of Toronto environmental scientist Miriam Diamond <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/your-blue-jeans-are-polluting-the-ocean/?fbclid=IwAR0ImLGDKaFOz00SUdTb36l9TfbHyoliY16W8ICiuY0pTZSECXjsWMtOZJE&mbid=social_fb_sci&utm_brand=wired-science&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=facebook" target="_blank">told WIRED</a>. "It's just a really potent example of human impact."</p>
<div id="f07e3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ed4acc51d06332189afa9d2eeb0c7195"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1301132809302663168" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Yay! Our study on 'The Widespread Environmental Footprint of Indigo Denim #Microfibers from Blue Jeans' is out in… https://t.co/RELNCtmquQ</div> — Sam Athey (@Sam Athey)<a href="https://twitter.com/sustainablesam_/statuses/1301132809302663168">1599049210.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scientists" target="_self">Scientists</a> and environmental advocates have long known that <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastic" target="_self">plastic</a> microfibers rub off synthetic clothing in the washing machine, where they enter the world's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceanshttps://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans" target="_self">oceans</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/rivers" target="_self">rivers</a> via wastewater treatment plants. One study <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/laundry-clothes-plastic-pollution-oceans-2646168554.html" target="_self">estimated</a> that two garbage trucks worth of microfibers enter Europe's oceans this way every day. These fibers have been found everywhere from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/plastics-ocean-animals-2509746046.html" target="_self">the bellies of deep-sea crustaceans</a> to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/microplastics-in-ocean-2645891531.html" target="_self">concentrated hotspots</a> in the sediment of the Mediterranean seafloor.</p><p>At any given moment, about half of the world's population is wearing blue jeans or other types of denim. So researchers at the University of Toronto wondered whether the popular garment had an equally global environmental impact.</p>
<p>To find out, they looked at water samples from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the Great Lakes, and suburban lakes near Toronto. They found that indigo denim microfibers made up a sizable percentage of all the microfibers found in the three locations, <a href="https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2020/acs-presspac-september-2-2020/the-widespread-footprint-of-blue-jean-microfibers.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to an American Chemical Society (ACS) press release</a>; the percentages were as follows:</p><ol><li>Toronto Lakes: 12 percent</li><li>Arctic: 20 percent</li><li>Great Lakes: 23 percent</li></ol><p>"Unfortunately, the results are not surprising to environmental scientists; they are even expected," Caroline Gauchotte-Lindsay at the University of Glasgow in the UK, who was not involved in the study, told <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2253421-blue-jeans-pollute-water-by-releasing-50000-microfibres-per-wash/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1599053088" target="_blank">New Scientist</a>.</p>
<p>The researchers didn't just look to see where the denim ended up. They also examined how it got there. To do this, they washed used, new and new distressed jeans, according to WIRED. They found that the new jeans released more fibers, and that a pair of jeans could release 56,000 microfibers per wash.</p><p>They also counted the denim microfibers that turned up in effluent, or discharge, from two wastewater treatment plants on Lake Ontario. They concluded that as many as a billion denim microfibers could be entering the lake every day.</p><p>While denim is made with organic fiber, not plastic, study coauthor Sam Athey told WIRED that it could still bring human contaminants to ocean ecosystems.</p>
<p>"They're called 'natural' textile fibers," Athey said. "I'm doing air quotes around 'natural' because they contain these chemical additives. They also pick up chemicals from the environment, when you're wearing your clothes, when they're in the closet."</p><p>The researchers did not check to see if the denim had entered the Arctic food web, but they did check the guts of Great Lakes rainbow smelt. However, they only found a single denim fiber in all of the fish they collected.</p><p>More research is needed to determine what impact, if any, blue jean fibers are having on the environment and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/marine-life" target="_self">marine life</a>. For now, there are steps you can take to keep your jeans from shedding into the oceans, Athey advised on Twitter. You can wash your jeans less frequently, get a filter for your washing machine and buy your jeans used.</p>
<div id="ce0f7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="397a94af0c14897aa42f0075e2accddf"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1301196803300352007" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">@EmmaAckerley27 @EnvSciTech @AdamsJenniferK @lisaerdle @liisajay @UofTTrashTeam @UofTEarthSci @UofTArtSci Good ques… https://t.co/Zdeb7heCZi</div> — Sam Athey (@Sam Athey)<a href="https://twitter.com/sustainablesam_/statuses/1301196803300352007">1599064467.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"While we certainly need more research to fully understand the effects, we also have ample evidence right now to act," Nicholas Mallos, senior director of the <a href="https://oceanconservancy.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ocean Conservancy</a>'s Trash Free Seas Program who was not involved with the research, told WIRED.</p>
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Trump looks on as EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler speaks during an event to unveil changes to the National Environmental Policy Act on Jan. 9, 2020 in Washington, DC. Drew Angerer / Getty Images
The Trump administration announced that it would roll back a rule from 2015 that was put in place to limit the amount of toxic chemicals that are in the wastewater of coal plants, according to The Washington Post.
<p>The rule insisted that coal plants invest in newer technologies to treat their wastewater so toxic heavy metals like <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/lead">lead</a>, selenium and arsenic are not leached into nearby <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/rivers">rivers</a> and streams where they can damage fragile ecosystems and also seep into <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water">drinking water</a>, as The Washington Post reported.</p><p>The new <a href="https://www.epa.gov/eg/2020-steam-electric-reconsideration-rule" target="_blank">regulations</a> put forth by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa">EPA</a>), which is run by Andrew Wheeler, a former lobbyist for the coal industry, allows coal plants to dial back their investment in new technologies; the regulations delay the date that plants needed to be in compliance, and they exempt some coal-fired plants from taking any corrective or pollution-limiting action, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/climate/trump-coal-plants.html" target="_blank">The New York Times.</a></p>
<p>The compliance date is pushed back to 2025 for some plants. The ones exempted from the rule are done so with the expectation that they will be retired by 2028.</p><p>The "effluent limitations" regulations that the EPA rolled out Monday will save the coal industry $140 million, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-epa-coal/u-s-epa-rolls-back-limits-on-waste-water-from-coal-plants-idUSKBN25R2QK" target="_blank">Reuters</a>.</p><p>"Newer, more affordable pollution control technologies and flexibility on the regulation's phase-in will reduce pollution and save jobs at the same time," said Wheeler, as Reuters reports.</p><p>The Obama administration had said that the 2015 rule would limit 1.4 billion pounds of toxic pollutants from entering U.S. waterways each year. Coal plants use scrubbers to capture mercury, sulfur dioxide and heavy metals that would be emitted through smoke stacks. That rule has been in place since the 1980s, but what to do with those trapped pollutants is a thorny issue. Coal plants had been allowed to dump them into nearby waterways until the 2015 rule took effect, according to The New York Times.</p>
<p>And yet, without evidence, the current EPA said it expects the same or even greater pollution reductions because coal plants will supposedly adopt the newer technologies voluntarily. The EPA's math is based on the assumption that 30 percent of coal plants will implement technologies that are beyond the regulations required by the EPA, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/31/trump-toxic-water-pollution-wastewater" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p><p>"It's clear from this rule that a relatively inexpensive treatment technology is available – the one that they made voluntary – that would eliminate the toxic contamination of drinking water supplies and is very affordable. And yet they did not require it," said Betsy Southerland, an Obama EPA water official, to The Guardian. "People should be very concerned."</p>
<p>Environmental activists quickly criticized the rule as a gift to the coal industry and a shortsighted measure that ignored the health of the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a> and people that live near coal plants, according to The Washington Post.</p><p>Thomas Cmar, an attorney with Earthjustice, told The New York Times that the EPA's actions will allow older, dirtier coal plants to stay alive longer since they do not have to invest in upgrades.</p><p>"There are dozens of water bodies around the country where the local water is significantly impacted by this type of direct dumping of toxic metals from power plants," said Cmar to The Times.</p><p>Cmar said Earthjustice will attempt to stop the rollback in court.</p><p>"Giving coal companies a free pass to dump more toxic heavy metals like mercury and arsenic into our waters is a travesty," Brett Hartl, government affairs director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an email, to The Washington Post. "This shameless handout will allow greater amounts of these dangerous pollutants to be spewed directly into our waterways, threatening public health and pushing hundreds of aquatic endangered species, including salmon, sturgeon and hellbender salamanders, closer to extinction."</p>
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Over the next couple of weeks, crews will fully remove the 125-foot-wide, 25-foot-tall dam, allowing the Middle Fork Nooksack to run free for the first time in 60 years. Ctyonahl / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 3.0
By Tara Lohan
The conclusion to decades of work to remove a dam on the Middle Fork Nooksack River east of Bellingham, Washington began with a bang yesterday as crews breached the dam with a carefully planned detonation. This explosive denouement is also a beginning.
<p><br/></p>
<p class=""><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/taralohan/" target="_blank"><em>Tara Lohan </em></a><em>is deputy editor of The Revelator and has worked for more than a decade as a digital editor and environmental journalist focused on the intersections of energy, water and climate. Her work has been published by The Nation, American Prospect, High Country News, Grist, Pacific Standard and others. She is the editor of two books on the global water crisis.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/nooksack-dam-removal/?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nooksack-dam-removal" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></p>
<p>Over the next couple of weeks, crews will fully remove the 125-foot-wide, 25-foot-tall dam, allowing the Middle Fork Nooksack to run free for the first time in 60 years. With the dam's removal, 16 miles of river and tributary habitat will open up to help boost populations of three threatened Puget Sound fish species: Chinook salmon, steelhead and bull trout.</p><p>"This project has always ranked at the top of the list for fish recovery projects in this area because of the sheer number of miles of river habitat that are available upstream in a fairly remote and pristine area," says Renee LaCroix, assistant public works director for the city of Bellingham, which owns the dam. "There's no other single project in this area that can match this."</p><p>Two local tribes, the Nooksack and Lummi Nation, have been behind the effort to help restore fish passage and the river's ecological integrity.</p><p>"Our natural resources are our cultural resources," says Trevor Delgado, the Nooksack tribal historic preservation officer. "With this removal we get a little piece of our home back — a place where our people have visited for hundreds of generations."</p><p>LaCroix says the project has no downsides for the city, and it's expected to increase the resilience of the municipal water supply, remove a safety hazard for kayakers, help fish recovery and restore culturally significant resources for the tribes.</p><p>Proponents also hope to see indirect benefits for <a href="https://therevelator.org/save-southern-resident-killer-whales-extinction/" target="_blank">endangered Southern Resident killer whales</a>. This population of orcas ranges across Pacific Northwest coastal waters and <a href="https://www.mmc.gov/priority-topics/species-of-concern/southern-resident-killer-whale/" target="_blank">relies on dwindling numbers of Chinook</a> as a main food source. Fewer than 80 of the whales remain, and Chinook populations have fallen so low that the orcas have started <a href="https://www.q13fox.com/news/chinook-salmon-decimated-southern-resident-orcas-are-residents-no-more" target="_blank">altering their traditional migration patterns</a> as they search for fish to eat.</p><p>But even with the dam removal's many benefits and municipal and tribal support, the path to this moment hasn't been easy.</p>
The History
<p>The Middle Fork Nooksack drains glacier-fed headwater streams that run off the icy summit of 10,778-foot Mt. Baker. The Middle Fork joins the North Fork and then the mainstem of the Nooksack River, which travels to Bellingham Bay and Puget Sound. The entire Nooksack watershed stretches 830 square miles across Washington and into British Columbia.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ1ODg5Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0OTM4MjU3OX0.xukdfxAnfHt_A24vvWHf30SCX0R9jk3qcWK6PcBHyhI/img.png?width=980" id="c3923" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0033be9942c3db23fca400a4533dfc6e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1024" data-height="513" />
American Rivers
<p>For generations the river and its surrounding habitat have physically and spiritually nourished Indigenous peoples — including the Nooksack Indian Tribe and the Lummi Nation.</p><p>But all that changed when the dam was built in in 1961 to divert water to the city of Bellingham to supplement its main water supply in Lake Whatcom — the drinking water for the now-85,000 residents in the city and county. As soon as it went up, the dam obstructed fish passage, altered the river's flow, and disrupted the ability of tribal members to use a culturally significant area.</p><p>For the past four decades, Delgado says, the Nooksack have pushed for dam removal. They got close in the early 2000s, when the Nooksack and Lummi Nation entered into an official agreement with the city and state to work on a solution that would allow fish passage, including the possible installation of fish ladders. But despite years of work, a suitable fix wasn't found, and the effort had completely stalled by 2016.</p><p>The following year the nonprofit <a href="https://www.americanrivers.org/" target="_blank">American Rivers</a>, which works on watershed restoration and has extensive experience in dam-removal efforts, stepped in with financial backing from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. American Rivers' April McEwan assumed a project management role and brought parties back to the table and soon into agreement on a plan to remove the dam and reengineer the city's water intake from the river.</p><p>"What we know about dam removal is that if you can remove the infrastructure and restore the channel to natural conditions, that's always the best way to get fish passage," says McEwan.</p><p>The final cost of the project came in at around $20 million — way more than the city could afford on its own. About half of the cost eventually came from the state and the city is collaborating with federal agencies on the distribution of another $2 million in Pacific Salmon Treaty funds. But before applying for that money, the city had to complete costly initial design and permitting work. Private foundations — largely the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, along with Resources Legacy Fund — picked up 70% of those initial costs.</p><p>LaCroix says help from American Rivers and the foundations was hugely important in getting the project "shovel ready" so it could apply for the construction funds it needed.</p><p>Removing the dam infrastructure was just part of the cost, though. Reworking the city's water intake also required some tricky engineering.</p>
A Plan Comes Together
<p>The Middle Fork dam is not a pool dam built for water storage. Much of the time, water flows over the top until dam operators drop a floodgate to divert water to new locations. That water travels about 14 miles through tunnel and pipeline to Mirror Lake, then Anderson Creek, and to Lake Whatcom before finally being delivered to residents' taps.</p><p>Before removing the dam, engineers had to move the water intake 700 feet upstream and situate it at an elevation that still enabled city water withdrawals throughout the year, regardless of flow conditions.</p><p>They also needed to make sure that the rushing water didn't sweep up fish and accidentally send them through the water-supply system.</p><p>"The solution required a fairly complex design in the intake structure, including a fish exit pipe out of that structure to put fish back into the river in a way that meets current environmental permit standards," explains LaCroix.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ1ODk1Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxOTcxODcyN30.stOgraXNQZGmfADeQUdXCB2RR3Aka6FwLOxl377s-3w/img.jpg?width=980" id="7669a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7ee070ad97b1353f5baa7c8886acb341" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1024" data-height="513" />
Project layout for the removal of the Middle Fork Nooksack diversion dam and rebuilding of water intake. City of Bellingham
<p>Despite the cost and the work, she says, being able to continue to meet their municipal water obligations while opening up habitat for threatened species has been a win-win.</p><p>"I think there's a lot of benefits to having a dam removal versus fish passage — the main one being that you get a free-flowing river that can be a dynamic ecosystem and change over time," she says. "A static fish ladder just can't provide that same level of ecosystem benefit."</p>Restoration Success
<p>Despite local authorities' championing dam removal on the Middle Fork, the project has largely flown under the radar, overshadowed in the Pacific Northwest by heated discussions about a much larger potential project — removing <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/feds-reject-removal-of-4-snake-river-dams-in-key-report/" target="_blank">four federal hydroelectric dams on the lower Snake River</a>, a major tributary of the Columbia River.</p><p>Proponents of dam removal there see it as the best chance for recovering threatened salmon populations, including Chinook, which could help starving Southern Resident killer whales. Those dams also provide irrigation water, barge navigation and hydropower, so there's been more pushback against removal efforts.</p><p>Previous dam removals around the country, however, have proved successful at aiding fish recovery and river restoration.</p><p>Most notably the 1999 demolition of <a href="https://therevelator.org/edwards-dam-removal/" target="_blank">Edwards Dam on Maine's Kennebec River</a> restored the annual run of alewives, a type of herring essential to the food web. The fish run has gone from zero to 5 million in the two decades since dam removal. Blueback herring, striped bass, sturgeon and shad have also extended their reach. And the resurgence has brought back osprey, bald eagles and other wildlife, too.</p><p>The overwhelming success of river restoration on the Kennebec helped to spur a nationwide dam removal movement that's now seen 1,200 dams come down since 1999. Last year a record <a href="https://www.americanrivers.org/conservation-resource/a-record-26-states-removed-dams-in-2019/" target="_blank">90 dams</a> were removed in 26 states, including <a href="https://therevelator.org/cleveland-forest-dam-removal/" target="_blank">20 dams in California's Cleveland National Forest</a>.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ1ODk4MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NjM5NTQ0Nn0.X2icIzmemq9oxKqfGRz4nox9rsOYZMTgUCLbCTGc5ZE/img.jpg?width=980" id="e9db0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7f227785f21cb59b1ff2fd70db6ccc6c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1024" data-height="576" />
Spider excavators remove on dam on San Juan Creek in California's Cleveland National Forest. Julie Donnell, USFS
<p>The results have been seen in the Pacific Northwest, as well, which boasts the largest dam removal thus far in the country. In 2011 and 2014, the demolition of <a href="https://therevelator.org/elwha-dam-removal/" target="_blank">two dams</a> on Elwha River, which runs through Washington's Olympic National Park, opened up 70 miles of habitat that had been blocked for a century. Scientists have started seeing all five species of salmon native to the river coming back, particularly Chinook and coho. Bull trout, they've observed, have increased in size since the dams were removal.</p>Benefits on the Middle Fork Nooksack
<p>McEwan hopes to see a similar outcome on the Middle Fork.</p><p>Like the Elwha the Middle Fork Nooksack is a relatively pristine river with little development, and dam removal is expected to provide a big boost to fish. The additional miles of spawning habitat are important, but so is the temperature of that water.</p><p>The dam removal will open access to cold upstream waters, which are ideal for salmon and getting harder to come by as climate change warms waters and reduces mountain runoff.</p><p>"This is really great for the climate change resiliency for these species," says McEwan.</p><p>Steelhead will get back 45% of their historic habitat in the river, and scientists expect Chinook populations to increase in abundance by 31%.</p><p>That <em>could</em> help Southern Resident killer whales.</p><p>"When you get to the ocean, it's a little bit of a black box in terms of what you can model and say definitively is going to help, but more fish is better for orcas," McEwan says.</p><p>Upstream habitat will see benefits, too.</p><p>Oceangoing fish like salmon enrich their bodies with carbon and nitrogen while at sea. When they return to their natal rivers to spawn and die, the marine-derived nutrients they carry back upriver become important food and fertilizer for both riverine and terrestrial ecosystems — aiding everything from trees to birds to bears.</p><p>"Once the fish start making their way back, it will start changing the whole ecological system," says Delgado.</p><p><span></span>But any ecological benefit from salmon restoration, either in the ocean or the upper watershed, won't be immediate.<br></p><p>"The population of salmon on the Middle Fork is so low that we expect it's going to take quite a while to rebound," she says. "But the big picture is that what's good for salmon is good for the region — our history and our destiny are intricately intertwined."</p><p>After decades of work, that process of restoration has finally begun.</p>From Your Site Articles
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Along the northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico, oysters live in coastal estuaries where saltwater and freshwater meet and mix. Flickr / CC by 2.0
Along the northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico, oysters live in coastal estuaries where saltwater and freshwater meet and mix.
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<p>LaDon Swann of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium says the shellfish require water that's salty, but not too salty.</p><p>"So it's kind of like Goldilocks. … You know, an oyster's really looking for that perfect location," he says. "When they find that water that's just right, that's where they make their home."</p><p>But climate change is throwing off that balance. When heavy rain falls, too much freshwater may flow from the Mississippi River into the oyster reefs.</p>
<p>"Oysters can survive that for a short period of time, but if it goes beyond just a few days, then it affects their health, and ultimately you see mass mortalities of oysters because of the freshwater inflow," Swann says.</p><p>On the other hand, when there's not enough rain, the water around oyster beds gets too salty. That allows saltwater predators – such as a snail called the oyster drill – to enter oyster habitat.</p><p>This snail can make a hole in the oyster's shell, suck it out, and digest it.</p><p>So Swann says as climate change causes precipitation extremes at both ends of the spectrum, wild Gulf Coast oysters may lose the "just right" Goldilocks zone they need to thrive.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><a href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/07/increasingly-extreme-weather-could-wreak-havoc-on-wild-gulf-coast-oysters/" target="_blank"><em>Yale Climate Connections.</em></a><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2646348638#/" target="_self"></a></p>From Your Site Articles
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Trending
15,000 Gallon Oil Spill Threatens River and Drinking Water in Native Alaskan Village
24 June 2020
Energy
The Kobuk River in Alaska on Aug. 30, 2011. 16Terezka / CC BY-SA 3.0
Around 15,000 gallons of fuel oil spilled in a Native Alaskan village Saturday, threatening a nearby river and the local drinking water supply.
<p>The spill occurred during a routine fuel delivery to the Northwest Arctic village of Shungnak. The fuel spilled around 12:30 p.m. June 20, but was not discovered by the villagers until 1:06 p.m. They reported it to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) immediately thereafter, <a href="http://www.thearcticsounder.com/article/2026thousands_of_gallons_of_heating_oil_spill_in" target="_blank">The Arctic Sounder reported</a>.</p><p>"A response crew from Shungnak responded to the spill immediately, removing the spilled heating oil using sorbent material and also by pumping it into containers," ADEC said in a situation report.</p>
<p>There have been no injuries reported and the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-spill" target="_self">oil spill</a> has not harmed any wildlife so far. However, there are concerns that it could spread to sensitive areas.</p><p>"The extent of contamination has been reported by the incident commander to be approximately 160 feet from the Kobuk River and approximately 295 feet from the Shungnak drinking water source," ADEC said.</p><p>The spill occurred when fuel intended for the Shungnak Native Store was delivered to the school instead, <a href="https://www.ktuu.com/content/news/15000-gallon-oil-spill-reported-near-Kobuk-River-571436521.html" target="_blank">KTUU reported</a>. This caused fuel tank #1 to overflow. The fuel was being transferred from a barge on the Kobuk River. All transfers have now been stopped.</p>
<p>The cleanup efforts have been impacted by the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic, <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/06/23/15000-gallon-heating-oil-spill-reported-in-kobuk-river-village-of-shungnak/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Radio reported</a>. Because of travel restrictions, officials from ADEC and the Environmental Protection Agency cannot travel to the spill site. Instead, both agencies are in contact with local responders.</p><p>"ADEC will continue to monitor the response actions and review plans being developed to clean up contaminated soils from the area and prevent heating oil migration to nearby resources," ADEC said, according to The Arctic Sounder.</p><p>The Kobuk River flows for 380 miles from the Endicott Mountains to Kotzebue Sound, according to the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/gaar/kobukriver.htm" target="_blank">National Park Service</a>. It is one of the only two spawning grounds for the Kobuk/Selawik population of sheefish and also an important habitat for grayling, arctic char, whitefish, chum salmon and lake trout. It is also a subsistence fishing site for Native Alaskan communities and the wintering grounds for the Western Arctic caribou herd.</p>
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An aerial view shows Lake Mead in Nevada on January 2, 2020. Daniel SLIM / AFP / Getty Images
By Brett Walton
Use of Colorado River water in the three states of the river's lower basin fell to a 33-year low in 2019, amid growing awareness of the precarity of the region's water supply in a drying and warming climate.
<p class=""><br/></p>
<iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/844750342&color=ff5500&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_teaser=false"></iframe><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/circleofblue" title="Circle of Blue" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Circle of Blue</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/circleofblue/drop-in-colorado-river-water-use" title="Drop In Colorado River Water Use" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Drop In Colorado River Water Use</a></div>
<p>Arizona, California, and Nevada combined to consume just over 6.5 million acre-feet last year, according to an <a href="https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g4000/4200Rpts/DecreeRpt/2019/2019.pdf" target="_blank">annual audit</a> from the Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency that oversees the lower basin. That is about 1 million acre-feet less than the three states are entitled to use under a legal compact that divides the Colorado River's waters.</p><p>The last time water consumption from the river was that low was in 1986, the year after an enormous canal in Arizona opened that allowed the state to lay claim to its full Colorado River entitlement.</p><p>States have grappled in the last two decades with declining water levels in the basin's main reservoirs — Mead and Powell — while reckoning with clear scientific evidence that climate change is <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6483/1252.full" target="_blank">already constricting the iconic river</a> and will do further damage as temperatures rise.</p><p>For water managers, the steady drop in water consumption in recent years is a signal that conservation efforts are working and that they are not helpless in the face of daunting environmental changes.</p>
<p>"It's quite a turnaround from where we were a decade ago and really, I think, optimistic for dealing with chronic shortages on the river in the future, knowing that we can turn the dial back and reduce demand significantly, all three states combined," said Bill Hasencamp, the manager of Colorado River resources for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a regional wholesaler and one of the river's largest users.</p><p>Observers of the basin's intricate politics are also impressed with the trend lines for a watershed that irrigates about 5 million acres of farmland and provides 40 million people in two countries and 29 tribal nations with a portion of their water.</p><p>"It is an incredibly important demonstration of the fact that we can use less water in this incredibly important water-use region," John Fleck told Circle of Blue. Fleck is the director of the University of New Mexico water resources program.</p><p>Projections for 2020 indicate that conservation will continue, though not quite at last year's pace. Halfway through the year, the <a href="https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g4000/hourly/forecast.pdf" target="_blank">Bureau of Reclamation forecasts</a> water consumption to be roughly 6.8 million acre-feet. An acre-foot is the amount of water that will flood an acre of land to a depth of one foot, or 325,851 gallons.</p><p>"I have to give them credit," Jennifer Gimbel, a senior water policy scholar at Colorado State University, told Circle of Blue about the lower basin states. "They're working hard to get these numbers."</p>
Raising Lake Mead
<p>Just five years ago, in 2015, the three states were making use of their entire 7.5-million-acre-foot allotment. By statute and tradition, the basin is divided into a lower basin, where use is higher, and an upper basin, which includes Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The basins have different water allocation systems and rules governing its use.</p><p>In the lower basin, Arizona's annual allocation is 2.8 million acre-feet, but last year it used just 2.5 million. Nevada used 233,000 of its 300,000 acre-feet. The big savings were in California, which used only 3.8 million of its 4.4 million acre-feet. California hasn't used that little water from the Colorado since the 1950s, Fleck said.</p><p>The drop in California last year is due in large part to Metropolitan Water District, which consumed only 537,000 acre-feet. Five years ago, the district's tally was around 1 million acre-feet per year. Urban conservation and development of local water sources have played a large role in the decline, but the district's Colorado River water use is also influenced by snow levels in the Sierra Nevada mountains. When more water is available to be imported from the northern part of the state, as it was last year, the district leans less heavily on the Colorado River.</p>Total Lower Colorado Basin Consumptive Use
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQxMTU1OS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MzM0NDYxM30.RVr3Rzi1jqZHweILfonMU8SWs_LGJBGqg9lMiQ-jrVY/img.png?width=980" id="d31ab" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="15ef390e64a1be66991bfd26b0f0fee5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="825" data-height="649" /><p>Reclamation's annual audit measures the amount of water consumed by humans, plants, and animals in the lower basin. Consumptive use equals total withdrawals minus any water that is returned to the river system, from irrigation runoff or wastewater treatment plants.</p><p>As meticulous as it is, the audit neglects a significant piece of the basin's water budget: evaporation from reservoirs and system losses, which is water consumed by riverside vegetation and absorbed by the ground. Together, these add up to about 1 million acre-feet per year, Jeremy Dodds, water accounting and verification group manager for Reclamation, told Circle of Blue.</p><p>This factor is part of the lower basin's "structural deficit," which means that total demand in the lower basin — use by Arizona, California, and Nevada, plus evaporation and required deliveries to Mexico — exceeds the amount of water that flows into Lake Mead, the lower basin's supply source.</p><p>Gimbel, who was the principal deputy assistant secretary for water and science for the U.S. Department of Interior from 2014 to 2016, said that despite the conservation efforts reflected in the audit, the lower basin still has much work to do. "They're closing the deficit, but they're not there yet," she said.</p><p>The goal of the lower basin's conservation is to keep Lake Mead from a precipitous decline into "dead pool" territory, where the reservoir is too low to send water downstream. The dead-pool threshold is at elevation 895 feet. Not using 1 million acre-feet last year most certainly helped the reservoir. Dodds said that at the current elevation of 1,089 feet, each block of 85,000 acre-feet equals 1 foot of elevation. So last year's conservation added 12 feet to Mead, compared to a scenario in which the three states use their full entitlement.</p><p>The conservation tool box that the states have employed has a range of instruments. Cities have provided incentives to remove grass lawns and replace inefficient toilets, showerheads, and washing machines. In Imperial Irrigation District, farmers have lined earthen canals with concrete to prevent seepage and they have agreed to fallow land to save water. Those measures, in both town and country, have helped to reduce demand. Supplies, on the other hand, have been bolstered by more investment in recycling and reuse, groundwater treatment, and desalination. As a whole, the seven states in the watershed came together in 2019 to modify rules for mandatory water-use restrictions that kick in as Lake Mead drops.</p><p>The decline in Colorado River water consumption mirrors regional and national trends. In Metropolitan Water District's service area in Southern California, water use per person fell from about 181 gallons per person per day in the mid-1990s to 131 gallons in 2018, a drop of 27 percent. Colorado River consumption on the Colorado River Indian Tribes reservation, in Arizona, is down about 20 percent since 2016.</p>
<p>According to Tom Ley, a water consultant to the tribes, the decline is due to changes in farming practices and participation in a land fallowing program that will see 10,000 acres taken out of production in the next three years. The tribes' decrease in consumptive water use "may look even more dramatic once the 2020 report comes out," Ley told Circle of Blue.<br></p><p>All of these actions amount to a shift in the perception of what's possible, Fleck said.</p><p>"It shows that the expectation that a growing population and a robust agricultural economy require more water is wrong," explained Fleck, who is optimistic about the basin's capacity to wield the tools of conservation effectively. Environmental doom is not the inevitable outcome, he says. "We're seeing success in the transition away from the tragedy narrative," he added.</p><p>Still, there are minefields to navigate. There are dozens of proposals in the upper basin states to withdraw more water from the river, which, if they were built, would further stress supplies. Some of the water conserved in Lake Mead is stored as a credit that participating agencies can theoretically draw upon in the future. How agencies handle those withdrawals, especially if large requests are made as lake levels plummet, is an uncertainty. On top of that, a warming climate will suck more moisture from the basin, even before rain and snow reach the river.</p><p>A hot, dry spring this year in the upper basin is evidence of what aridity can do. Snowpack in the basin's headwaters was roughly average on April 1 and runoff into Lake Powell, a key water supply indicator, was expected to be 78 percent of normal. But then dry conditions arrived in April and May. Combined with dehydrated soils, which took their share of water, the runoff forecast by June 1 had diminished to just 57 percent of normal.</p><p>Those climate signals are the counterbalance to the conservation success so far. Water managers, now wary, know the risk.</p><p>"Just hopefully we don't get a string of dry years coming back," Hasencamp said.</p>
<p class=""><em>This story originally appeared in <a href="https://www.circleofblue.org/" target="_blank">Circle of Blue</a></em> <em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Amazon river dolphins are classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Sylvain CORDIER / Gamma-Rapho / Getty Images
By Peter Yeung
A pair of pink Amazon river dolphins emerges for just a moment, arcing above the chocolate brown waters inside the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development, a research facility at the tropical heart of the Brazilian Amazon. Powerful jets of water spray out of their blowholes as these freshwater mammals take in air before submerging.
<p>Moments later the duo reappear on the other side of the Japurá River, playfully dovetailing, and skirting the edge of the <em>várzea</em> rainforest — a seasonal floodplain where, in this part of Amazonia, river levels can rise and fall by up to 12 meters (39 feet) a year, at times opening up vast swathes of rainforest to these graceful swimmers.</p><p>"They are very special creatures," says Natanael dos Santos, a guide working at the Mamirauá Institute. "They are extremely intelligent and can display a complex set of behaviors, even like humans." These skilled, sharp-toothed hunters, often reaching more than eight feet in length, are well adapted to shifting river levels. During highwater periods they penetrate deep into the rainforest using echolocation to search murky pools amid submerged tree roots for prey including dozens of fish species, turtles and freshwater crabs.</p><p>The Amazon river dolphin (<em>Inia geoffrensis</em>) or boto, already <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/10831/50358152" target="_blank">classified as "endangered"</a> since 2018 by the IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, is now coming under even more serious threat across Brazil and Latin America. An estimated population in the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/amazon-river-dolphin" target="_blank">low tens of thousands</a> is thought to exist in the wild, though counting the animals accurately in the Amazon's murky streams is challenging. Like other river dolphins, the boto communicates with variable whistle tones.</p><p>Occupying the Amazon and Orinoco river basins, which cut across the northern half of the South American continent, these freshwater mammals were historically abundant, and are protected today by Brazilian law; it is illegal to kill them. But for years, poachers have <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261359911_Insights_on_the_use_of_dolphins_boto_Inia_geoffrensis_and_tucuxi_Sotalia_fluviatilis_for_bait_in_the_piracatinga_Calophysus_macropterus_fishery_in_the_Western_Brazilian_Amazon" target="_blank">targeted the dolphins</a>, using their fatty blubber as bait to catch a carnivorous catfish called <em>piracatinga</em>, which is drawn to the scent of rotting flesh.</p>
<p>In January 2015, under the government of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, that chronic criminal behavior led to the introduction of a <a href="https://infoamazonia.org/pt/2015/03/amazon-fishermen-want-to-reduce-time-of-moratorium-on-piracatinga-fish/#!/story=post-12510&loc=-4.389559200000014,-64.55674760000001,7" target="_blank">five-year moratorium</a> on catching <em>piracatinga</em> in order to better protect the dolphins.</p><p>But that moratorium ended earlier this year and has yet to be renewed by the Jair Bolsonaro administration, which is undermining many other of Brazil's environmental laws. Experts warn that the failure to extend it could lead to the extinction of the largest freshwater dolphin in the world — a fate that befell <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/aug/08/endangeredspecies.conservation" target="_blank">China's Yangtze river dolphin (</a><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/aug/08/endangeredspecies.conservation" target="_blank"><em>Lipotes vexillifer</em></a><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/aug/08/endangeredspecies.conservation" target="_blank"><em>)</em></a> in 2007, following years of overfishing, pollution and habitat degradation.</p><p>"I believe [the lack of a moratorium] could make them extinct," warns Dr. Vera da Silva, a researcher for INPA, the Amazon research institute, who has been studying Amazonia's dolphins for more than 30 years. "Not all the objectives of the moratorium were fulfilled, therefore the moratorium must be extended," she explained.</p><p>Research by da Silva, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article-abstract/123/3/666/4888610" target="_blank">published in 2017</a>, found that a female dolphin's pregnancy typically lasts 13 months. After that, the mother feeds a calf underwater for two years. Due to that long gestation and nursing period, females only reproduce every three to five years.</p><p>"They are a very slow reproductive species," da Silva notes. "If the removal is higher [than the reproduction and rearing rate] the species does not have the capacity to replace itself."</p><p>Separate <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0191304" target="_blank">findings</a> by da Silva published in 2018 revealed that the Amazon river dolphin population in Brazil is halving every decade.</p>
<p>Prosecutors in Amazonas state, where the Mamirauá Institute is based, originally asked for the moratorium which started in 2015, warning that as many as 2,500 dolphins were being killed illegally each year for bait.</p><p>Da Silva reports that in November 2019 she met with officials from the Secretariat of Production of the State of Amazonas (SEPROR), to discuss the extension of the moratorium in Amazonas. But nothing has happened since, and the peak fishing season is due to begin in July.</p><p>"There is a huge amount of ignorance," she warns. "We need better information on fishing practices. There aren't strong enough laws to make fishermen report what they catch."</p><p>Marcelo Oliveira, a conservation specialist at World Wildlife Fund Brazil (WWF), agrees with that analysis. "Fishing is a threat but we don't have enough data," he says. "If we don't know where the river dolphins are, we can't say how bad [the threat] is. But it's expensive to do expeditions to monitor population trends."</p><p>WWF has been innovating — utilizing drones to accomplish the difficult job of making improved population estimates, flying 2.5 kilometer strips of river to record footage. "It's much cheaper and more efficient," than doing boat observations, he says. The NGO is currently partnering with British universities to analyze the drone findings using artificial intelligence.</p><p><span></span>But even with better data recording practices and an improved data set, Oliveira says that the river dolphins are still at great risk from a broad range of threats. "Bycatch sees so many dolphins caught in fishing nets, gold mining in the region has led to mercury poisoning in the water, and the construction of hydroelectric dams has reduced their habitat and genetic pool," he explains.</p>
<p>Oliveira believes that for now the focus of dolphin conservation should be on improved community engagement across the Amazon basin, with strong outreach to fishermen, in a region whose burgeoning population has now topped 34 million.</p><p>"Extending the moratorium could be a way to protect the dolphins, alternative baits could be a way, but we need to have a balance between development and biodiversity conservation," he says. "It's not a fight between the two. If communities are involved in conservation, the dolphins will be safer."</p><p>Fernando Trujillo, scientific director of the <a href="https://omacha.org/" target="_blank">Fundacion Omacha</a>, a Colombia-based environmental NGO specializing in protecting river dolphins set up in 1993, says that conservation must also be addressed on an international level.</p><p>"The end of [Brazil's] moratorium will send out the message that fishing is okay — even in other countries across Latin America," he says. "We need to work together with all the countries in terms of policy, agreeing on the same criteria and same legislation, especially when it comes to monitoring the borders."</p><p>Trujillo, who is also co-chair of the International Whaling Commission's small cetaceans committee, is calling for the Brazil moratorium to be extended another five years. "For so many reasons, it's a species we need to conserve and save," he says. "Alive dolphins can produce more money than dead ones for local communities through ecotourism."</p>
<p>Indigenous beliefs hold that the river dolphin — which transforms from grey to pink as it ages — is a magical creature. Males and females are both said to have the ability to morph at will into either a handsome man, or beautiful woman respectively, in order to seduce villagers in the dark of night. But scientists see the mammals as top predators of the Amazon aquatic ecosystem — considering them the jaguars of the rivers.</p><p>A spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply said it had not yet extended the moratorium because "it is necessary to evaluate its effects on the recovery of populations of porpoises and caimans in order to verify the effectiveness of this fisheries management measure." When asked by Mongabay to comment, the ministry did not provide a timeframe for this evaluation period.</p><p>There is another myth about the Amazon river dolphin. It is said that to kill one is bad luck. Not knowing what negative aquatic impacts might radiate from the extinction of this top predator, authorities may want to heed this legend as they try to decide whether or not to renew Brazil's moratorium.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/amazon-river-dolphin-risks-extinction-if-brazil-moratorium-not-renewed/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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