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Tag: Natural resource management

  • Governments gather in Canada in bid to boost biodiversity

    Governments gather in Canada in bid to boost biodiversity

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    BOSTON — Amid warnings that biodiversity is in freefall, environmental leaders will gather in Montreal to hammer out measures aimed at shoring up the world’s land and marine ecosystems and coming up with tens of billions of dollars to fund these conservation efforts.

    Delegates from about 190 countries will assemble for nearly two weeks, starting Wednesday, at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP15, to finalize a framework for protecting 30% of global land and marine areas by 2030. Currently, 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine areas are protected.

    The proposed framework also calls for reducing the rate of invasive species introduction and establishment by 50%, cutting pesticide use in half and eliminating the discharge of plastic waste.

    The goals — more ambitious than earlier ones that have mostly gone unmet — are expected to be at the heart of the meeting debate. But not far behind will be the issue of finance, with developing countries likely to push for significant monetary commitments before signing onto any deal.

    The draft framework calls for raising $200 billion or 1% of the world’s GDP for conservation by 2030. Another $500 billion annually would come from doing away with the politically-sensitive issue of subsidies that make food and fuel cheaper in many places.

    “The world is crying out for change, watching if governments seek to heal our relationship with the nature, with the planet,” Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the executive secretary of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, said at a November news conference. “The current state of biodiversity is dire with the loss of biodiversity at unprecedented levels in our history.”

    The United Nations conference comes less than a month after countries gathered to tackle climate change, agreeing for the first time to pay poor countries for the damage being caused by a warming planet.

    Climate change coupled with habitat loss, pollution and development have hammered the world’s biodiversity, with one estimate in 2019 warning that a million plant and animal species face extinction within decades — a rate of loss 1,000 times greater than expected. Humans use about 50,000 wild species routinely, and 1 out of 5 people of the world’s 7.9 billion population depend on those species for food and income, the report said.

    “We’re clearly losing biodiversity all around the world. Our ecosystems — that’s our forests, our grasslands, our wetlands, our coral reefs — are all degrading,” said Robert Watson, who has chaired past U.N. science reports on climate change and biodiversity loss. “We’re losing species; some are going extinct and others where the population numbers have even halved. We’re losing genetic diversity within species. So we’re clearly affecting biodiversity badly.”

    Brian O’Donnell, the director of the conservation group Campaign for Nature, noted how he had lived during a time of “climate stability and natural abundance” but fears that won’t be the same for his daughter and her generation.

    “We have to ask, ‘Will they be able to have well-functioning natural areas to sustain them? Will they benefit from what nature has given us — storm protection, pollination, clean water, food, abundant wildlife? Or will they face the remnants of a once thriving natural system?’” O’Donnell said.

    “Will the burden of climate breakdown and nature degradation be placed on the young people of the planet, the vulnerable, and the poor, those least responsible for creating the crises?” he asked.

    The challenge, though, will be convincing governments that they should do more to preserve and protect biodiversity and to follow through on their commitments. It will be especially challenging to make the case for cash-strapped developing countries who often need to spend money on more pressing concerns.

    “It would be a big deal if a lot of nations commit to 30%,” said Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm, referring to the draft goal to protect 30% of the planet for conservation. President Joe Biden has already laid out a vision to conserve 30% of U.S. land and waters by 2030, and then-United Kingdom prime minister Boris Johnson pledged to protect 30% of its land by 2030.

    The track record of this convention is not great.

    Governments agreed to a set of targets back in 2010 but only six of the 20 were partially met by a 2020 deadline. Some experts argue delegates should be exploring why the world fell short on so many targets rather than setting even more ambitious ones.

    “You can agree inside your environmental bubble … and that’s probably what happened back in 2010,” U.N. Environment Program Executive Director Inger Andersen told The Associated Press. “But we actually need to have agriculture as part of the conversation. We need to have the financing system as part of the conversation.”

    Susan Lieberman, vice president of international policy at Wildlife Conservation Society, said part of the problem is that, so far, there hasn’t been “sufficient accountability and monitoring” of the goals.

    “It’s really important to put in place a monitoring framework,” she said. “Countries need to report. There needs to be accountability … and the targets need to be clear enough that governments can monitor and report on them.”

    Among the goals is to close the estimated $700 billion a year gap in what is spent on biodiversity. Part of the problem, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Monica Medina said, is that the world not putting a sufficient price on nature.

    “We’re desperately trying to change people’s mindset about nature, and the fact that the things that we take for granted really aren’t free and we need to start actually accounting for their value and for the loss of their value … when development happens,” said Medina, who is leading the U.S. delegation at the conference.

    The funding hopes hinge heavily on whether countries reform their subsidies for industries that pollute or otherwise damage the natural world. Delegates face stiff opposition from parties, such as the fossil fuel sector, that would lose out if the reforms were enacted. Environmental ministers also have little influence over whether their countries take this risky step — one that’s been known to spark unrest and bring down governments.

    Watson, who has chaired past U.N. science reports, said reform is needed. “We need to get rid of subsidies. We need to draw down the subsidies on agriculture, fisheries, mining, energy, transportation, and we need to use that money for sustainable activities,” he said. “There’s probably over a trillion dollars a year in what we call direct subsidy, direct subsidies on fossil fuel, on fisheries, agriculture, etc. There’s also about $4 trillion of indirect subsidies.”

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    Associated Press science writer Christina Larson contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.

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    Follow Michael Casey in Twitter: @mcasey1

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    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • 1,700 dead seals found on Russia’s Caspian coast

    1,700 dead seals found on Russia’s Caspian coast

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    MOSCOW — About 1,700 seals have been found dead on the Caspian Sea coast in southern Russia, officials said Sunday.

    The authorities in the Russian province of Dagestan said that it’s still unclear what caused the animals’ deaths, but they likely died of natural reasons.

    Regional officials initially said Saturday that 700 dead seals were found on the coast, but on Sunday Zaur Gapizov, head of the Caspian Environmental Protection Center, said according to the state RIA Novosti news agency that after a broader inspection of the coast the number of dead animals was 1,700.

    Gapizov said the seals likely died a couple of weeks ago. He added that there was no sign that they were killed by poachers.

    Experts of the Federal Fisheries Agency and prosecutors inspected the coastline and collected data for laboratory research, which didn’t immediately spot any pollutants.

    Several previous incidents of mass deaths of seals were attributed to natural causes.

    The data about the number of seals in the Caspian varies widely. The fisheries agency has said the overall number of Caspian seals is 270,000-300,000, while Gapizov’s center put the number at 70,000.

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  • Nevada toad in geothermal power fight gets endangered status

    Nevada toad in geothermal power fight gets endangered status

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    RENO, Nev. — A tiny Nevada toad at the center of a legal battle over a geothermal power project has officially been declared an endangered species, after U.S. wildlife officials temporarily listed it on a rarely used emergency basis last spring.

    “This ruling makes final the listing of the Dixie Valley toad, ” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a formal rule published Friday in the Federal Register.

    The spectacled, quarter-sized amphibian “is currently at risk of extinction throughout its range primarily due to the approval and commencement of geothermal development,” the service said.

    Other threats to the toad include groundwater pumping, agriculture, climate change, disease and predation from bullfrogs.

    The temporary listing in April marked only the second time in 20 years the agency had taken such emergency action.

    Environmentalists who first petitioned for the listing in 2017 filed a lawsuit in January to block construction of the geothermal power plant on the edge of the wetlands where the toad lives about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Reno — the only place it’s known to exist on earth.

    “We’re pleased that the Biden administration is taking this essential step to prevent the extinction of an irreplaceable piece of Nevada’s special biodiversity,” said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin regional director for the Center for Biological Diversity.

    The center and a tribe fighting the project say pumping hot water from beneath the earth’s surface to generate carbon-free power would adversely affect levels and temperatures of surface water critical to the toad’s survival and sacred to the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe.

    The Fish and Wildlife Service cited those concerns in the final listing rule.

    “The best available information indicates that a complete reduction in spring flow and significant reduction of water temperature are plausible outcomes of the geothermal project, and these conditions could result in the species no longer persisting,” the agency said.

    “Because the species occurs in only one spring system and has not experienced habitat changes of the magnitude or pace projected, it may have low potential to adapt to a fast-changing environment,” it said. “We find that threatened species status is not appropriate because the threat of extinction is imminent.”

    Officials for the Reno-based developer, Ormat Technology, said the service’s decision was “not unexpected” given the emergency listing in April. In recent months, the company has been working with the agency and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to modify the project to increase mitigation for the toad and reduce any threat to its survival.

    The lawsuit over the original plan to build two power plants capable of producing 60MW of electricity is currently before U.S. District Judge Robert Jones in Reno. It’s already has made one trip to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which refused in August to grant a temporary injunction blocking construction of the power plant the bureau approved in December 2021.

    But just hours after that ruling, Ormat announced it had agreed to temporarily suspend all work on the project until next year. Then in late October, the bureau and Ormat asked the judge to put the case on hold while Ormat submitted a new plan to build just one geothermal plant, at least for now, that would produce only 12MW of power.

    Ormat Vice President Paul Thomsen said in an email to The Associated Press on Thursday that the company disagrees with the wildlife service’s “characterization of the potential impacts” of its project as a basis for the listing decision. He said it doesn’t change the ongoing coordination and consultation already under way to minimize and mitigate any of those impacts “regardless of its status under the Endangered Species Act.”

    “Following the emergency listing decision, BLM began consultation with the FWS, and Ormat has sought approval of a smaller project authorization that would provide additional assurances that the species will not be jeopardized by geothermal development,” he said.

    “As a zero-emissions, renewable energy facility, the project will further the Biden administration’s clean energy initiatives and support the fight against climate change,” Thomsen said.

    Donnelly agreed renewable energy is “essential to combating the climate emergency.”

    “But it can’t come at the cost of extinction,” he said.

    The last time endangered species protection first was initiated on an emergency basis was in 2011, when the Obama administration took action on the Miami blue butterfly in southern Florida. Before that, an emergency listing was granted for the California tiger salamander under the Bush administration in 2002.

    Other species listed as endangered on an emergency basis over the years include the California bighorn sheep in the Sierra Nevada in 1999, Steller sea lions in 1990, and the Sacramento River winter migration run of chinook salmon and Mojave desert tortoise, both in 1989.

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  • Nevada toad in geothermal power fight gets endangered status

    Nevada toad in geothermal power fight gets endangered status

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    RENO, Nev. — A tiny Nevada toad at the center of a legal battle over a geothermal power project has officially been declared an endangered species, after U.S. wildlife officials temporarily listed it on a rarely used emergency basis last spring.

    “This ruling makes final the listing of the Dixie Valley toad, ” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a formal rule published Friday in the Federal Register.

    The spectacled, quarter-sized amphibian “is currently at risk of extinction throughout its range primarily due to the approval and commencement of geothermal development,” the service said.

    Other threats to the toad include groundwater pumping, agriculture, climate change, disease and predation from bullfrogs.

    The temporary listing in April marked only the second time in 20 years the agency had taken such emergency action.

    Environmentalists who first petitioned for the listing in 2017 filed a lawsuit in January to block construction of the geothermal power plant on the edge of the wetlands where the toad lives about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Reno — the only place it’s known to exist on earth.

    “We’re pleased that the Biden administration is taking this essential step to prevent the extinction of an irreplaceable piece of Nevada’s special biodiversity,” said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin regional director for the Center for Biological Diversity.

    The center and a tribe fighting the project say pumping hot water from beneath the earth’s surface to generate carbon-free power would adversely affect levels and temperatures of surface water critical to the toad’s survival and sacred to the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe.

    The Fish and Wildlife Service cited those concerns in the final listing rule.

    “The best available information indicates that a complete reduction in spring flow and significant reduction of water temperature are plausible outcomes of the geothermal project, and these conditions could result in the species no longer persisting,” the agency said.

    “Because the species occurs in only one spring system and has not experienced habitat changes of the magnitude or pace projected, it may have low potential to adapt to a fast-changing environment,” it said. “We find that threatened species status is not appropriate because the threat of extinction is imminent.”

    Officials for the Reno-based developer, Ormat Technology, said the service’s decision was “not unexpected” given the emergency listing in April. In recent months, the company has been working with the agency and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to modify the project to increase mitigation for the toad and reduce any threat to its survival.

    The lawsuit over the original plan to build two power plants capable of producing 60MW of electricity is currently before U.S. District Judge Robert Jones in Reno. It’s already has made one trip to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which refused in August to grant a temporary injunction blocking construction of the power plant the bureau approved in December 2021.

    But just hours after that ruling, Ormat announced it had agreed to temporarily suspend all work on the project until next year. Then in late October, the bureau and Ormat asked the judge to put the case on hold while Ormat submitted a new plan to build just one geothermal plant, at least for now, that would produce only 12MW of power.

    Ormat Vice President Paul Thomsen said in an email to The Associated Press on Thursday that the company disagrees with the wildlife service’s “characterization of the potential impacts” of its project as a basis for the listing decision. He said it doesn’t change the ongoing coordination and consultation already under way to minimize and mitigate any of those impacts “regardless of its status under the Endangered Species Act.”

    “Following the emergency listing decision, BLM began consultation with the FWS, and Ormat has sought approval of a smaller project authorization that would provide additional assurances that the species will not be jeopardized by geothermal development,” he said.

    “As a zero-emissions, renewable energy facility, the project will further the Biden administration’s clean energy initiatives and support the fight against climate change,” Thomsen said.

    Donnelly agreed renewable energy is “essential to combating the climate emergency.”

    “But it can’t come at the cost of extinction,” he said.

    The last time endangered species protection first was initiated on an emergency basis was in 2011, when the Obama administration took action on the Miami blue butterfly in southern Florida. Before that, an emergency listing was granted for the California tiger salamander under the Bush administration in 2002.

    Other species listed as endangered on an emergency basis over the years include the California bighorn sheep in the Sierra Nevada in 1999, Steller sea lions in 1990, and the Sacramento River winter migration run of chinook salmon and Mojave desert tortoise, both in 1989.

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  • Endangered listing for Nevada toad in geothermal power fight

    Endangered listing for Nevada toad in geothermal power fight

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    RENO, Nev. — A tiny Nevada toad at the center of a legal battle over a geothermal power project has officially been declared an endangered species after U.S. wildlife officials temporarily listed it on a rarely-used emergency basis last spring.

    “This ruling makes final the listing of the Dixie Valley toad,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a formal rule published Friday in the Federal Register.

    The spectacled, quarter-sized amphibian “is currently at risk of extinction throughout its range primarily due to the approval and commencement of geothermal development,” the service said.

    Other threats to the toad include groundwater pumping, agriculture, climate change, disease and predation from bullfrogs.

    The temporary listing in April marked only the second time in 20 years the agency had taken such emergency action.

    Environmentalists who first petitioned for the listing in 2017 filed a lawsuit in January to block construction of the geothermal power plant on the edge of the wetlands where the toad lives about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Reno — the only place it’s known to exist on earth.

    “We’re pleased that the Biden administration is taking this essential step to prevent the extinction of an irreplaceable piece of Nevada’s special biodiversity,” said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin regional director for the Center for Biological Diversity.

    The center and a tribe fighting the project say pumping hot water from beneath the earth’s surface to generate carbon-free power would adversely affect levels and temperatures of surface water critical to the toad’s survival and sacred to the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe.

    The Fish and Wildlife Service cited those concerns in the final listing rule.

    “The best available information indicates that a complete reduction in spring flow and significant reduction of water temperature are plausible outcomes of the geothermal project, and these conditions could result in the species no longer persisting,” the agency said.

    “Because the species occurs in only one spring system and has not experienced habitat changes of the magnitude or pace projected, it may have low potential to adapt to a fast-changing environment,” it said. “We find that threatened species status is not appropriate because the threat of extinction is imminent.”

    Officials for the Reno-based developer, Ormat Technology, said the service’s decision was “not unexpected” given the emergency listing in April. In recent months, the company has been been working with the agency and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to modify the project to increase mitigation for the toad and reduce any threat to its survival.

    The lawsuit over the original plan to build two power plants capable of producing 60MW of electricity is currently before U.S. District Judge Robert Jones in Reno. It’s already has made one trip to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which refused in August to grant a temporary injunction blocking construction of the power plant the bureau approved in December 2021.

    But just hours after that ruling, Ormat announced it had agreed to temporarily suspend all work on the project until next year. Then in late October, the bureau and Ormat asked the judge to put the case on hold while Ormat submitted a new plan to build just one geothermal plant, at least for now, that would produce only 12MW of power.

    Ormat Vice President Paul Thomsen said in an email to The Associated Press on Thursday that the company disagrees with the wildlife service’s “characterization of the potential impacts” of its project as a basis for the listing decision. He said it doesn’t change the ongoing coordination and consultation already under way to minimize and mitigate any of those impacts “regardless of its status under the Endangered Species Act.”

    “Following the emergency listing decision, BLM began consultation with the FWS, and Ormat has sought approval of a smaller project authorization that would provide additional assurances that the species will not be jeopardized by geothermal development,” he said.

    “As a zero-emissions, renewable energy facility, the project will further the Biden administration’s clean energy initiatives and support the fight against climate change,” Thomsen said.

    Donnelly agreed renewable energy is “essential to combating the climate emergency.”

    “But it can’t come at the cost of extinction,” he said.

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  • EPA proposes restrictions to block proposed Alaska mine

    EPA proposes restrictions to block proposed Alaska mine

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    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed restrictions that would block plans for a copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region that is home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon run.

    A statement from the regional EPA office said discharges of dredged or fill material into the waters of the U.S. within the proposed Pebble Mine footprint in southwest Alaska would “result in unacceptable adverse effects on salmon fishery areas.”

    “This action would help protect salmon fishery areas that support world-class commercial and recreational fisheries, and that have sustained Alaska Native communities for thousands of years, supporting a subsistence-based way of life for one of the last intact wild salmon-based cultures in the world,” regional EPA administrator Casey Sixkiller said in a statement.

    The decision will now be forwarded to the EPA Office of Water for the final determination. That office has 60 days to affirm, modify or rescind the recommendation.

    The EPA regional office also proposed to restrict the discharge of dredged or fill material with any future proposal for Pebble Mine that would be similar in size or bigger than what is currently proposed.

    Mine developer Pebble Limited Partnership, owned by Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., called the EPA’s decision a preemptive veto. It described the decision as political and without legal, environmental or technical merit.

    “We still firmly believe that the proposed determination should have been withdrawn as it is based on indefensible legal and non-scientific assumptions,” Pebble CEO John Shively said in a statement.

    “Congress did not give the EPA broad authority to act as it has in the Pebble case. This is clearly a massive regulatory overreach by the EPA and well outside what Congress intended for the agency when it passed the Clean Water Act,” Shively said.

    The debate over the proposed mine in an area of southwest Alaska known for its salmon runs has spanned several presidential administrations. The EPA has said the Bristol Bay region also contains significant mineral resources.

    “After twenty years of Pebble hanging over our heads, the Biden Administration has the opportunity to follow through on its commitments by finalizing comprehensive, durable protections for our region as soon as possible,” Alannah Hurley, executive director for the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, said in a statement.

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  • Drying California lake to get $250M in US drought funding

    Drying California lake to get $250M in US drought funding

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The federal government said Monday it will spend $250 million over four years on environmental cleanup and restoration work around a drying Southern California lake that’s fed by the depleted Colorado River.

    The future of the Salton Sea, and who is financially responsible for it, has been a key issue in discussions over how to stave off a crisis in the Colorado River. The lake was formed in 1905 when the river overflowed, creating a resort destination that slowly morphed into an environmental disaster as water levels receded, exposing residents to harmful dust and reducing wildlife habitat.

    The lake is largely fed by runoff from farms in California’s Imperial Valley, who use Colorado River water to grow many of the nation’s winter vegetables as well as feed crops like alfalfa. As the farmers reduce their water use, less flows into the lake. California said it would only reduce its reliance on the over-tapped river if the federal government put up money to mitigate the effects of less water flowing into the sea.

    “It’s kind of a linchpin for the action we need to see on the Colorado River,” said Wade Crowfoot, California’s natural resources secretary. “Finally we are all in agreement that we can’t leave the Salton Sea on the cutting room floor, we can’t take these conservation actions — these extraordinary measures — at the expense of these residents.”

    The deal announced Monday needs approval from the Imperial Irrigation District, the largest user of Colorado River water. The water entity’s board will take it up on Tuesday.

    Both the district’s general manager and board member JB Hamby applauded the deal Monday.

    “The collaboration happening at the Salton Sea between water agencies and state, federal, and tribal governments is a blueprint for effective cooperation that the Colorado River Basin sorely needs,” Hamby said in a statement.

    The $250 million will come out of the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, which set aside $4 billion to stave off the worst effects of drought across the U.S. West.

    Most of the money is contingent on the Imperial Irrigation District and Coachella Valley Water District making good on their commitments to reduce their own use of river water. Both submitted proposals to cut back their usage for payment as part of a new federal program.

    The quarter-billion dollars will largely go to bolster and speed up existing state projects designed to lower the negative environmental impact of the drying lake bed. The state has committed nearly $583 million to projects at the sea, including dust suppression and habitat restoration. One project underway aims to create wetlands and ponds that will limit dust from blowing into the air while creating safe spaces for fish and birds, according to the state.

    The deal comes as the U.S. Interior Department and the seven states that rely on the river — California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming — scramble to stave off the worst impacts of the ongoing drought and historic overuse of the river. Lakes Powell and Mead, the key reservoirs that store river water and provide hydropower across the West, are only about a quarter full.

    After months of failed negotiations over a deal to drastically cut water use, the federal government in October said it would pay farmers and cities to cut back through activities like leaving fields unplanted or lining canals to prevent water from seeping into the ground. Proposals were due earlier this month. Meanwhile, the Interior Department has taken steps to unilaterally revise guidelines that govern when water shortages are declared, a move that could force states to further cut back.

    The Salton Sea, meanwhile, became its own political flashpoint in October when Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, then up for reelection, urged the federal government to withhold any environmental cleanup money unless California agreed to give up more water. That prompted criticism he was using communities who already suffer from poor air quality as a bargaining chip.

    The agreement marks a good step forward but key details still need to be fleshed out, said Frank Ruiz, Salton Sea program director for Audubon California. He worries that $250 million is not enough to mitigate all of the damage already done at the sea.

    “This is a great step but I think we need a lot more,” he said. “We need to continue discussing water sustainability in the region.”

    Broadly, he wants to see a more equitable distribution of the region’s water supplies and hopes the Salton Sea gets a guaranteed minimum amount of water even as overall use declines.

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  • Water boil order issued for more than 2 million in Houston

    Water boil order issued for more than 2 million in Houston

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    HOUSTON — More than 2 million people in the Houston area were under a boil order notice Monday after a power outage caused low pressure at a water purification plant, officials said.

    The order — which means water must be boiled before it’s used for cooking, bathing or drinking — also prompted schools in the Houston area to close Monday. It was issued Sunday after a power outage at a water purification plant, the city’s public works department said.

    Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said on Twitter that the city believes the water is safe but a boil order was required because of the drop in water pressure. He said water sampling would begin Monday morning, and the boil order could be lifted 24 hours after the city is notified the water is safe.

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  • Pockets of shelling across Ukraine as wintry warfare looms

    Pockets of shelling across Ukraine as wintry warfare looms

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    KHERSON, Ukraine — Russian forces struck eastern and southern Ukraine early Sunday as utility crews scrambled to restore power, water and heating with the onset of snow and frigid temperatures, while civilians continued to leave the southern city of Kherson because of the devastation wreaked by recent attacks and their fears of more ahead.

    With persistent snowfall blanketing the capital, Kyiv, Sunday, analysts predicted that wintry weather — bringing with it frozen terrain and grueling fighting conditions — could have an increasing impact on the conflict that has raged since Russian forces invaded Ukraine more than nine months ago.

    Both sides were already bogged down by heavy rain and muddy battlefield conditions, experts said.

    After a blistering series of Russian artillery strikes on infrastructure that started last month, workers were fanning out in around-the-clock deployments to restore key basic services as many Ukrainians were forced to cope with only a few hours of electricity per day — if any.

    Ukrenergo, the state power grid operator, said Sunday that electricity producers are now supplying about 80% of demand, compared to 75% the previous day.

    The deprivations have revived jousting between Ukraine’s president and Kyiv’s mayor. Mayor Vitali Klitschko on Sunday defended himself against allegations levelled by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that too many Kyiv residents were still without power and that insufficient centers had been set up for them to stock up on food, water, battery power and other essentials.

    Kitschko wrote on Telegram that hundreds of such centers are in operation, as well as hundreds of emergency generators, adding that “I do not want, especially in the current situation, to enter into political battles. It’s ridiculous.”

    The president and the mayor have sporadically sparred since Zelenskyy took office in 2019. Zelenskyy has accused Klitschko and officials around him of corruption, while Klitschko contends the president’s office has put him under political pressure.

    The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank that has been closely monitoring developments in Ukraine, said reporting from both sides indicated that heavy rain and mud have had an impact — along with wider freezing expected along the front lines in the coming days.

    “It is unclear if either side is actively planning or preparing to resume major offensive or counter-offensive operations at that time, but the meteorological factors that have been hindering such operations will begin lifting,” it said in a note published Saturday.

    ISW said Russian forces were digging in further east of the city of Kherson, from which Ukrainian forces expelled them more than two weeks ago, and continued “routine artillery fire” across the Dnieper River.

    The think tank also cited reports that Russian forces were moving multiple launch rocket and ground-to-air missile systems into positions closer to the city as part of a possible plan to step up “the tempo of rocket and anti-air missile strikes against ground targets north of the Dnieper River in the coming days.”

    Kherson city, which was liberated more than two weeks ago — a development that Zelenskyy called a turning point in the war — has faced intense shelling in recent days by Russian forces nearby.

    The top U.N. official in Ukraine said civilians, many of whom lamented unlivable conditions and feared more strikes to come, continued to pour out of Kherson on Sunday.

    “The level of destruction, the scope of the destruction, what’s required in the city and in the oblast — it’s massive,” said U.N. resident coordinator Denise Brown, referring to the region. U.N. teams were ferrying in supplies like food, water, shelter materials, medicines, and blankets and mattresses, she said.

    “Time is of the essence, of course, before it becomes an absolute catastrophe,” Brown told The Associated Press in Kherson.

    Galina Lugova, head of the city’s military administration, said in an interview that evacuation trains had been lined up and bomb shelters set up in all city districts with stoves, beds, first aid kits and fire extinguishers.

    “We are preparing for a winter in difficult conditions, but we will do everything to make people safe,” Lugova said. Her biggest worry, she said, was “shelling that intensifies every day. Shelling, shelling and shelling again.”

    On the roads out of the city, some residents felt they had no choice but to leave.

    “The day before yesterday, artillery hit our house. Four flats burned down. Windows shattered,” said Vitaliy Nadochiy, driving out with a terrier on his lap and a Ukrainian flag dangling from a sun visor. “We can’t be there. There is no electricity, no water, heating. So we are leaving to go to my brother.”

    In the eastern Donetsk region, five people were killed in shelling over the past day, governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said. Overnight shelling was reported by regional leaders in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk areas to the west. In addition, he said two people were killed in artillery firing on the town of Kurakhove.

    Kharkiv governor Oleh Syniehubov said one person was killed and three wounded in the northeastern region.

    Russian rockets hit unspecified railroad facilities in Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s hometown, on Sunday, according to a regional official. No injuries were immediately reported.

    ———

    Keaten reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Mstyslav Chernov in Kherson contributed to this report.

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  • Civilians escape Kherson after Russian strikes on freed city

    Civilians escape Kherson after Russian strikes on freed city

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    KHERSON, Ukraine — Fleeing shelling, civilians on Saturday streamed out of the southern Ukrainian city whose recapture they had celebrated just weeks earlier as the country remembered a Stalin-era famine and sought to ensure that Russia’s war in Ukraine doesn’t deprive others worldwide of its vital food exports.

    A line of trucks, vans and cars, some towing trailers or ferrying out pets and other belongings, stretched a kilometer or more on the outskirts of the city of Kherson.

    Days of intensive shelling by Russian forces prompted a bittersweet exodus: Many civilians were happy that their city had been won back, but lamented that they couldn’t stay.

    “It is sad that we are leaving our home,” said Yevhen Yankov, as a van he was in inched forward. “Now we are free, but we have to leave, because there is shelling, and there are dead among the population.”

    Poking her head out from the back, Svitlana Romanivna added: “We went through real hell. Our neighborhood was burning, it was a nightmare. Everything was in flames.”

    Emilie Fourrey, emergency project coordinator for aid group Doctors Without Borders in Ukraine, said an evacuation of 400 patients of Kherson’s psychiatric hospital, which is situated near both an electrical plant and the frontline, had begun on Thursday and was set to continue in the coming days.

    Kherson was one of many cities in recent days to face a blistering onslaught of Russian artillery fire and drone attacks, with the shelling especially intense there. Elsewhere, the barrage largely targeted infrastructure, though civilian casualties were reported. Repair crews across the country were scrambling Saturday to restore heat, electricity and water services that were blasted into disrepair.

    Russia has ratcheted up its attacks on critical infrastructure after suffering battlefield setbacks. A prominent Russian nationalist said Saturday the Russian military doesn’t have enough doctors, in what was a rare public admission of problems within the military.

    In the capital Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy oversaw a busy day of diplomacy, welcoming several European Union leaders for meetings and hosting an “International Summit on Food Security” to discuss food security and agricultural exports from the country.

    The prime ministers of Belgium, Poland and Lithuania and the president of Hungary were on hand, and many others participated by video.

    Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Ukraine — despite its own financial straits — has allocated 900 million hryvna ($24 million) to purchase corn for countries including Yemen, Sudan, Kenya and Nigeria.

    Zelenskyy said Ukraine was working to get its grain on ships and to countries that need it.

    “Our goal is ambitious and specific – to save at least 5 million people from hunger,” Zelenskyy said.

    The reminder about food supplies was timely: Ukrainians were marking the 90th anniversary of the start of the “Holodomor,” or Great Famine, which killed more than 3 million people over two years as the Soviet government under dictator Josef Stalin confiscated food and grain supplies and deported many Ukrainians.

    German Chancellor Olaf Scholz marked the commemoration by drawing parallels with the impact of the war on Ukraine on world markets. Exports from Ukraine have resumed under a U.N.-brokered deal but have still been far short of pre-war levels, driving up global prices.

    “Today, we stand united in stating that hunger must never again be used as a weapon,” Scholz said in a video message. “That is why we cannot tolerate what we are witnessing: The worst global food crisis in years with abhorrent consequences for millions of people – from Afghanistan to Madagascar, from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa.”

    He said Germany, with the U.N.’s World Food Program, will provide an additional 15 million euros for further grain shipments from Ukraine.

    Scholz spokes as a cross-party group of lawmakers in Germany are seeking to pass a parliamentary resolution next week that would recognize the 1930s famine as “genocide.”

    Last year Ukraine and Russia provided around 30% of the world’s exported wheat and barley, 20% of its corn, and over 50% of its sunflower oil, the U.N. has said.

    In a post on the Telegram social network on Saturday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said more than 3,000 specialists for a local utility continued to work “around the clock” and had succeeded in restoring heat to more than more than 90% of residential buildings. While about one-quarter of Kyiv residents remained without electricity, he said water serviced had been returned to all in the city.

    The scramble to restore power came as Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo met Saturday with Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

    “This might be a difficult winter,” he said, alluding to Belgium’s contributions of generators, and support for schools and hospitals in Ukraine, as well as military aid such as “fuel, machine guns, propelled artillery and so on.”

    “And by standing here, we hope that we provide you hope and resilience in fighting through this difficult period.”

    ———

    Keaten reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.

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  • Fire plan would cut 2.4 million New Jersey Pinelands trees

    Fire plan would cut 2.4 million New Jersey Pinelands trees

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    BASS RIVER TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Up to 2.4 million trees would be cut down as part of a project to prevent major wildfires in a federally protected New Jersey forest heralded as a unique environmental treasure.

    New Jersey environmental officials say the plan to kill trees in a section of Bass River State Forest is designed to better protect against catastrophic wildfires, adding it will mostly affect small, scrawny trees — not the towering giants for which the Pinelands National Refuge is known and loved.

    But the plan, adopted Oct. 14 by the New Jersey Pinelands Commission and set to begin in April, has split environmentalists. Some say it is a reasonable and necessary response to the dangers of wildfires, while others say it is an unconscionable waste of trees that would no longer be able to store carbon as climate change imperils the globe.

    Foes are also upset about the possible use of herbicides to prevent invasive species regeneration, noting that the Pinelands sits atop an aquifer that contains some of the purest drinking water in the nation.

    And some of them fear the plan could be a back door to logging the protected woodlands under the guise of fire protection, despite the state’s denials.

    “In order to save the forest, they have to cut down the forest,” said Jeff Tittel, the retired former director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, calling the plan “shameful” and “Orwellian.”

    Pinelands Commissioner Mark Lohbauer voted against the plan, calling it ill-advised on many levels. He says it could harm rare snakes, and adds that he has researched forestry tactics from western states and believes that tree-thinning is ineffective in preventing large wildfires.

    “We are in an era of climate change; it’s incumbent on us to do our utmost to preserve these trees that are sequestering carbon,” he said. “If we don’t have an absolutely essential reason for cutting down trees, we shouldn’t do it.”

    The plan involves about 1,300 acres (526 hectares), a miniscule percentage of the 1.1-million-acre (445,150-hectare) Pinelands preserve, which enjoys federal and state protection, and has been named a unique biosphere by the United Nations.

    Most of the trees to be killed are 2 inches (5 centimeters) or less in diameter, the state said. Dense undergrowth of these smaller trees can act as “ladder fuel,” carrying fire from the forest floor up to the treetops, where flames can spread rapidly and wind can intensify to whip up blazes, the state Department of Environmental Protection said in a statement.

    A Pinelands commissioner calculated that 2.4 million trees would be removed by using data from the state’s application, multiplying the percentage of tree density reduction by the amount of land affected.

    The department would not say whether it believes that number is accurate, nor would it offer a number of its own. But it did say “the total number of trees thinned could be significant.”

    “This is like liquid gasoline in the Pinelands,” said Todd Wyckoff, chief of the New Jersey Forest Service, as he touched a scrawny pine tree of the type that will most often be cut during the project. “I see a forest at risk from fire. I look at this as restoring the forest to more of what it should be.”

    Tree thinning is an accepted form of forest management in many areas of the country, done in the name of preventing fires from becoming larger than they otherwise might be, and is supported by government foresters as well as timber industry officials. But some conservation groups say thinning does not work.

    New Jersey says the cutting will center on the smallest snow-bent pitch pine trees, “and an intact canopy will be maintained across the site.”

    The state’s application, however, envisions that canopy cover will be reduced from 68% to 43% on over 1,000 acres (405 hectares), with even larger decreases planned for smaller sections.

    And scrawny trees aren’t the only ones that will be cut: Many thick, tall trees on either side of some roads will be cut down to create more of a fire break, where firefighters can defend against a spreading blaze.

    The affected area has about 2,000 trees per acre — four times the normal density in the Pinelands, according to the state.

    Most of the cut trees will be ground into wood chips that will remain on the forest floor, eventually returning to the soil, the department said, adding, “It is not anticipated that any material of commercial value will be produced because of this project.”

    Some environmentalists fear that might not be true, that felled trees could be harvested and sold as cord wood, wood pellets or even used in making glue.

    “I’m opposed to the removal of any of that material,” Lohbauer said. “That material belongs in the forest where it will support habitat and eventually be recycled” into the soil. “Even if they use it for wood pellets, which are popular for burning in wood stoves, that releases the carbon.”

    John Cecil, an assistant commissioner with the department, said his agency is not looking to make a profit from any wood products that might be removed from the site.

    But he said that if some felled trees “could be put to good use and generate revenue for the taxpayers, why wouldn’t we do that? If there’s a way to do this that preserves the essential goals of this plan and brings some revenue back in, that’s not the end of the world. Maybe you could get a couple fence posts out of these trees.”

    Created by an act of Congress in 1978, the Pinelands district occupies 22% of New Jersey’s land area, is home to 135 rare plant and animal species, and is the largest body of open space on the mid-Atlantic seaboard between Richmond, Virginia, and Boston. It also includes an aquifer that is the source of 17 trillion gallons (64 trillion liters) of drinking water.

    “It is unacceptable to be cutting down trees in a climate emergency, and cutting 2.4 million small trees will severely reduce the future ability to store carbon,” said Bill Wolfe, a former department official who runs an environmental blog.

    Carleton Montgomery, executive director of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, supports the plan.

    The group said opponents are using the number of trees to be cut “to (elicit) shock and horror,” saying that by focusing on the number rather than size of trees to be cut, they “are quite literally missing the forest for the trees. The resulting forest will be a healthy native Pine Barrens habitat.”

    ———

    This story corrects the name of agency in paragraph 13 to New Jersey Forest Service, not Forest Fire Service.

    ———

    Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC

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  • Climate, politics double threat as Tigris-Euphrates shrivels

    Climate, politics double threat as Tigris-Euphrates shrivels

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    DAWWAYAH, Iraq and ILISU DAM, Turkey — Next year, the water will come. The pipes have been laid to Ata Yigit’s sprawling farm in Turkey’s southeast connecting it to a dam on the Euphrates River. A dream, soon to become a reality, he says.

    Over 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) downstream in southern Iraq, nothing grows anymore in Obeid Hafez’s wheat farm. The water stopped coming a year ago, the 95-year-old said.

    The starkly different realities are playing out along the length of the Tigris-Euphrates river basin, one of the world’s most vulnerable. River flows have fallen by 40% in the past four decades as countries along its length — Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq — pursue rapid, unilateral development of the waters’ use.

    The drop is projected to worsen as temperatures rise from climate change. Both Turkey and Iraq, the two biggest consumers, acknowledge they must cooperate to preserve the river system. But a combination of political failures, mistrust and intransigence are conspiring to prevent a deal on sharing the rivers.

    The Associated Press conducted more than a dozen interviews in both countries, from top water envoys and senior officials to local farmers, and gained exclusive visits to controversial dam projects. Internal reports and revealed data illustrate the calculations driving disputes behind closed doors, from Iraq’s fears of a potential 20% drop in food production to Turkey’s struggles to balance Iraq’s and its own needs.

    “I don’t see a solution,” said former Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi.

    “Would Turkey sacrifice its own interests? Especially if that means that by giving more (water) to us, their farmers and people will suffer?”

    Turkey has been harnessing the river basin with a massive project to boost agriculture and generate hydroelectricity, the Southeast Anatolia Project, or GAP by its Turkish acronym. It has built at least 19 dams on the Euphrates and Tigris, with several more planned for a total of 22. The aim is to develop Turkey’s southeast, long an economic backwater.

    For the farmer, Yigit, the project will be transformative.

    Until now, his reliance on well water only permitted half his lands to be irrigated.

    But now that the irrigation pipes have reached his farm in Mardin province, his entire 4,500 acres will be watered next year via the Ataturk Dam on the Euphrates.

    In contrast, Iraq — which relies on outside sources for nearly all its water — grows more worried with every drop diverted upstream.

    In 2014, its Water Ministry prepared a confidential report warning that in two years, Iraq’s water supply would no longer meet demand, and the gap would keep widening. The report, seen by the AP, said that by 2035, the water deficit would cause a 20% reduction in food production.

    The report shows Iraqi officials knew how bleak the future would be without the recommended $180 billion in investment in water infrastructure and an agreement with its neighbors. Neither has happened.

    Decades of talks have still not found common ground on water-sharing.

    Turkey approaches the water issue as if it were the river basin’s benevolent owner, assessing needs and deciding how much to let flow downstream. Iraq considers ownership shared and wants a more permanent arrangement with defined portions.

    In a rare interview, Turkey’s envoy on water issues with Iraq, Veysel Eroglu, told the AP that Turkey cannot accept to release a fixed amount of water because of the unpredictability of river flows in the age of climate change.

    Eroglu said Turkey could agree to setting a ratio to release — but only if Syria and Iraq provide detailed data on their water consumption.

    “That is the only way to share water in an optimal and fair manner,” Eroglu said.

    Iraq refuses to provide its consumption data. That’s in part because it would show the widespread water waste in Iraq and the government weakness that makes managing water nearly impossible.

    Government attempts at rationing the waning water causes outrage in southern Iraq. In August in southern Dhi Qar province, for example, tribal leader Sheikh Thamer Saeedi and dozens of protesters tried to divert water from a Tigris tributary to feed his barren lands after authorities failed to respond to his pleas for water.

    The attempted diversion nearly sparked violence between local tribes before security forces intervened.

    Iraq blames one Turkish infrastructure project in particular for these woes: the Ilusu Dam, on the Tigris.

    Before Turkey began operating the dam in 2020, all the waters of Tigris flowed into Iraq. Now how much water comes down depends on Ankara’s consideration of Iraq’s month-to-month requests for a minimum flow, weighed against Turkey’s own hydropower needs.

    Turkey contends it is unfairly scapegoated. The AP was given an exclusive tour of the dam facility in October by Turkey’s State Hydraulics Works, known by the Turkish acronym DSI, and given figures for the first time detailing flow rates and electricity production over two years.

    A decade ago, Iraq received an average flow of 625 cubic meters of water per second from the Tigris. Today, the rate averages only 36% of that, Iraqi water ministry officials say.

    Data provided by DSI shows that Turkey respected a request made by Iraq that it release at least 300 cubic meters per second down the Tigris during summer months when shortages are common.

    But Iraqi officials say depending on such ad hoc arrangements make planning difficult.

    “They can cut water, they can release water. We urgently need a water agreement just to satisfy Iraq’s minimum requirements,” said Hatem Hamid, head of the National Centre for Water Resources Management.

    For example, with dire shortages anticipated in 2022, Hamid cut the state agriculture water plan in half and reduced fresh water flows to Iraq’s marshlands, to minimize salinity. But water-stressed Iran also diverted flows from tributaries feeding the marshes. The result was an environmental emergency and hundreds of dead livestock.

    Back in Obeid Hafez’s farm, the land is barren.

    Portraits of Hafez’s forefathers hang in his spartan living room. With his sons gone to seek work in the cities, there will be no one to till the land after him.

    “Life has ended here,” he said.

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  • West Texas earthquake causes damage hundreds of miles away

    West Texas earthquake causes damage hundreds of miles away

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    MENTONE, Texas — A strong earthquake that struck a remote area of the West Texas desert caused damage in San Antonio, hundreds of miles from the epicenter, officials said.

    University Health said Thursday that its Robert B. Green historical building was deemed unsafe because of damage sustained from the quake, which hit Wednesday in a remote area near the New Mexico border. The historical building is more than 100 years old and has been closed off for safety reasons, University Health said.

    The quake initially had a 5.3 magnitude but that was revised upward to 5.4. The earthquake’s epicenter was about 23 miles (37 kilometers) south of Mentone, a tiny community about 350 miles (560 kilometers) northwest of San Antonio.

    It was one of the strongest earthquakes on record in Texas and hit in an area known for oil and gas production. On Thursday, the state’s Railroad Commission — which regulates Texas’ oil and gas industry — sent inspectors to the site to determine whether any actions were needed.

    Earthquakes in the south-central United States have been linked to oil and gas production, particularly the underground injection of wastewater. The U.S. Geological Survey said research suggests that a 5.0 magnitude quake that struck the same West Texas area in 2020 was the result of a large increase of wastewater injection in the region.

    In neighboring Oklahoma, thousands of earthquakes of varying magnitudes have been recorded in the past decade, leading state regulators to direct producers to close some injection wells.

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  • Mississippi capital to hire emergency water plant workers

    Mississippi capital to hire emergency water plant workers

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    JACKSON, Miss — Local officials in Mississippi’s capital city, where a late summer water crisis upended life for 150,00 people, have approved an emergency plan to increase staffing at the city’s two water treatment plants.

    Jackson city council members voted Thursday to hire contract workers from a Los Angeles-based company to staff the O.B. Curtis and J.H. Fewell water treatment plants, tanks and well facilities. Under the agreement, WaterTalent LLC will provide the city with four skilled water operators to help beef up paltry staffing at the two treatment facilities.

    Jackson currently has two operators licensed at the Class A level, who have a degree of technical expertise that can take years to acquire. City leaders said that the two operators have been working more than 80 hours a week to produce clean water at the plants.

    “We’re still relying on the same operators who are working long, long, long hours and long shifts,” said Ted Henifin, a consultant working with the city council. “So, we identified this company, and they recruit these folks and have them on standby, essentially licensed operators, that are willing to deploy for some emergency periods, and we’ve gotten a proposal from them.”

    The workers will be paid around $40 per hour. The agreement will be in place until the city hires a long-term contractor, WLBT-TV reported. The new operators will report to Jackson on Sunday, November 13.

    Jackson’s water system has been beset by problems for decades, but the latest troubles began in late August after heavy rainfall exacerbated problems at the O.B. Curtis plant, leaving many customers without running water. State and federal officials surged resources to the area after emergency orders were declared by Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves and President Joe Biden.

    Reeves said the state of emergency he declared on Aug. 30 would remain in place until Nov. 22. City officials are attempting to reach an agreement with a private firm to operate Jackson’s water system over the long term. Until then, extra staffing will ease the burden on city workers, local officials said.

    “The big piece of this is it also allows (operators) not to have to work 70 to 80 hours a week,” Henifin said. “They’re actually going to get some of their life back, which I think they would all like at this point in time.”

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  • California sues over ‘forever chemicals’ that taint water

    California sues over ‘forever chemicals’ that taint water

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    SAN FRANCISCO — A lawsuit filed Thursday by the state of California accuses 3M, Dupont and 16 smaller companies of covering up the harm caused to the environment and the public from chemicals manufactured by the firms that have over decades found their way into waterways and human bloodstreams.

    Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the lawsuit against the manufacturers of compounds that have been used in consumer goods and industry since the 1940s. The chemicals are found in firefighting foams, nonstick frying pans, cleaning sprays, water-repellent sports gear, stain-resistant rugs, cosmetics and countless other products.

    Bonta said these so-called forever chemicals are so strong that they do not degrade or do so only slowly in the environment and remain in a person’s bloodstream indefinitely.

    The companies knew for decades that the chemicals are “toxic and harmful to human health and the environment, yet they continued to produce them for mass use and concealed their harms from the public,” Bonta said.

    He said the court action comes following a multiyear investigation that found the companies marketed products containing PFAS, short for polyfluoroalkyl substances, despite knowing they cause cancer, developmental defects, reduced bone density and other health problems.

    Minnesota-based 3M said in a statement after the court filing that it “acted responsibly in connection with products containing PFAS and will defend its record of environmental stewardship.”

    Dupont, based in Delaware, said the company as it now exists should not have been named in the lawsuit.

    “In 2019, DuPont de Nemours was established as a new multi-industrial specialty products company. DuPont de Nemours has never manufactured PFOA, PFOS or firefighting foam. While we don’t comment on pending litigation, we believe these complaints are without merit, and the latest example of DuPont de Nemours being improperly named in litigation,” the statement said.

    The lawsuit, filed in Alameda County, is the first statewide legal action over PFAS contamination.

    It alleges violations of state consumer protection and environmental statutes and invokes a federal law that establishes a path to recoup the costs of cleaning up hazardous substances in soil and water.

    Bonta estimated penalties and cleanup costs sought by the lawsuit would reach hundreds of millions of dollars.

    U.S. manufacturers have voluntarily phased out compounds such as PFAS, but there are a limited number of ongoing uses and the chemicals remain in the environment because they do not degrade over time.

    The federal Environmental Protection Agency in June invited states and territories to apply for $1 billion under the new bipartisan infrastructure law to address PFAS and other contaminants in drinking water. Money can be used for technical assistance, water quality testing, contractor training and installation of centralized treatment, officials said.

    The EPA warned then that the chemicals are more dangerous than previously thought and pose health risks even at levels so low they cannot currently be detected.

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  • Devi the elephant, 45, euthanized at San Diego Zoo

    Devi the elephant, 45, euthanized at San Diego Zoo

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    SAN DIEGO — A 45-year-old female Asian elephant was euthanized because of her deteriorating health from age-related problems, the San Diego Zoo announced Friday.

    Devi had been undergoing therapy but her mobility had declined and wildlife care specialists “made the difficult decision” on Thursday to euthanize her, the zoo said in a Facebook posting.

    “The San Diego Zoo family is heartbroken,” the zoo said.

    Devi arrived at the zoo in 1977 from an elephant orphanage in Sri Lanka.

    “She inspired guests from all over the world to understand the importance of elephant conservation and leaves behind a remarkable legacy as an ambassador for her species,” the zoo said.

    Devi was the second oldest of five elephants at the zoo. Mary, a 58-year-old Asian elephant, and African elephant Shaba, 42, lived with her at the Elephant Care Center.

    After Devi died, the two were allowed to view her body and “make their goodbyes,” the zoo said.

    Elephants in the wild are highly social animals and scientists say some have been observed performing behaviors that in humans might indicate mourning for a dead acquaintance.

    The Asian elephant can live for decades in the wild and in captivity. It is considered endangered because of poaching and habitat loss, with an estimated wild population of about 50,000.

    The San Diego Zoo has euthanized two other elephants for health reasons in the past six years. Ranchipur, a 50-year-old Asian male, died in 2016 and Tembo, a 48-year-old African female, was euthanized in 2019.

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  • Mississippi capital to receive $35.6M in federal water funds

    Mississippi capital to receive $35.6M in federal water funds

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    JACKSON, Miss — Mississippi officials on Friday approved the city of Jackson’s request for $35.6 million in federal funds to help fix its crumbling water infrastructure, following this summer’s flooding-induced breakdowns that left 150,000 people without running water for days.

    The Mississippi Municipality and County Water Infrastructure Grant Program approved the full amount the state’s capital city requested to pay for seven water and sewer projects.

    State lawmakers created the program in 2022 to provide grants matching the federal government’s aid for cities and counties financed through the American Rescue Plan Act. The dollar-for-dollar match means Jackson will have $71.3 million to upgrade its water system.

    Congress passed the sweeping American Rescue Plan Act to tame the public health and economic crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said the funds would help provide reliable drinking water to a city that has periodically lost access to such a basic necessity.

    “We are grateful for the assistance and will continue to explore all potential funding avenues to achieve this end,” Lumumba said.

    Over $400 million in match funds will be awarded for the entire state in two rounds. Applications for the $180 million first round closed on Sept. 30. About 430 cities and counties in Mississippi applied for funding. The second round of funds will be awarded sometime in the spring. Jackson-area legislative leaders plan to press for money during the 2022 legislative session, which begins in January.

    “I was told by the executive director that one of the city’s drinking water projects scored higher than any other application in this first round,” said Democratic Sen. John Horhn of Jackson. “We are looking for the state to do more once the regular session begins in January.”

    A lingering boil water notice preceded the late summer crisis after testing revealed the tap water was unsafe.

    Among seven water and sewer system upgrades, the funds will be used to help replace a raw water pump at the beleaguered O.B. Curtis water treatment plant, which fell into crisis in late August after torrential rain fell in central Mississippi. The deluge altered the raw water quality entering Jackson’s treatment plants. That slowed the treatment process, depleted supplies in water tanks and caused a precipitous drop in pressure.

    Understaffing at its water treatment plants, a shrinking tax base and political disputes between city and state officials have also contributed to the city’s water woes.

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that the water in Jackson is safe to drink based on samples it collected over the past several months. But the agency is still waiting on another round of test results to determine whether Jackson has too much lead and copper in its water. The results are expected in mid-November.

    On Oct. 20, the EPA said it was investigating whether Mississippi state agencies have discriminated against Jackson by refusing to fund water system improvements in the city, where more than 80% of residents are Black and about a quarter of the population lives in poverty.

    ———

    Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mikergoldberg.

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  • EPA: Water in Mississippi’s capital city is safe to drink

    EPA: Water in Mississippi’s capital city is safe to drink

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    JACKSON, Miss — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency confirmed Monday that the water in Mississippi’s capital city is safe to drink, after months of sampling at a treatment plant overwhelmed by August flooding that caused wide supply disruptions.

    The beleaguered O.B. Curtis water treatment plant fell into crisis after the late summer flooding left 150,000 people without running water for several days. People waited in lines for water to drink, bathe, cook and flush toilets. The crisis also added to the rising costs for business owners already saddled with a labor shortage and high inflation.

    The city had already been under a boil-water notice since late July because the state health department found cloudy water that could make people ill. But current water samples pass muster for safe consumption, the EPA said.

    “Current sampling confirms water delivered from J.H. Fewell Water and O.B. Curtis Water Treatment is safe to drink,” said Maria Michalos, a spokesperson for the EPA, referring to the city’s two water treatment plants.

    The agency encouraged Jackson residents to stay vigilant about updates and follow all future boil water advisories, as “localized issues” may resurface. It is not yet certain whether Jackson has too much lead and copper in its water. Sampling for lead and copper has been completed and results are expected in mid-November.

    The sampling was collected during a series of tests over the last several months conducted by the EPA and the Mississippi Department of Health, said Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.

    At a news conference, Lumumba said Monday that city officials had been informed that Jackson was “in compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act,” the federal law that gives the EPA authority to set standards for drinking water quality.

    Current samples indicate that Jackson’s water quality meets federal standards although testing is ongoing.

    The EPA is coordinating with the city and the state health department to sample the water and “confirm drinking water delivered to customers meets Safe Drinking Water Act standards,” Michalos said.

    Although water pressure was restored in the days after the late August crisis and a boil water notice lifted, many people still don’t drink the water and haven’t been doing so for years amid lingering distrust of the supply.

    In September, attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice said they were “prepared to file an action” against the city under the Safe Drinking Water Act, but hoped they could avoid a legal dispute by reaching an “enforceable agreement.” Federal attorneys said state and local officials “had not acted to protect public health.”

    On Monday, Lumumba said negotiations between city attorneys and the federal government are continuing.

    In response to a question about whether Jackson could still face legal action under the Safe Drinking Water Act, Michalos said the “EPA does not comment on ongoing enforcement matters.”

    In an Oct. 20 announcement, the EPA said it was investigating whether Mississippi state agencies have discriminated against Jackson by refusing to fund water system improvements in the city, where more than 80% of residents are Black and about a quarter of the population lives in poverty.

    Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who represents Jackson, said the EPA civil investigation is expected to take about four months.

    Lumumba also said the city is pressing ahead with plans to secure a private firm to operate the O.B. Curtis water treatment plant. Several firms have already toured the plant, Lumumba said. Even as the city looks to outsource the plant’s operations and maintenance to a private company, Lumumba has been adamant that ownership of the city’s water system should remain in public hands.

    On Friday, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves extended the state of emergency over the water crisis until Nov. 22. City officials aim to have a contract in place with a private operator by Nov. 17, Lumumba said.

    ———

    Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mikergoldberg.

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  • Feds unveil plan to grow wind power while sparing rare whale

    Feds unveil plan to grow wind power while sparing rare whale

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    PORTLAND, Maine — The federal government has outlined a strategy to try to protect an endangered species of whale while also developing offshore wind power off the East Coast.

    President Joe Biden’s administration has made a priority of encouraging offshore wind along the Atlantic coast as the U.S. pursues greater energy independence. Those waters are also home to the declining North Atlantic right whale, which numbers about 340 in the world.

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released a draft plan this month to conserve the whales while allowing for the building of wind projects. The agencies said the ongoing efforts to save the whales and create more renewable energy can coexist.

    “As we face the ongoing challenges of climate change, this strategy provides a strong foundation to help us advance renewable energy while also working to protect and recover North Atlantic right whales, and the ecosystem they depend on,” said Janet Coit, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries

    The development of offshore wind is going on along the migratory routes of the whales, which travel from Georgia and Florida to New England and Canada every year. That potentially leaves the whales vulnerable to disturbance or injury. The agencies said they plan to provide offshore wind developers with guidance about mitigation measures to help navigate the regulatory process as part of the whale strategy.

    The strategy focuses on “improving the science and integrating past, present and future efforts related to North Atlantic right whales and offshore wind development,” said Jon Hare, the director of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center and a lead author on the document. It also identifies mitigation measures related to project planning, leasing and siting, he said.

    The right whales have been declining in recent years and face threats such as collisions with ships and entanglement in fishing gear. Environmentalist groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, have called for more protections for the whales.

    The protection strategy is promising, but it needs funding for implementation and requirements for measures that minimize harm to the whales, said Alison Chase, a senior policy analyst with the council. Those include speed and noise reductions, Chase said.

    “We need offshore wind, and we need to do it right,” Chase said. “But as we fight climate change, we must avoid, minimize, and mitigate threats to ocean life in whatever ways we can.”

    The government will take public comment on the draft strategy until Dec. 4.

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