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Tag: Waterways

  • Another ‘Pineapple Express’ storm is expected to wallop California

    Another ‘Pineapple Express’ storm is expected to wallop California

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    LOS ANGELES — Another potentially dangerous “Pineapple Express” storm was expected to hit California late Saturday, bringing the threat of flooding and mudslides over the next couple of days.

    Californians spent Friday and Saturday preparing for what forecasters are saying could be the largest storm of the season, with the worst expected to hit Ventura and Santa Barbara counties on Sunday and Monday. Most of the state was under some sort of wind, surf or flood watch by Saturday afternoon.

    The storm marks the second time this week the state will be pummeled by an atmospheric river, a long band of moisture that forms over the Pacific. The first arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday, delivering downpours and heavy snowfall that brought cable car service to a halt before moving south to Los Angeles and San Diego on Thursday.

    Last winter, California was battered by numerous drought-busting atmospheric rivers that unleashed extensive flooding, big waves that hammered shoreline communities and extraordinary snowfall that crushed buildings. More than 20 people died.

    This “Pineapple Express” — called that because the atmospheric river’s plume of moisture stretches back across the Pacific to near Hawaii — was to arrive in Northern California on Saturday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. Heavy rains and strong winds were expected through the night into Sunday.

    The storm is forecast to move south down the Central Coast and hit the Los Angeles area with downpours, flash floods and high-elevation mountain snow beginning Sunday morning. It is expected to strike farther south, in Orange County and San Diego, on Monday. Heavy to moderate rain is expected to stay in Southern California until Tuesday.

    The National Weather Service forecasts 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15.2 centimeters) of rainfall across Southern California’s coastal and valley areas, with 6 to 12 inches (15.2 to 30.5 centimeters) likely in the foothills and mountains. Rainfall rates are expected to be 1/2 to 1 inch (1.3 to 2.5 centimeters) per hour, with locally higher rates. Forecasters predict mudslides, debris flows and flooding to occur.

    In the mountains with elevation above 7,000 feet (2,134 meters), 2 to 4 feet (0.61 to 1.2 meters) of snow will likely fall.

    Parts of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties will likely get hammered hardest by this storm, according to the National Weather Service. The south-facing slopes in the Transverse Ranges will be getting the heaviest rainfall, and flooding is likely to be exacerbated by already saturated soil from earlier winter storms.

    Evacuation orders were issued for parts of Ventura County and some of Santa Barbara County, including along burn scars caused by wildfires, and in the city of Santa Barbara’s coastal areas. High winds will contribute to hazardous seas.

    NASCAR moved The Clash at the Coliseum to Saturday night out of concerns for the impending inclement weather. Only heat races had been scheduled to be run Saturday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, but with a forecast calling for heavy rains and flooding to begin Sunday, NASCAR abruptly changed the schedule.

    The Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia, northeast of downtown Los Angeles, canceled its eight-race program that was scheduled for Sunday. The park also rescheduled a pair of graded stakes, the Grade III, $100,000 Las Virgenes and the Grade III, San Marcos, for next Saturday.

    More damage is possible this year with El Nino, which is expected to bring additional storms to California caused by the temporary warming of parts of the Pacific that changes weather worldwide.

    Rising sea levels from global warming are also causing the waves to be bigger off California’s coast, according to research. The coast is additionally seeing some of the highest tides of the season.

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  • California Gov. Gavin Newsom backs dam removal projects aimed at sustaining salmon populations

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom backs dam removal projects aimed at sustaining salmon populations

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    EUREKA, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pledging to fast-track more than half a dozen projects by the end of his term to remove or bypass dams that have blocked salmon from returning to the state’s chilly mountain streams and acting as the keystone of a complex ecosystem that sustains both economies and spiritual beliefs for tribes.

    Newsom — now in his second term and seen as a potential Democratic presidential candidate beyond 2024 — has worked hard to stake a claim as the nation’s most environmentally-conscious governor. But his record has been dogged by criticism from environmental groups who say his water policies benefit big agriculture at the expense of salmon and other species of fish in danger of becoming extinct.

    Millions of salmon once filled California’s rivers and streams each year, bringing with them key nutrients from the ocean that gave the state an abundance of natural resources that were so important to indigenous peoples that they formed the foundation of creation stories central to tribes’ way of life.

    But last year, there were so few salmon in the state’s rivers that the officials closed the commercial fishing season.

    Frustrated by the criticism leveled against him and his administration, Newsom on Tuesday released a plan outlining his strategy to protect salmon — a plan that includes a heavy helping of projects that would remove or bypass aging dams that prevent from returning to the streams of their birth to lay eggs.

    “These are tangible. And so much of the work we do is, you know, you can’t see it, you can’t feel it,” Newsom told The Associated Press in an interview near the banks of the Elk River in Eureka near a recently completed project that returned some agricultural land to a flood plain habitat for salmon. “But when you see a dam being removed and you come back a few months later — a year or two, five years later — and you see real progress.”

    Newsom’s salmon strategy includes a promise to complete an agreement by the end of the year to remove the Scott Dam and replace the Cape Horn Dam along the Eel River that have blocked salmon access to 288 miles (463 kilometers) of habitat. Once completed, the Eel would be the longest free-flowing river in the state, flowing north through the Coast Ranges before emptying into the Pacific Ocean near the town of Fortuna.

    By next summer, Newsom said he would complete plans for the removal of the nearly 100-year-old Rindge Dam along Malibu Creek in western Los Angeles County that would give steelhead another 15 miles (24 kilometers) of spawning and rearing habitat. And by 2026 — the last year of Newsom’s term — he promised to complete the infrastructure necessary to remove the Matilija Dam in Ventura County along a tributary of the Ventura River.

    These projects have already been announced and are in the early stages of development. Newsom’s plan, however, puts on record his goal to either complete them or have them approved by state regulatory bodies before he leaves office.

    “I got three more years. And I want to put it all out there,” Newsom said.

    Newsom’s embrace of some dam demolitions comes as the largest dam removal project in U.S. history got underway in earnest last week when crews blew a hole in the bottom of the Copco No. 1 dam along the Klamath River near the California-Oregon border. It’s one of four dams set to be removed along the Klamath.

    In addition to demolishing dams, Newsom is trying to bring attention to some of the $800 million he has signed off on in recent years for projects that return some creeks and streams to their natural state so that salmon can live there.

    Monday, Newsom trudged through thick mud to visit a project along Prairie Creek in Redwoods National Park. The creek had been converted to a ditch, with steep rock walls preventing the water from spilling into a flood plain where baby salmon can eat and grow before heading out to the ocean. The goal is to get the baby fish to stay longer in this creek so they can grow larger before heading out to the ocean — making it more likely they will return.

    Newsom watched as Kate Stonecypher, a graduate student at Cal Poly Humboldt, pulled juvenile coho salmon and steelhead trout from the river that had been tagged with a tracking device. Researchers are still studying the results. But early indications have been positive. Fish from the creek were later found to travel 50 miles (80 kilometers) to Humboldt Bay.

    But the biggest criticism of Newsom’s environmental policies have not been a lack of restoration projects, but a lack of water in the rivers. Newsom’s salmon strategy includes a controversial proposal to seek voluntary agreements with major farmers over how much water they can take out of the rivers and streams. Some environmental groups, including the San Francisco Baykeeper, have called this plan “astonishingly weak.”

    San Francisco Baykeeper Science Director Jon Rosenfield said California has already done lots of habitat restoration projects, but they have failed to result in significant boosts salmon populations.

    “Without the essential ingredient of a river, which is the flow of water, fish … are not going to survive,” he said. “The governor is out there promising actions that are not adequate to restore the population.”

    He also pledged to continue to work with native tribes, who often refer to the rivers where salmon live as their church. Newsom formally apologized to Native American tribes four years ago for how the state had treated them historically. And he has committed to partnering with them to conduct much of the work around salmon habitat.

    Monday, Frankie Myers, vice chair of the Yurok Tribe, told Newsom the tribe’s work on Prairie Creek had changed the community by restoring the tribe’s purpose.

    “This goes beyond that apology. This is about restoration,” he said.

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  • Latest EPA assessment shows almost no improvement in river and stream nitrogen pollution

    Latest EPA assessment shows almost no improvement in river and stream nitrogen pollution

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    ST. LOUIS — The nation’s rivers and streams remain stubbornly polluted with nutrients that contaminate drinking water and fuel a gigantic dead zone for aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a recently released Environmental Protection Agency assessment.

    It’s a difficult problem that’s concentrated in agricultural regions that drain into the Mississippi River. More than half of the basin’s miles of rivers and streams were in poor condition for nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer that drains into waterways, the agency found. For decades, federal and state officials have struggled to control farm runoff, the biggest source of nutrient pollution that is not typically federally regulated.

    It’s a problem only expected to get harder to control as climate change produces more intense storms that dump rain on the Midwest and South. Those heavy rains flood farm fields, pick up commercial fertilizers and carry them into nearby rivers.

    “It’s really worrying that we are clearly not meeting the goals that we’ve set for ourselves,” said Olivia Dorothy, director of river restoration with the conservation group American Rivers.

    The assessment is based on samples collected in 2018 and 2019 and it allows experts to compare river conditions from previous rounds of sampling, although different sampling sites were used. It takes years for the agency to compile the results and release the report, which is the most comprehensive assessment of the nation’s river and stream health. Phosphorus levels dipped slightly while nitrogen levels remained almost exactly the same.

    About half of all river miles were found to be in poor condition for snails, worms, beetles and other bottom dwelling species that are an important indicator of biological health of the river. About a third were also rated as having poor conditions for fish based on species diversity.

    “Controlling pollution is a big job. It is hard work,” said Tom Wall, director of watershed restoration, assessment and protection division at EPA. “Things are not getting worse, despite the tremendous pressures on our waterways. And we would like to see more progress.”

    Water pollution from factories and industry is typically federally regulated. The Biden administration recently proposed toughening regulations on meat and poultry processing plants to reduce pollution, Wall said.

    When nutrient pollution flows into the Gulf of Mexico, it spurs growth of bacteria that consume oxygen. That creates a so-called “dead zone,” a vast area where it’s difficult or impossible for marine animals to survive, fluctuating from about the size of Rhode Island to the size of New Jersey, according to Nancy Rabalais, professor of oceanography and wetland studies at Louisiana State University.

    That affects the productivity of commercial fisheries and marine life in general, but nutrient pollution is also damaging upstream. Too much nitrate in drinking water can affect how blood carries oxygen, causing human health problems like headaches, nausea and abdominal cramps. It can especially affect infants, sometimes inducing “blue baby syndrome,” which causes the skin to take on a bluish hue.

    The EPA established the hypoxia task force in the late 1990s to reduce nutrient pollution and shrink the dead zone, but it relies on voluntary efforts to reduce farm runoff and hasn’t significantly reduced the dead zone.

    Anne Schechinger, Midwest director with the Environmental Working Group, said new regulations are needed, not voluntary efforts. She said the Biden administration has done a lot to improve drinking water, but not enough to reduce agricultural runoff.

    Methods to prevent runoff include building buffers between farmland and waterways, creating new wetlands to filter pollutants and applying less fertilizer.

    It’s a politically fraught issue, especially in major Midwest farming states that significantly contribute to the problem. Many of those states cite their voluntary conservation programs as evidence they’re taking on the problem, yet the new EPA data shows little progress.

    Minnesota is one of the few states that has a so-called “buffer law” that requires vegetation to be planted along rivers, streams and public drainage ditches. But because groundwater and surface water are closely connected in much of the Upper Midwest, nutrient pollution can end up leaching underground through farm fields and eventually bypass those buffers, ending up in streams anyway, said Gregory Klinger, who works for the Olmsted County, Minnesota soil and water conservation district.

    There should also be a focus on preventing over-fertilizing – about 30% of farmers are still using more than the recommended amounts of fertilizer on their fields, said Brad Carlson, an extension educator with the University of Minnesota who communicates with farmers about nutrient pollution issues.

    Martin Larsen, a farmer and conservation technician in southeast Minnesota, said he and other farmers are interested in practices that reduce their nutrient pollution. He’s broken up his typical corn and soybean rotation with oats and medium red clover, the latter a kind of plant that can increase nitrogen levels in the soil naturally. He’s been able to get by with about half as much fertilizer for a corn crop that follows a clover planting as compared to a corn-corn rotation.

    Growing oats and red clover as cover crops improves soil, too. But Larsen said it’s difficult for many farmers to plant them when they often rely on an immediate payback for anything they grow. Cover crops are planted on just 5.1% of harvested farmland, according to 2017 data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    Larsen said since regulations are so unpopular, more should be done to incentivize better practices. For example, he said that could include companies shifting the makeup of feed they use for animals, giving farmers an opening to plant some crops that use less fertilizer. Or government programs that do more to subsidize things like cover crops.

    He said that many farmers in his community acknowledge the need to do things differently. “But we also feel very trapped in the system,” he said.

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    Walling reported from Chicago.

    ___

    Follow Melina Walling on X: @MelinaWalling.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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  • Michigan regulators approve $500M pipeline tunnel project under channel linking 2 Great Lakes

    Michigan regulators approve $500M pipeline tunnel project under channel linking 2 Great Lakes

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    Michigan officials approved a $500 million plan Friday to encase in a protective tunnel a portion of an aging oil pipeline that runs beneath a channel connecting two Great Lakes, leaving just one more regulatory hurdle for the contentious project.

    The state’s three-person Public Service Commission approved the project in the Straits of Mackinac on a 2-0 vote. Commissioner Alessandra Carreon abstained, noting she just joined the commission four months ago.

    The commission’s chairperson, Dan Scripps, said the tunnel is the best way to mitigate the risk of a spill as the state slowly transitions to renewable energy sources.

    “An oil spill in the straits would be, in a word, catastrophic,” he said.

    Opponents lined up in front of the commission to complain after the vote, blasting the project as a boondoggle that will lock the state into using fossil fuels even longer and endanger the environment.

    The plan still needs approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is still compiling an environmental impact statement. A final decision may not come until 2026.

    Enbridge Energy has been operating the Line 5 pipeline since 1953. The pipeline moves up to 23 million gallons (87 million liters) of crude oil and natural gas liquids daily between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario.

    A 4-mile (6-kilometer) portion of the pipeline crosses the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac. After an Enbridge pipeline leaked about 21,000 gallons (79,500 liters) of crude oil into a Kalamazoo River tributary in southern Michigan in 2010, the state formed a task force to review petroleum pipelines across the state, including Line 5.

    Enbridge officials revealed in 2017 that engineers had known about gaps in Line 5’s protective coating in the straits since 2014. That section of pipeline was also damaged by a boat anchor in 2018, raising concerns about a spill. Later that year, then-Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration reached an agreement with Enbridge calling for the company to build a tunnel 60 to 375 feet (18 to 114 meters) beneath the lakebed to house a new section of Line 5 and shut down the existing segment at a cost of $500 million.

    Opponents attending Friday’s vote expressed their anger at the commission’s approval of the project.

    “I am disgusted with your vote,” said Andrea Pierce, who works with the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition and is a member of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, which opposes the project. “Seriously, you are supposed to protect the Great Lakes and protect us. I think what you’ve done here is completely and utterly negligent.”

    No Enbridge officials spoke at the meeting. Enbridge Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer Mike Fernandez said in a telephone interview after the meeting concluded that the company was pleased with the commission’s decision and called it a “great step forward.”

    He stressed that replacing the section of pipeline under the straits and encasing it in a tunnel buried dozens to hundreds of feet below the lakebed creates two new layers of protection. He added that demand for oil and propane may recede as the country moves toward renewable energy sources but it won’t end because oil is needed to produce plastics used in computers, handheld devices and medical devices.

    Current Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, has said she opposes the continued operation of Line 5 under the straits — even with the new tunnel — agreeing with Indigenous tribes, environmentalists and tourist businesses that it is at risk of causing a devastating spill.

    She ordered Enbridge in November 2020 to close the 68-year-old line, revoking a 1953 state easement allowing its placement in the straits. Enbridge, based in Calgary, Alberta, contends the line is safe and ignored the governor’s shutdown deadline.

    Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a state lawsuit in 2019 to void Enbridge’s easement in the Straits. A federal appellate court is reviewing whether the lawsuit belongs in state or federal court.

    The state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy in 2021 approved construction of the tunnel. Liesl Clark, who was the director of the Michigan agency at the time and a Whitmer appointee, said the company’s application satisfied state legal requirements.

    A federal judge in Madison, Wisconsin, this summer gave Enbridge three years to shut down part of Line 5 that runs across the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

    The tribe sued Enbridge in 2019 to force the company to remove about 12 miles (19 kilometers) of pipeline crossing its reservation, saying the pipeline is prone to spills and land agreements allowing it to operate on reservation land expired in 2013.

    The company has proposed a 41-mile (66-kilometer) reroute of the pipeline to end its dispute with the tribe. It has appealed the shutdown order to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; the case is still pending.

    ___

    This story has been updated to correct that the Enbridge Energy Line 5 pipeline operates between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario.

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  • Do snitches net fishes? Scientists turn invasive carp into traitors to slow their Great Lakes push

    Do snitches net fishes? Scientists turn invasive carp into traitors to slow their Great Lakes push

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    LA CROSSE, Wis. — Wildlife officials across the Great Lakes are looking for spies to take on an almost impossible mission: stop the spread of invasive carp.

    Over the last five years, agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources have employed a new seek-and-destroy strategy that uses turncoat carp to lead them to the fish’s hotspot hideouts.

    Agency workers turn carp into double agents by capturing them, implanting transmitters and tossing them back. Floating receivers send real-time notifications when a tagged carp swims past. Carp often clump in schools in the spring and fall. Armed with the traitor carp’s location, agency workers and commercial anglers can head to that spot, drop their nets and remove multiple fish from the ecosystem.

    Kayla Stampfle, invasive carp field lead for the Minnesota DNR, said the goal is to monitor when carp start moving in the spring and use the tagged fish to ambush their brethren.

    “We use these fish as a traitor fish and set the nets around this fish,” she said.

    Four different species are considered invasive carp: bighead, black, grass and silver. They were imported to the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s to help rid southern aquaculture farms of algae, weeds and parasites. But they escaped through flooding and accidental releases, found their way into the Mississippi River and have used it as a super highway to spread north into rivers and streams in the nation’s midsection.

    The carp are voracious eaters — adult bigheads and silvers can consume up to 40% of their bodyweight in a day — and easily out-compete native species, wreaking havoc on aquatic ecosystems. There is no hard estimates of invasive carp populations in the U.S. but they are believed to number in the millions.

    State and federal agencies have spent a combined $607 million to stop the fish, according to figures The Associated Press compiled in 2020. Spending is expected to hit $1.5 billion over the next decade.

    But wildlife and fisheries experts say it would be nearly impossible to eradicate invasive carp in the U.S. Just keeping them out of the Great Lakes and protecting the region’s $7 billion fishing industry would be a success.

    Fisheries experts have employed a host of defenses, including electric barriers, walls of bubbles and herding the carp into nets using underwater speakers. But the fish still have made their way up the Mississippi as far as northern Wisconsin and grass carp have been found in Lake Erie, Lake Michigan and Lake Ontario, leaving fisheries managers racing to blunt the incursion.

    Agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state wildlife managers have built a network of receivers extending from the St. Croix River in far northern Wisconsin to the Gulf of Mexico to record tagged invasive carp’s movement, with periodic data collection. The first receivers were deployed in the Illinois River in an effort to stem migration into Lake Michigan in the early 2000s.

    Beginning around 2018, managers started placing new, solar-powered receivers around the Great Lakes region that could track tagged carp and send instant notifications to observers. The real-time notifications reveal where carp may be massing before a migration and illuminate movement patterns, allowing the agencies to plan round-up expeditions to remove carp from the environment and tag more traitor fish.

    The receivers are essentially a raft supporting three solar panels and a locked box with a modem and a computer that records contacts with tagged carp. The receivers can pick up signals from tagged fish over a mile away, Fritts said.

    He estimated each receiver costs about $10,000. The federal Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014 authorized a multi-agency offensive against invasive carp in the upper Mississippi River and Ohio River basins, allowing the USFWS to spend on the devices through its existing budget.

    Agencies have deployed the devices in Lake Erie, a stretch of the Mississippi between the Illinois and Missouri borders, the Illinois River and Chicago-area riverways, Fritts said.

    The USFWS has set up four real-time receivers in the Mississippi backwaters extending from Davenport, Iowa, to the Missouri border. The U.S. Geologic Survey has set up more than a dozen devices, including receivers in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the Des Plaines and Illinois rivers in Illinois; and the Sandusky River in Ohio.

    The Minnesota DNR began deploying real-time receivers in the Mississippi backwaters forming the Minnesota-Wisconsin border around La Crosse three years ago. The agency had four receivers out this year, funded largely through federal grants. Plans call for seven next year.

    Wildlife agencies are still consolidating data on how many invasive carp that real-time tracking has helped them remove, U.S. Fish and Wildlife fisheries spokesperson Janet Lebson said.

    But they say the traitor fish tactic is worthwhile, pointing to results in the Mississippi from the Illinois-Iowa Quad Cities to the Iowa-Missouri border. Real-time tracking there has helped wildlife managers and anglers as much as double the poundage of invasive carp pulled from that area of river annually, said Mark Fritts, a fish biologist and telemetry expert in the USFWS’s La Crosse office.

    The strategy has drawn muted criticism from the fisheries industry because managers return tagged invasive carp to the wild where they can breed, said Marc Smith, policy director at the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Regional Center. But wildlife agencies need every weapon they can get against the carp, he said.

    “In theory, it works,” Smith said. “We think the rewards outweigh the risk. We have to throw everything we can at them. I wouldn’t want to take anything off the table.”

    Stampfle and fish technician James Stone spent three hours in the Mississippi and Black rivers backwaters around La Crosse on a recent November day removing the receivers for the winter. She said the work is worth it.

    “When are these fish moving? If we can figure that out, it gives us a fighting chance,” Stampfle said as she guided her flat-bottom boat back to the landing. “Can we keep up with them? I don’t think anyone can answer that accurately. It’s still unknown territory. It’s an uphill battle on a very slick slope. You just pray you have a foothold.”

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  • ‘From the river to the sea’: Why a 6-word phrase sparks fury and passion over the Israel-Hamas war

    ‘From the river to the sea’: Why a 6-word phrase sparks fury and passion over the Israel-Hamas war

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    The Jordan River is a winding, 200-plus-mile run on the eastern flank of Israel and the occupied West Bank. The sea is the glittering Mediterranean to its west.

    But a phrase about the space in between, “from the river to the sea,” has become a battle cry with new power to roil Jews and pro-Palestinian activists in the aftermath of Hamas’ deadly rampage across southern Israel Oct. 7 and Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

    “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” pro-Palestinian activists from London to Rome and Washington chanted in the volatile aftermath of Israel’s bloodiest day. Adopting or defending it can be costly for public figures, such as U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who was censured by the House on Tuesday.

    But like so much of the Mideast conflict, what the phrase means depends on who is telling the story — and which audience is hearing it.

    Many Palestinian activists say it’s a call for peace and equality after 75 years of Israeli statehood and decades-long, open-ended Israeli military rule over millions of Palestinians. Jews hear a clear demand for Israel’s destruction.

    This much is clear: Hamas fighters killed more than 1,400 people in Israel and hauled at least 240 back to Gaza as hostages in the worst violence against Jews since the Holocaust. Israel responded with heavy bombardment of Gaza and a ground offensive, that has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The death toll is certain to rise. The result is the deadliest round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in decades.

    In the raw afterburn of the Hamas attacks, the chant seems to put everyone on edge.

    “From the river to the sea” echoes through pro-Palestinian rallies across campuses and cities, adopted by some as a call for a single state on the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.

    By 2012, it was clear that Hamas had claimed the slogan in its drive to claim land spanning Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

    “Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north,” Khaled Mashaal, the group’s former leader, said that year in a speech in Gaza celebrating the 25th anniversary of the founding of Hamas. “There will be no concession on any inch of the land.”

    The phrase also has roots in the Hamas charter.

    The story behind the phrase is much larger, and reaches across the decades.

    In the months before and during the 1948 war, an estimated 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from what is now Israel. Many expected to return. Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 war. In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza, and in 2007, Hamas claimed the tiny strip from the Palestinian Authority after a violent coup.

    Even the shorthand, “from the river to the sea,” echoes through pro-Palestinian protests, crackles across social media and is available on a variety of merch, from sweatshirts to candles.

    Ask Jewish people in London what’s so chilled them about the current spike in antisemitism, and many will cite what seems like the ubiquity of the slogan. It is a sign, the suggest, that there’s much to fear.

    “Have no doubt that Hamas is cheering those ‘from the river to the sea’ chants, because a Palestine between the river to the sea leaves not a single inch for Israel,” read an open letter signed by 30 Jewish news outlets around the world and released on Wednesday.

    And in the wake of Hamas’ killing of civilians on Oct. 7, they’re not buying that the chant is merely anti-Israel. Backed by groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, they say it’s inherently anti-Jewish.

    “No one can now say that in the eyes of Hamas, a hatred of Israel does not mean a hatred of all Jews,” said London resident Sarah Nachshen. “The slogans and placards and chants calling for the eradication of Israel and, indeed, all Jews have clearly shown this.”

    Tlaib, D-Mich., who has family in the West Bank and is Congress’ only Palestinian-American, posted a video Nov. 3 that featured protesters chanting the slogan.

    No stranger to criticism over her rhetoric on the U.S.-Israel relationship, Tlaib defended the slogan.

    “From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate,” Tlaib tweeted, cautioning that conflating anti-Israel sentiment with antisemitism “silence(s) diverse voices speaking up for human rights.”

    Tweeted Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program and a senior Fellow at Arab Center Washington: “There isn’t a square inch of the land between the river and the sea where Palestinians have freedom, justice and equality, and it has never been more important to emphasize this than right now.”

    Most of the international community supports a two-state solution, which calls for the partition of the land. To many, though, decades of Israeli settlement expansion have made the reality of a two-state solution impossible.

    Right-wing Israelis have blurred the lines between Israel and the West Bank, where half a million people now live in settlements. Many in the Israeli government support the annexation of the West Bank, and official government maps often make no mention of the “green line” boundary between the two.

    And the original platform of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party, Likud, published a version of the slogan, saying that between the sea and the Jordan River, “there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”

    Using the phrase for public figures can be costly. Tlaib’s censure is a punishment one step short of expulsion from the House.

    Last month, Vienna police banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration, citing the fact that the phrase “from the river to the sea” was mentioned in invitations and characterizing it as a call to violence.

    And in Britain, the Labour party issued a temporary punishment to a member of Parliament, Andy McDonald, for using the phrase during a rally at which he called for a stop to bombardment.

    “We won’t rest until we have justice. Until all people, Israelis & Palestinians, between the river & the sea can live in peaceful liberty,” he tweeted.

    Then he explained: “These words should not be construed in any other way than they were intended, namely as a heart felt plea for an end to killings in Israel, Gaza, and the occupied West Bank, and for all peoples in the region to live in freedom without the threat of violence.” ___

    Follow Kellman at http://www.twitter.com/APLaurieKellman

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  • Federal, local officials agree on $450 million deal to clean up Milwaukee waterways

    Federal, local officials agree on $450 million deal to clean up Milwaukee waterways

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    Federal, state and local officials have agreed to spend about $450 million to dredge contaminated sediment from Milwaukee’s harbor and area rivers

    ByThe Associated Press

    October 13, 2023, 1:36 PM

    FILE – In this image taken from a drone, boat pass under the Hoan Bridge, Monday, Aug. 30, 2021, in Milwaukee. Federal, state and local officials have agreed to spend about $450 million to dredge contaminated sediment from Milwaukee’s Lake Michigan harbor and area rivers. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

    The Associated Press

    MILWAUKEE — Federal, state and local officials have agreed to spend about $450 million to dredge contaminated sediment from Milwaukee’s Lake Michigan harbor and area rivers.

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it will devote $275 million from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to the project. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, We Energies, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County Parks will contribute another $170 million.

    The project calls for removing almost 2 million cubic yards (1.5 million cubic meters) of contaminated sediment from the harbor and 12 miles (19 kilometers) of the Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic rivers.

    Industrial activities in the region have left the sediment polluted with PCBs, petroleum compounds and heavy metals, including mercury, lead and chromium, according to the EPA. Removing the sediment will lead to improved water quality, healthy fish and wildlife and better recreational opportunities, agency officials said.

    Dredging will likely begin in 2026 or 2027, said Chris Korleski, director of the EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office. The sewerage district needs time to build a storage facility for the sediment, he said.

    Congress created the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in 2010 to fund cleanup projects in the basin. Congress has allocated about $300 million for the program annually. The sweeping infrastructure package that cleared Congress in 2021 pumps about $1 billion into the initiative over the next five years, making the Milwaukee project possible, Korleski said.

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  • Dominican Republic has partially reopened its border with Haiti. But a diplomatic crisis persists

    Dominican Republic has partially reopened its border with Haiti. But a diplomatic crisis persists

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    DAJABON, Dominican Republic — The Dominican Republic partially reopened its border with Haiti on Wednesday to limited commercial activity nearly a month after shuttering the frontier in a continuing spat over construction of a canal targeting water from a shared river.

    Vendors in Dominican border cities are allowed to sell basic goods like food and medicine, but exporting electronic products and construction materials, including cement and metal rods, is prohibited.

    Wednesday marked the first time since Sept. 15 that the border partially reopened, although Dominican President Luis Abinader maintained a ban on issuing visas to Haitian citizens that he implemented last month and will keep the border closed to all migrants, regardless of whether they’re seeking entry for work, tourism, health or education purposes.

    While the gates at the northern Dominican border city of Dajabon opened late Wednesday morning, the gates on the Haitian side remained closed, and it wasn’t immediately clear why. Meanwhile, dozens of trucks and containers were lined up nearby, filled with goods.

    The Dominican border reopening was delayed after a pre-dawn fire at the main marketplace in Dajabon destroyed dozens of stalls. Authorities said they were investigating what caused the blaze.

    The marketplace remained largely empty and quiet as a handful of vendors reopened their stalls nearly a month after they were forced to close.

    “There’s been a heavy loss here,” said Santo Rodríguez, who sells pasta, butter, mayonnaise, ketchup and other items in his stall and condemned the border closure. “How are you expected to survive?”

    Rodríguez, who first opened his business in 1995 and earns some $176 a week, said that despite Abinader promising to help Dominican business owners affected by the border closure, he hadn’t received any aid.

    The most recent diplomatic crisis stemmed from construction of a canal on the Haitian side that aims to collect water from the Massacre River that runs along the border that both countries share on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. The river is named after a bloody 18th-century battle between French and Spanish colonizers.

    Haiti’s government has said farmers urgently need the water after an extended drought withered crops in the nearby Maribaroux plain.

    Meanwhile, Abinader has said construction of a canal violates a 1929 treaty and would divert water needed by Dominican farmers and affect wetlands in the area.

    Shortly after the spat began, Abinader ordered officials to revive use of a nearby canal to collect water before the river enters Haitian territory.

    On Monday, Haiti’s government issued a statement saying the attempt to divert water from the Massacre River to “deprive Haitians of it” is “unacceptable and hostile.” The statement stressed the need for dialogue and said the only suitable outcome would be an equal sharing of water resources, the normalization of relations between the two countries and a return to the free movement of people and goods.

    “This project unleashed quite an exceptional movement of national unity that perhaps was not what Abinader expected,” said Diego Da Rin, with the International Crisis Group. “The canal has become an almost historical point of honor. Haitians want to make it clear that they are a nation that will not allow themselves to be humiliated by their neighbor.”

    Da Rin said Haitians in general appear willing to forego certain goods to support construction of the canal. The diplomatic crisis also appeared to be a boon for Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who has been “extremely unpopular,” Da Rin said.

    “He took advantage of this to raise or improve his image a little at a critical moment,” he said.

    Many Haitians have backed the government’s stance, including Marie-Enge Belizaire, 60, in the Tabarre community of the Haitian capital, who had been buying $20,000 worth of clothes monthly from the Dominican Republic for the past 20 years.

    She called Abinader’s decision to close all land, sea and air borders last month “savage,” noting that businesses like hers are good for the Dominican Republic.

    “We generate money for them,” she said as she sat in a warehouse surrounded by towering columns of boxes filled with clothes.

    Belizaire said she supports construction of the canal to ease Haiti’s agricultural crisis and said she is looking into buying clothes from other countries, including Panama.

    Among those buying at the warehouse where Belizaire works was Orgline Pierre, 40. She said that even if the Dominican Republic opens its borders, she hopes the Haitian side will remain closed.

    “Abinader thinks that Haitian stomachs depend on the Dominican Republic, which is not true,” she said. “We have food. My son is surviving on local food here and is going to keep surviving.”

    Pierre said she hopes that the upcoming deployment of a multinational armed force led by Kenya to help quell gang violence would also guarantee the safety of Haitians working on the canal along the border.

    Prior to the diplomatic dispute between both countries, the Abinader administration was pushing to limit the number of Haitians migrating to the Dominican Republic, expelling tens of thousands of them, as well as those of Haitian descent.

    The administration also has started building a 118-mile (190-kilometer) wall along the border.

    Haiti and the Dominican Republic have long had a contentious relationship despite strong economic ties.

    Haiti is the Dominican Republic’s No. 3 trading partner, with $1 billion in exports to Haiti last year and $11 million in imports, according to the Dominican Republic’s Export and Investment Center.

    Meanwhile, the Dominican Republic’s Central Bank found that $430 million in informal border trade was conducted in 2017 between both countries. Of that amount, more than $330 million represented exports to Haiti.

    ___

    Dánica Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Evens Sanon contributed to this report from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

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  • Panama Canal reduces the maximum number of ships travelling the waterway to 31 per day

    Panama Canal reduces the maximum number of ships travelling the waterway to 31 per day

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    The Panama Canal is reducing the maximum number of ships allowed to travel the waterway to 31 per day due to a drought that has cut the supply of fresh water needed to operate the locks

    ByThe Associated Press

    September 30, 2023, 7:19 PM

    A cargo ship sail on Pacific side toward the Panama Canal in Panama City, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023. Due to a lack of rainfall, authorities in early August limited the number of ships passing through the canal. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

    The Associated Press

    PANAMA CITY — The Panama Canal announced Saturday it will reduce the maximum number of ships travelling the waterway to 31 per day, from 32 in August, due to a drought that has reduced the supply of fresh water needed to operate the locks.

    That compares to daily averages of 36 to 38 ships per day under normal operation.

    Nine ships per day will be allowed to use the new, bigger NeoPanamax locks and 22 per day will be handled through the older Panamax locks.

    The Canal Authority guaranteed a draft of 44 feet for ships, in part because 70% of ships using the waterway need at least that depth.

    In August, the canal implemented a measure capping the number of ships passing through its locks daily to a maximum of 32.

    Not enough rain has fallen to feed the watershed system of rivers and brooks that fill lakes, whose waters in turn fill the locks.

    The watershed also supplies freshwater to Panama City, home to about half the country’s 4 million people.

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  • Louisiana citrus farmers are seeing a mass influx of salt water that could threaten seedlings

    Louisiana citrus farmers are seeing a mass influx of salt water that could threaten seedlings

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    BATON ROUGE, La. — Commercial citrus growers have dwindled over the past few decades in south Louisiana, where farmers have had to battle hurricanes, flooding, invasive insects, freezes and drought to keep their groves alive.

    The latest hurdle comes from a slow-moving threat — a mass influx of salt water from the Gulf of Mexico that is creeping up the drought-stricken Mississippi River. Not only is the saltwater intrusion threatening drinking water supplies for communities, but it can also kill citrus seedlings.

    The issue is forcing farmers to brainstorm other ways to irrigate their crops with fresh water — including storing the little rain water they’ve gotten this summer, hauling in fresh water and establishing makeshift salination treatment facilities. Some are looking into whether they can afford, let alone get their hands on, an expensive reverse-osmosis machine.

    “They’re going to have something up their sleeve. They know how to survive, but there’s no getting around how dire the situation is,” said Joey Breaux, the assistant commissioner of soil and water for the state’s agricultural department, about the farmers. “Unless they have another source of irrigation water, or a way to pretreat irrigation water, it doesn’t look too good.”

    Many communities in south Louisiana rely on the Mississippi’s fresh water, with their intake facilities located along the river. Typically, the mighty flow of the Mississippi is enough to keep mass amounts of salt water from reaching too far inland. But hot and dry conditions across the country this summer triggered drought conditions that slowed the Mississippi’s velocity and lowered its water levels. As a result, for the second year in a row, Louisiana is hastily working to avoid the disaster of a slow-moving salt water intrusion.

    The Army Corps of Engineers is busy raising the height of an underwater levee used to block or slow the salt water, and 15 million gallons (57 million liters) of fresh water is barged in to treatment facilities.

    Additionally, earlier this week Gov. John Bel Edwards wrote to President Joe Biden, saying federal assistance is “necessary to save lives and to protect property, public health and safety or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster.” Biden granted the request.

    And while many are focused on the possible impacts of the salt water influx on Louisiana’s most well-known city, 15 miles (24 kilometers) down the river is Belle Chasse — a community of about 11,000 people that sits on the west bank of the Mississippi.

    If the rows of citrus trees and farm stands advertising satsumas don’t make it evident that the small community is Louisiana’s unofficial citrus capital then perhaps one can look to the area’s annual Orange Festival. The event has commemorated the harvest season for more than 70 years.

    While Plaquemines Parish, home to Belle Chasse, may not be Florida or California, its microclimate — southerly latitude and nearness to warm Gulf waters — has made it possible for citrus to be a unique part of the area’s economy. For more than 300 years, farmers in south Louisiana have grown a variety of oranges that are available today in grocery stores and at farmers markets statewide.

    At its peak, in 1946, Louisiana’s prized citrus industry produced 410,000 boxes of fruit, said Anna Timmerman, a horticultural agent at Louisiana State University AgCenter who works closely with Belle Chasse farmers. But the vibrant citrus industry has suffered in the wake of hurricanes, with Hurricane Katrina damaging more than half of the trees. Since then it has continued to face challenges and the industry has dwindled. Timmerman estimates that there are about 800 acres (324 hectares) of citrus groves left in the state, most in Plaquemines Parish.

    Unlike disasters that can have devastating effects overnight, such as hurricanes and freezes, saltwater intrusion is slow-moving. Timmerman said that the issue is estimated to reach Belle Chasse in a week or two and would only escalate to become a significant problem if it persists for several months.

    “I know (citrus farmers) are scrambling to explore options, but the beauty of this is that we have some time,” Timmerman said.

    While the saltwater intrusion on the Mississippi hasn’t yet impacted orchards, it is something that state officials and local farmers are diligently watching and making contingency plans for — with people looking at desalination units, reverse-osmosis machines and more affordable makeshift options.

    “It’s kind of just a wait-and-see situation for us,” said Kim Dillon, the manager of Ben & Ben Becnel, Inc, a farmer’s market owned by citrus growers who produce a variety of other crops as well.

    While officials believe adult citrus trees will be okay, seedlings are much more sensitive to salt water.

    Over the years some citrus farmers have focused on seedlings — shipping them to garden centers across the country and as far north as Canada. Nursery stock production is now a multimillion-dollar industry in Plaquemines Parish, Timmerman said.

    For now many are monitoring the situation and seeing if state efforts will mitigate the issue. Most of all though, they’re praying for rain — and lots of it.

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  • Things to know about the Klamath River dam removal project, the largest in US history

    Things to know about the Klamath River dam removal project, the largest in US history

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    The largest dam removal project in U.S. history is underway along the border between California and Oregon

    ByADAM BEAM Associated Press

    September 29, 2023, 3:00 AM

    The Iron Gate Dam is seen in Hornbrook, Calif., Sept. 17, 2023. The dam is one of a series of four dams along the Klamath River which are part of the largest dam removal project in United States history. Now underway along the Oregon border, the process won’t conclude until the end of next year with the help of heavy machinery and explosives. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)

    The Associated Press

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The largest dam removal project in United States history is underway along the California-Oregon border.

    The project will remove four dams on the Klamath River. Work has already begun on removing the smallest of the four dams. The other three will come down next year.

    The project is part of a larger trend across the U.S. to remove dams blocking the natural flow of rivers and streams. Some things to know as the project gets going:

    The dams were built decades ago to generate electricity. But they also halted the natural flow of the river and disrupted the lifecycle of salmon. The fish are culturally and spiritually important to several Native American tribes in the area.

    In 2002, a combination of low water levels and warm temperatures caused a bacterial outbreak that killed more than 34,000 fish. That propelled Native American tribes to campaign for removal of the dams.

    After much negotiation, federal regulators approved a plan last year to remove the dams. PacifiCorp transferred the dams to a nonprofit that will oversee the project.

    Work already has begun on removing the smallest of the four dams, known as Copco 2.

    Removing the other three dams will take longer because those dams are much larger. Work is scheduled to begin in January and the dams should be removed by the end of 2024.

    There won’t be one giant explosion. Instead, workers will slowly drain the reservoirs behind the dams this spring. Once that work is done, crews will begin dismantling the dams, mostly using heavy machinery and some small explosives.

    The work includes more than just demolition. Crews also will try to restore the area to the conditions before the dams were built. For years, Native American tribes have gathered seeds of native plants by hand. Those seeds were sent to nurseries, which grew more seeds to plant along the riverbanks.

    The project has a $450 million budget, with a $50 million contingency fund. The cost is split between taxpayers and ratepayers of utility company PacifiCorp.

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  • Things to know about the Klamath River dam removal project, the largest in US history

    Things to know about the Klamath River dam removal project, the largest in US history

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    The largest dam removal project in U.S. history is underway along the border between California and Oregon

    ByADAM BEAM Associated Press

    September 29, 2023, 3:00 AM

    The Iron Gate Dam is seen in Hornbrook, Calif., Sept. 17, 2023. The dam is one of a series of four dams along the Klamath River which are part of the largest dam removal project in United States history. Now underway along the Oregon border, the process won’t conclude until the end of next year with the help of heavy machinery and explosives. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)

    The Associated Press

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The largest dam removal project in United States history is underway along the California-Oregon border.

    The project will remove four dams on the Klamath River. Work has already begun on removing the smallest of the four dams. The other three will come down next year.

    The project is part of a larger trend across the U.S. to remove dams blocking the natural flow of rivers and streams. Some things to know as the project gets going:

    The dams were built decades ago to generate electricity. But they also halted the natural flow of the river and disrupted the lifecycle of salmon. The fish are culturally and spiritually important to several Native American tribes in the area.

    In 2002, a combination of low water levels and warm temperatures caused a bacterial outbreak that killed more than 34,000 fish. That propelled Native American tribes to campaign for removal of the dams.

    After much negotiation, federal regulators approved a plan last year to remove the dams. PacifiCorp transferred the dams to a nonprofit that will oversee the project.

    Work already has begun on removing the smallest of the four dams, known as Copco 2.

    Removing the other three dams will take longer because those dams are much larger. Work is scheduled to begin in January and the dams should be removed by the end of 2024.

    There won’t be one giant explosion. Instead, workers will slowly drain the reservoirs behind the dams this spring. Once that work is done, crews will begin dismantling the dams, mostly using heavy machinery and some small explosives.

    The work includes more than just demolition. Crews also will try to restore the area to the conditions before the dams were built. For years, Native American tribes have gathered seeds of native plants by hand. Those seeds were sent to nurseries, which grew more seeds to plant along the riverbanks.

    The project has a $450 million budget, with a $50 million contingency fund. The cost is split between taxpayers and ratepayers of utility company PacifiCorp.

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  • What is saltwater intrusion and how is it affecting Louisiana’s drinking water?

    What is saltwater intrusion and how is it affecting Louisiana’s drinking water?

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    BATON ROUGE, La. — For months, residents in the southeast corner of Louisiana have relied on bottled water for drinking and cooking, with the water from the faucet coming out salty.

    Plaquemines Parish Councilman Mark “Hobbo” Cognevich, who represents the affected area, said grocery stores are constantly having to restock plastic water bottles, neighbors have reported getting rashes after showering, and, overall, the community is “fed up” with the situation.

    “We are praying for rain,” Cognevich said. That is a sentiment echoed by officials across the state, as the drought-stricken Mississippi River’s flow is low and slow, allowing for salt water from the Gulf of Mexico to intrude upstream and threaten communities’ drinking supplies.

    But with little precipitation in the forecast, officials are now hastily preparing for if and when the salt water will reach the state’s most populous city — New Orleans.

    WHAT IS SALTWATER INTRUSION AND HOW DID IT HAPPEN?

    Typically, the mighty flow of the Mississippi River — which stretches from northern Minnesota, through the center of the continental United States and out to the Gulf of Mexico — is enough to keep mass amounts of salt water from intruding too far upstream. But hot and dry conditions across the country this summer, triggering extreme drought, have affected the Mississippi. Officials expect the river volume to reach historic lows in the coming weeks.

    Matt Roe, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans, said on Monday that when the flow of the river gets this weak, “it doesn’t have the mass and velocity needed to push the salt water back down around the mouth of the river.”

    HOW IS THE SALT WATER AFFECTING LOUISIANA’S DRINKING WATER?

    Many communities in south Louisiana rely on the Mississippi’s fresh water, with their water intake treatment facilities located along the river.

    Unimpeded salt water continues to creep upriver and threatens municipal drinking water. That makes it unsafe to drink — especially for people with kidney disease, high blood pressure, people on a low-sodium diet, infants and pregnant women.

    While most of the state still has fresh water flowing out of faucets, water advisories have been issued in parts of Plaquemines Parish since June. Edwards warns that other parishes may soon be affected by the salt water, including Orleans, St. Bernard and Jefferson. Although that likely won’t happen until mid-to-late October.

    During a news conference on Friday, Edwards urged Louisianans not to panic or rush to buy bottled water. Instead, residents will be notified in advance if salt water will affect their area.

    WHAT IS BEING DONE?

    Officials are addressing the issue in multiple ways, including heightening an existing sill, an underwater levee used to block or slow the flow of salt water. Officials say the sill augmentation — which had been used during similar situations, in 1988, 2012 and last year — will delay salt water’s progression by about 10 to 15 days.

    “We’re being proactive. We’re applying best practices and lessons learned from the past,” Edwards said.

    In addition, millions of gallons of fresh water are being taken by barges to treatment facilities in impacted areas.

    Edwards also plans to request an emergency declaration from the federal government to get more agencies to address the issue and authorize the state “to take emergency protective measures with some level of reimbursement available.”

    But what is needed most right now is rain. And not just in Louisiana, but further north to strengthen the river’s flow,

    WILL THE SALT WATER AFFECT OTHER THINGS?

    The Mississippi is one of the world’s most important commercial waterways, and the Port of South Louisiana is critical for grain shipments, handling about 60% of U.S. grain exports.

    Officials say they are doing what they can during the sill augmentation to keep the channel open to ships and barges.

    However, traffic along the Mississippi is already slower than usual due to the drought, which has left the river so low that barge companies are reducing their loads.

    Additionally, state departments are monitoring the effects this could have on agriculture — specifically citrus nurseries, which rely heavily on irrigation and are more sensitive to salt water than a mature tree in the ground.

    But with this likely being a long-duration event, the full effects of the saltwater intrusion have yet to be felt.

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  • Low Mississippi River limits barges just as farmers want to move their crops downriver

    Low Mississippi River limits barges just as farmers want to move their crops downriver

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    DES MOINES, Iowa — A long stretch of hot, dry weather has left the Mississippi River so low that barge companies are reducing their loads just as Midwest farmers are preparing to harvest crops and send tons of corn and soybeans downriver to the Gulf of Mexico.

    The transport restrictions are a headache for barge companies, but even more worrisome for thousands of farmers who have watched drought scorch their fields for much of the summer. Now they will face higher prices to transport what remains of their crops.

    Farmer Bruce Peterson, who grows corn and soybeans in southeastern Minnesota, chuckled wryly that the dry weather had withered his family’s crop so extensively they won’t need to worry so much about the high cost of transporting the goods downriver.

    “We haven’t had rain here for several weeks so our crop size is shrinking,” Peterson said. “Unfortunately, that has taken care of part of the issue.”

    About 60% of U.S. grain exports are taken by barge down the Mississippi to New Orleans, where the corn, soybeans and wheat is stored and ultimately transferred to other ships. It’s usually an inexpensive, efficient way to transport crops, as a typical group of 15 barges lashed together carries as much cargo as about 1,000 trucks.

    But as river levels drop, that cost has soared. The cargo rate from St. Louis southward is now up 77% above the three-year average.

    Prices have risen because the river south of St. Louis does not remain consistently deep enough now to accommodate typical barges, forcing companies to load less into each vessel and string fewer barges together.

    North of St. Louis, a series of locks and dams guarantees a 9-foot-deep (2.7-meter) channel as far north as Minneapolis-St. Paul. But that’s not the case in the lower Mississippi.

    “We’re keeping things moving but could use some rain, some help from Mother Nature,” said Merritt Lane, president of Canal Barge Company of New Orleans.

    Canal Barge, which works much of the Mississippi as well as the Illinois and Ohio rivers, has had to lighten loads so barges ride higher in the water. The company also can’t link as many barges together because the shipping lane is narrower, Lane said.

    A narrowed shipping lane also means barges from different companies must squeeze into limited space, forcing backups and delays.

    This is the second-straight year drought has caused the Mississippi to drop to near-record lows. With no significant rain in the forecast, it’s likely to keep falling.

    The shallow river is especially striking given the height of the river just months ago. A huge snowpack in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin quickly melted, forcing riverfront communities such as Davenport, Iowa, and Savanna, Illinois, to hurriedly erect barriers to stay dry in late April and early May.

    Though floodwaters quickly receded, they left behind mountains of underwater sand, forcing the Corps of Engineers to “dredge like crazy” to clear out a shipping channel, said Tom Heinold, who commands the Corps’ Rock Island district spanning 312 miles (500 kilometers) of the Mississippi from northern Iowa south to Missouri.

    “After the flood came through this spring it was a touchy situation,” Heinold said. “In May and June we were jumping very quickly from place to place to try to get pilot channels open as the water was dropping.”

    Northern stretches of the river are now in good shape, but dredging continues south of St. Louis, Heinold said.

    Months of dry and warm weather have hit the Midwest hard, damaging crops in much of the region west of the Mississippi River. In Kansas, 40% of the soybean crop was reported in poor or very poor condition, with the same conditions for 40% of the corn crop in Missouri.

    The Midwest grows most of the nation’s corn and soybeans. The percentage rated good to excellent nationwide was a little more than 50%, the worst rating in more than a decade.

    Then there is the higher cost of shipping crops downriver.

    Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, said many Midwest farmers have multiple transport options, among them trucking and shipment by train for use by nearby ethanol and biodiesel plants and for processing into animal feed. But for grain exported from the U.S., the higher cost of shipping down the Mississippi hurts.

    “It’s the way that farmers in the middle of the United States connect with the international marketplace,” said Steenhoek, whose group advocates for effective crop transportation systems. “It allows these farmers to have a very efficient way of moving their products a long distance in a very economical manner.”

    Rising barge costs eating directly into farmers’ profits come at a time when American soybean and corn exports face increased international competition, he said.

    From his work site beside the Mississippi River in Red Wing, Minnesota, Jim Larson watches as the river rises and falls through the seasons. He has seen plenty of droughts and floods during 30 years in the business and said it forces everyone who relies on the river to remain nimble.

    “Some years you have flood and some years you have drought and sometimes you have them both in the same year,” said Larson, manager of Red Wing Grain, a storage and grain-loading operation. “It’s crazy and it seems like lately we’re having more of both, and so you have to be adaptable and change with the situation that is given to you. Kind of keeps you on your toes.”

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  • Dominican Republic closes all borders with Haiti as tensions rise

    Dominican Republic closes all borders with Haiti as tensions rise

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    DAJABON, Dominican Republic — The Dominican Republic shut all land, air and sea borders with Haiti on Friday in a dispute about construction of a canal on Haitian soil that taps into a shared river, as armed Dominican soldiers patrolled entry points and military planes roared overhead.

    Flights were canceled and border towns usually teeming with vendors and Haitians crossing daily to work in the Dominican Republic were subdued. Crowds of people on the Haitian side gathered under the shade of trees as they observed the scene on Friday. Nearby, a white flag fluttered in the breeze under a Haitian flag in a sign of peace.

    It was unclear how long the rare closure of the borders will last, with Dominican President Luis Abinader saying the measure will remain in place “as long as necessary.” The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the canal project violates a 1929 treaty and “must be halted immediately before pursuing any other dialogue.”

    The diplomatic crisis began earlier this month when workers in Haiti resumed construction of a canal near the Massacre River that runs along the border, to help alleviate a drought that hit Haiti’s Maribaroux plain. The river is named after a bloody clash between Spanish and French colonizers in the 18th century, and was the site of a mass killing of Haitians by the Dominican army in 1937.

    Abinader says the canal will divert water and negatively affect Dominican farmers and the surrounding environment, while Haiti’s government insists that building the canal falls within its sovereign right to decide how to use its natural resources.

    The closure will represent a significant economic hit for both countries that share the island of Hispaniola, although Haiti is expected to feel it more acutely.

    “It’s really a very drastic measure that doesn’t make sense economically for either the Dominican Republic or Haiti,” said Diego Da Rin with the International Crisis Group. “This will clearly have very bad consequences economically in the Dominican Republic, and it will very likely worsen the humanitarian situation mostly in the areas close to the border.”

    Haiti is the Dominican Republic’s third biggest trading partner, with $1 billion in exports to Haiti last year and $11 million in imports, according to the Dominican Republic’s Export and Investment Center.

    Meanwhile, a study by the Dominican Republic’s Central Bank found that $430 million in informal border trade was conducted in 2017 between the countries. Of that amount, more than $330 million consisted of exports to Haiti.

    Officials from the two countries met on Wednesday to discuss the situation, and were still meeting on Thursday when Abinader announced he would close all borders on Friday, prompting the Haitian government to criticize what it called a “unilateral” decision.

    Da Rin called Abinader’s actions an overreaction and noted that he confirmed last month he is running for re-election, and appeared to be staking out tough stance on migration. “Maybe Abinader thinks this is a way to portray himself as a strong nationalist leader who will be the only one … able to really stop the ‘Haitian invasion’ as he always calls the growing migration influx.”

    On Friday, Haiti’s Support Group for Returnees and Refugees condemned Abinader’s moves, and said the canal work should continue.

    “Closing the border will bring big consequences for Haitian migrants,” coordinator Ketia Bronté said.

    She warned that more people are going to cross the border illegally and that the number of cases of human trafficking and contraband would likely increase.

    “Haiti and the Dominican Republic are two nations whose history is intertwined,” she said. “Their destiny is linked to living together on an island.”

    Abinader announced this week that he has stopped issuing visas to Haitians and closed the border near the town of Dajabon. He also has pushed to limit the number of Haitians migrating to the Dominican Republic and has expelled tens of thousands of them and those of Haitian descent. Bronté noted that in August alone, some 22,000 Haitians were deported — twice the usual monthly number.

    The Dominican Republic also has started building a 118-mile (190-kilometer) wall along the Haitian border that he announced early last year.

    ___

    Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press videographer Pierre-Richard Luxama in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, contributed.

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  • Court order allows Texas’ floating barrier on US-Mexico border to remain in place for now

    Court order allows Texas’ floating barrier on US-Mexico border to remain in place for now

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    A federal appeals is allowing Texas’ floating barrier on the Rio Grande to stay in place for now

    ByThe Associated Press

    September 7, 2023, 11:42 PM

    A migrant from Columbia stands at a floating buoy barrier as he looks to cross the Rio Grande from Mexico into the U.S., Monday, Aug. 21, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

    The Associated Press

    NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court on Thursday allowed Texas’ floating barrier on a section of the Rio Grande to stay in place for now, a day after a judge called the buoys a threat to the safety of migrants and relations between the U.S. and Mexico.

    The order by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals puts on hold a ruling that would have required Texas to move the wrecking-ball sized buoys on the river by next week.

    The barrier is near the Texas border city of Eagle Pass, where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has authorized a series of aggressive measures in the name of discouraging migrants from crossing into the U.S.

    The stay granted by the New Orleans-based appeals court lets the barrier remain in the water while the legal challenge continues.

    The lawsuit was brought by the Justice Department in a rare instance of President Joe Biden’s administration going to court to challenge Texas’ border policies.

    On Wednesday, U.S District Judge David Ezra of Austin ordered Texas to move the roughly 1,000-foot (305-meter) barrier out of the middle of the Rio Grande and to the riverbank, calling it a “threat to human life” and an obstruction on the waterway. The Mexican government has also protested the barrier.

    In seeking a swift order to allow the buoys to remain, Texas told the appeals court the buoys reroute migrants to ports of entry and that “no injury from them has been reported.” Last month, a body was found near the buoys, but Texas officials said preliminary information indicated the person drowned before coming near the barriers.

    Texas installed the barrier by putting anchors in the riverbed. Eagle Pass is part of a Border Patrol sector that has seen the second-highest number of migrant crossings this fiscal year with about 270,000 encounters, though that is lower than at this time last year.

    The Biden administration has said illegal border crossings declined after new immigration rules took effect in May as pandemic-related asylum restrictions expired.

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  • A tanker believed to hold sanctioned Iran oil starts offloading near Texas despite Tehran’s threats

    A tanker believed to hold sanctioned Iran oil starts offloading near Texas despite Tehran’s threats

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    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An American-owned oil tanker long suspected of carrying sanctioned Iranian crude oil began offloading its cargo near Texas late Saturday, tracking data showed, even as Tehran has threatened to target shipping in the Persian Gulf over it.

    Ship-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed the Marshall Islands-flagged Suez Rajan was undergoing a ship-to-ship transfer of its oil to another tanker, the MR Euphrates, near Galveston, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of Houston.

    The fate of the cargo aboard the Suez Rajan has become mired in the wider tensions between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic, even as Tehran and Washington work toward a trade of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets in South Korea for the release of five Iranian-Americans held in Tehran.

    Already, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has warned that those involved in offloading the cargo “should expect to be struck back.” The U.S. Navy has increased its presence steadily in recent weeks in the Mideast, sending the troop-and-aircraft-carrying USS Bataan through the Strait of Hormuz in recent days and considering putting armed personnel on commercial ships traveling through the strait to stop Iran from seizing additional ships.

    U.S. officials and the owners of the Suez Rajan, the Los Angeles-based private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    The saga over the Suez Rajan began in February 2022, when the group United Against Nuclear Iran said it suspected the tanker carried oil from Iran’s Khargh Island, its main oil distribution terminal in the Persian Gulf.

    For months, the ship sat in the South China Sea off the northeast coast of Singapore before suddenly sailing for the Gulf of Mexico without explanation. Analysts believe the vessel’s cargo likely has been seized by American officials, though there still were no public court documents early Sunday involving the Suez Rajan.

    In the meantime, Iran has seized two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, including one with cargo for U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. In July, the top commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s naval arm threatened further action against anyone offloading the Suez Rajan, with state media linking the recent seizures to the cargo’s fate.

    “We hereby declare that we would hold any oil company that sought to unload our crude from the vessel responsible and we also hold America responsible,” Rear Adm. Alireza Tangsiri said at the time. “The era of hit and run is over, and if they hit, they should expect to be struck back.”

    Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the offloading of the Suez Rajan. The state-run IRNA news agency acknowledged this AP story, but did not elaborate. Western-backed naval organizations in the Persian Gulf in recent days also warned of an increased risk of ship seizures from Iran around the Strait of Hormuz.

    Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers saw it regain the ability to sell oil openly on the international market. But in 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord and re-imposed American sanctions. That slammed the door on much of Iran’s lucrative crude oil trade, a major engine for its economy and its government. It also began a cat-and-mouse hunt for Iranian oil cargo — as well as series of escalating attacks attributed to Iran since 2019.

    The delay in offloading the Suez Rajan’s cargo had become a political issue as well for the Biden administration as the ship had sat for months in the Gulf of Mexico, possibly due to companies being worried about the threat from Iran.

    In a letter dated Wednesday, a group of Democratic and Republican U.S. senators asked the White House for an update on what was happening with the ship’s cargo, estimated to be worth some $56 million. They said the money could go toward the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, which compensates those affected by the Sept. 11 attacks, the 1979 Iran hostage crisis and other militant assaults.

    “We owe it to these American families to enforce our sanctions,” the letter read.

    The U.S. Treasury has said Iran’s oil smuggling revenue supports the Quds Force, the expeditionary unit of the Revolutionary Guard that operates across the Mideast.

    Claire Jungman, the chief of staff at United Against Nuclear Iran, praised the transfer finally happening.

    “By depriving the (Guard) of crucial resources, we strike a blow against terrorism that targets not only American citizens but also our global allies and partners,” Jungman told the AP.

    On Sunday, Iranian state media released still images from video that showed the USS Bataan with small Guard fast boats trailing it as it traveled through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil passes. One image appeared to have been taken from a drone above the Bataan.

    Cmdr. Rick Chernitzer, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, acknowledged to the AP that the Bataan had transited through the strait in recent days. He declined to elaborate.

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  • A tanker believed to hold sanctioned Iran oil starts offloading near Texas despite Tehran’s threats

    A tanker believed to hold sanctioned Iran oil starts offloading near Texas despite Tehran’s threats

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    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An American-owned oil tanker long suspected of carrying sanctioned Iranian crude oil began offloading its cargo near Texas late Saturday, tracking data showed, even as Tehran has threatened to target shipping in the Persian Gulf over it.

    Ship-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed the Marshall Islands-flagged Suez Rajan was undergoing a ship-to-ship transfer of its oil to another tanker, the MR Euphrates, near Galveston, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of Houston.

    The fate of the cargo aboard the Suez Rajan has become mired in the wider tensions between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic, even as Tehran and Washington work toward a trade of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets in South Korea for the release of five Iranian-Americans held in Tehran.

    Already, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has warned that those involved in offloading the cargo “should expect to be struck back.” The U.S. Navy has increased its presence steadily in recent weeks in the Mideast, sending the troop-and-aircraft-carrying USS Bataan through the Strait of Hormuz in recent days and considering putting armed personnel on commercial ships traveling through the strait to stop Iran from seizing additional ships.

    U.S. officials and the owners of the Suez Rajan, the Los Angeles-based private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    The saga over the Suez Rajan began in February 2022, when the group United Against Nuclear Iran said it suspected the tanker carried oil from Iran’s Khargh Island, its main oil distribution terminal in the Persian Gulf.

    For months, the ship sat in the South China Sea off the northeast coast of Singapore before suddenly sailing for the Gulf of Mexico without explanation. Analysts believe the vessel’s cargo likely has been seized by American officials, though there still were no public court documents early Sunday involving the Suez Rajan.

    In the meantime, Iran has seized two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, including one with cargo for U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. In July, the top commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s naval arm threatened further action against anyone offloading the Suez Rajan, with state media linking the recent seizures to the cargo’s fate.

    “We hereby declare that we would hold any oil company that sought to unload our crude from the vessel responsible and we also hold America responsible,” Rear Adm. Alireza Tangsiri said at the time. “The era of hit and run is over, and if they hit, they should expect to be struck back.”

    Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the offloading of the Suez Rajan. The state-run IRNA news agency acknowledged this AP story, but did not elaborate. Western-backed naval organizations in the Persian Gulf in recent days also warned of an increased risk of ship seizures from Iran around the Strait of Hormuz.

    Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers saw it regain the ability to sell oil openly on the international market. But in 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord and re-imposed American sanctions. That slammed the door on much of Iran’s lucrative crude oil trade, a major engine for its economy and its government. It also began a cat-and-mouse hunt for Iranian oil cargo — as well as series of escalating attacks attributed to Iran since 2019.

    The delay in offloading the Suez Rajan’s cargo had become a political issue as well for the Biden administration as the ship had sat for months in the Gulf of Mexico, possibly due to companies being worried about the threat from Iran.

    In a letter dated Wednesday, a group of Democratic and Republican U.S. senators asked the White House for an update on what was happening with the ship’s cargo, estimated to be worth some $56 million. They said the money could go toward the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, which compensates those affected by the Sept. 11 attacks, the 1979 Iran hostage crisis and other militant assaults.

    “We owe it to these American families to enforce our sanctions,” the letter read.

    The U.S. Treasury has said Iran’s oil smuggling revenue supports the Quds Force, the expeditionary unit of the Revolutionary Guard that operates across the Mideast.

    Claire Jungman, the chief of staff at United Against Nuclear Iran, praised the transfer finally happening.

    “By depriving the (Guard) of crucial resources, we strike a blow against terrorism that targets not only American citizens but also our global allies and partners,” Jungman told the AP.

    On Sunday, Iranian state media released still images from video that showed the USS Bataan with small Guard fast boats trailing it as it traveled through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil passes. One image appeared to have been taken from a drone above the Bataan.

    Cmdr. Rick Chernitzer, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, acknowledged to the AP that the Bataan had transited through the strait in recent days. He declined to elaborate.

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  • Water managers warn that stretches of the Rio Grande will dry up without more rain

    Water managers warn that stretches of the Rio Grande will dry up without more rain

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    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The ongoing lack of rain and hot conditions have left one of North America’s longest rivers in dire shape again, prompting water managers on Thursday to warn farmers in central New Mexico who depend on the Rio Grande that supplies will be drying up in the coming weeks.

    That means stretches of the river through the Albuquerque area are expected to go dry — much like last year.

    Water managers and fish biologists at the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and the Bureau of Reclamation say they’re working to mitigate the effects on the endangered silvery minnow — a shimmery, pinky-sized native fish.

    Water users in the Middle Rio Grande have been given notice to anticipate changes in availability and delivery schedules soon.

    Due to a higher-than-normal irrigation demand and lower than expected natural river flow, the conservancy district began releasing water on July 17 from the San Juan-Chama Project, which brings water from the Colorado River Basin into the Rio Grande Basin via a system of diversion dams, tunnels, channels and other infrastructure. About 40% of the current irrigation supply is from project storage releases, with the rest from natural river flow.

    Irrigation district officials expect water from the project to run out before Aug. 23, leaving them to rely solely on natural flows to continue making water deliveries through the fall.

    “The lack of rainfall is difficult on its own, coupled with the challenges of not being able to store water for summer releases, is disheartening, but we are doing our best to work with water users in the middle Rio Grande Valley to deliver what is available,” Jason Casuga, the irrigation district’s chief executive, said in a statement.

    The Bureau of Reclamation will release water to supplement flows in cooperation with the irrigation district and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to target specific areas of the river with known silvery minnow habitat and to manage the rate of anticipated river drying.

    The Rio Grande went dry in Albuquerque for the first time in four decades in August 2022 due to persistent drought.

    Over the past 20 years, the Bureau of Reclamation has leased about 700,000 acre-feet — or 228 billion gallons — of water to supplement flows through the Middle Rio Grande for endangered and threatened species.

    The silvery minnow has been listed as endangered since 1994. It inhabits only about 7% of its historic range and has withstood a century of habitat loss as the nearly 1,900 mile-long (3,058-kilometer) river was dammed, diverted and channeled from Colorado to New Mexico, Texas and northern Mexico.

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  • Federal officials plan to announce 2024 cuts along the Colorado River. Here’s what to expect

    Federal officials plan to announce 2024 cuts along the Colorado River. Here’s what to expect

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    WASHINGTON — Federal officials this week are expected to ease water cuts for 2024 under a slightly improved outlook for the Colorado River’s health, though long-term challenges remain.

    The river provides water for seven U.S. states, 29 Native American tribes and two states in Mexico. It also supports a multibillion-dollar farm industry in the West and generates hydropower used across the region. Years of overuse by farms and cities and the effects of drought worsened by climate change has meant much less water flows today through the Colorado River than in previous decades.

    The U.S. government in 2021 announced cuts that hit Arizona particularly hard. Last year, those cuts grew more severe thanks to continued drought, poor precipitation and less runoff from the river’s Rocky Mountains source.

    A wetter winter and conservation measures have helped improve the river’s health a bit this summer, but experts warn a drier future is ahead.

    WHAT CUTS ARE EXPECTED?

    The Bureau of Reclamation will describe the Colorado River’s status based on projected water levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead, key reservoirs that serve as barometers of the river’s health. Officials are expected to announce cuts for next year to some basin states.

    The cuts are based on previous agreements to keep Lake Mead from getting too low.

    Bountiful snowfall and rain last winter pulled much of the region out of drought this spring and raised water levels at reservoirs.

    State water officials expect a return to what was announced in 2021, a “Tier 1” shortage. That means Arizona would see an 18% cut from it’s total water allocation, down slightly from last year. Farmers will face the brunt of the forced cuts while cities and tribes will be spared, though some have already volunteered to cut back in exchange for federal money.

    Nevada, which gets far less river water than Arizona and California, is expected to lose slightly less than it did last year. Mexico is expected to face a 5% reduction.

    California has not faced any forced water cuts.

    WILL THE RIVER KEEP GETTING HEALTHIER?

    No. While the winter’s precipitation brought immediate relief, the challenges of a hotter, drier future and overuse of the river remain.

    Lake Powell and Lake Mead are still only about 39% and 33% full, respectively.

    “That is a little better than last year, but still extremely low. It only takes a few dry years to set us back,” said Kim Mitchell, senior water policy advisor at Western Resource Advocates, a Phoenix-based nonprofit dedicated to protecting water and land in the West.

    ARE DEEPER CUTS COMING?

    Yes, but not immediately. This week’s announcement is just one piece of various water-savings plans already in place or being negotiated.

    Earlier this year, Arizona, California and Nevada released a plan to conserve an additional 3 million acre-feet of water through 2026 in exchange for $1.2 billion from the federal government. An acre-foot of water is enough to serve 2-3 households annually. The Interior Department is expected to release its analysis of the proposal this fall.

    The plan, likely be finalized in 2024, would mean cuts for California’s Imperial Irrigation District, the largest user of Colorado River water. The district, which supplies farmers who grow fruits, vegetables and feed crops, is typically spared based on senior water rights.

    Some tribes and individual districts in the West that supply water to farms and cities are signing contracts to use less water in exchange for federal money.

    The Gila River Indian Community in Arizona agreed in April with the U.S. government not to use some of its river water rights in return for $150 million and funding for a pipeline project. The tribe gets Colorado River water through the the same aqueduct system that delivers river water to Arizona’s major cities.

    The cuts anticipated this week would not be “a big swing one way or the other in terms of on-reservation use,” said Jason Hauter, a member of the Gila River Indian Community and a tribal water attorney.

    WHAT ABOUT WESTERN FARMS?

    Farmers use between 70% and 80% of all water in the Colorado River system, but this week’s announcement is not expected to change much for most of them.

    In August 2021, one farming district in Arizona’s Pinal County outside of Phoenix lost almost its entire Colorado River water supply. Though the river’s health is improving, the farmers are not expected to get that water back.

    Instead, they have either turned to groundwater or given up — as much as half the farmland has gone unplanted in the past two years, estimated Brian Yerges, general manager of the Maricopa-Stanfield Irrigation and Drainage District, which serves the region.

    WHAT ABOUT CITIES?

    Western residents are unlikely to feel the effect of this week’s announcement. In Arizona, Phoenix’s water supply didn’t diminish when the state’s was cut because other sources compensated. The nation’s fifth-largest city is supplied by the Colorado River as well as the in-state Salt and Verde rivers, with a small portion from groundwater and recycled wastewater.

    Already in the Las Vegas area, ornamental lawns are banned, swimming pool sizes are limited, and almost all water inside homes is recycled. Because of that, the impact of water cuts over the past two years has been minimal. Despite last winter’s precipitation, the Southern Nevada Water Authority said it would continue with its strict conservation measures.

    The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies nearly 20 million people, lifted restrictions in March on nearly 7 million people. But that was largely because of improved conditions for rivers in Northern California that supply the district with most of its water in addition to the Colorado River.

    WHAT’S NEXT?

    Guidelines that dictate how Colorado River water is allocated expire in 2026.

    “We have a generational set of agreements coming up,” said Bill Hasencamp, manager of Colorado River resources for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. “That’s where we need to focus.”

    Discussions among states, tribes and the federal government about their priorities for the river after 2026 are just starting. Mexican negotiators will engage in a similar but parallel process with U.S. officials.

    Negotiators say long-term discussions must consider how users will live with significantly less water in the system.

    “We had a good year,” said Anne Castle, U.S. Commissioner to the Upper Colorado River Commission. “But no one expects that’s going to be the new normal. The question is, ‘What’s the plan for the future?’”

    ___

    Associated Press writers Ken Ritter in Las Vegas and Amy Taxin in Orange County, California, contributed.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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