Rivers

May 29, 2009 -- PLAINFIELD, IND. -- Judge Larry McKinney today issued a ruling in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana calling for Duke Energy to shut down three units at the company’s West Terre Haute Wabash River Station no later than Sept. 30, 2009.

The majority of the plant’s capacity is unaffected by the ruling, which calls for units 2, 3 and 5 to be retired, while the remaining Duke Energy-owned units at the station – 4 and 6 – will be unaffected. Shutting down units 2, 3 and 5 will remove a combined capacity of 265 megawatts, which is 39 percent of the station’s 677- megawatt power generating capacity.    » read more »

Funding to Improve Water Infrastructure in Defiance and Paulding Counties

May 28, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today announced the release of $5.2 million in loans and grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support the Defiance County Auglaize River Project. The funds, allocated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, will enable the construction of a new wastewater and sewage collection system.    » read more »

WASHINGTON (Friday, May 22, 2009) – The U.S. Senators from Vermont and New Hampshire have introduced the Upper Connecticut River Partnership Act of 2009, legislation that would help conserve the largest ecosystem in New England.    » read more »

May 21, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall on Wednesday introduced legislation aimed at settling a decades old water dispute over water rights claims in the Rio Pojoaque.

The legislation authorizes a settlement of the claims being pursued by the Nambe, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso, and Tesuque Pueblos in the Rio Pojoaque basin north of Santa Fe. It is based on years of extensive negotiations between many parties, including Indian, local, state and federal parties.    » read more »

2009 Spring Floods One of Worst Seasons on Record

May 25, 2009, Fairbanks, Alaska - Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has sent a letter to the federal government officially requesting a federal disaster declaration for the spring floods of 2009. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sent preliminary damage assessment teams into the field last week and they are working their way down the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers village by village.    » read more »

State-of-the-Art Desalination Plant Opens in Spain Using GE Technology

TREVOSE, Pa.—May 19, 2009—Spain, one of the most arid European countries, has a long-standing water supply strategy to desalinate and use brackish river water. That effort has just taken a giant step forward as GE and Aigües Ter-Llobregat (ATLL) have announced the opening of one of the world’s largest and most technologically advanced river water desalination plants, near Barcelona.

The plant employs advanced electrodialysis reversal (EDR) technology from GE to tap the Llobregat River and to ensure a clean, reliable water supply for Barcelona and the surrounding Catalonia region.    » read more »

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal expressed his “unequivocal opposition” today to a proposed federal bill known as the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act.

In a letter to U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., on Tuesday, May 12, 2009, the Governor criticized H.B. 980 that would designate 23 million acres of public land in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington and Oregon as wilderness.

“I have no doubt that the sponsors of H.B. 980 are well-intentioned. But even the best of intentions, when ill-conceived and poorly informed, can have a devastating impact on those of us that must live and work in their wake,” he wrote. “Please communicate to your colleagues that this legislation should be soundly defeated in the event it is even granted further hearing.”    » read more »

Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Violations Point to Widespread Unlawful Stream Destruction; TECO Coal and Appolo Fuels to Pay for Illegal Mining

May 6, 2009 -- Eastern Tennessee & Eastern Kentucky - Sierra Club, Kentuckians For The Commonwealth (KFTC), Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM) and Tennessee Clean Water Network (TCWN) today announced two settlements over separate legal claims against coal companies that operated mountaintop removal coal mines without permits.

Appolo Fuels, Inc. will pay for having destroyed streams at its Jellico mine site in Claiborne County, Tennessee. TECO Coal and subsidiary Clintwood Elkhorn will pay for its illegal coal mining practices in Pike County, Kentucky.    » read more »

How the Supreme Court Has Broken the Clean Water Act and Why Congress Must Fix It

April 14, 2009 -- For decades, the Clean Water Act has broadly protected America’s lakes, rivers, streams, and drinking water sources from unregulated pollution and destruction, rescuing them from the dire straits they were in during the late 1960s and early 1970s. But because of a concerted effort by polluters and developers, and muddied rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court, up to 60 percent (at least 15,000 important waters) have lost these vital protections and countless other waters (including more than 50 percent of our streams and 20 million acres of wetlands) are at risk of losing protections.    » read more »

March 26, 2009 -- (BOISE) – Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, and IDACORP and Idaho Power President and Chief Executive Officer LaMont Keen announced today that the 1984 Swan Falls water agreement was reaffirmed this week in a proposed legal settlement between the State of Idaho and Idaho Power Co.    » read more »

Congress Passes Package That Will Protect America's Land, Water and Rivers

WASHINGTON (March 25, 2009) – The U.S. House of Representatives today passed an omnibus public lands package, which includes a landmark settlement to restore water and salmon populations to California’s San Joaquin River. This vote will send a bill to the president’s desk that provides the additional authority and funding needed to restore runs of thousands of salmon each year. It will also launch projects to improve flood protection and water supply in the Central Valley.    » read more »

February 25, 2009 -- (Salem) – Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and Attorney General John Kroger announced today that Oregon will seek to join a lawsuit against the federal government over the longstanding failure to clean up the Hanford Nuclear Reservation on the Columbia River.

“This suit is about compelling the federal government to uphold its commitment to protect fully our environment and our citizens,” Governor Kulongoski said. “Further delay is unacceptable. The federal government must make this clean up a priority and meet its obligations to address the environmental and public health risks that the Hanford site continues to pose.”

“Hanford poses a major risk to our health and environment,” Kroger added. “It is time to clean it up.”    » read more »

Legislation would end 19 years of litigation over the San Joaquin River

May 7, 2008 -- Washington, DC – The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee today approved legislation sponsored by U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer (both D-Calif.) that would implement a settlement to restore the San Joaquin River and reintroduce the California Central Valley Spring Run Chinook Salmon to the river.

Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: Photo by brothergrimm (CC)

Companion legislation was approved by the House Natural Resources Committee last fall.    » read more »

4-22-08 -- Lincoln, Nebraska -- Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning issued the following comment about a letter from the Kansas Department of Agriculture alleging Nebraska owes more than $72 million in damages for 2006.

“While we remain committed to working with Kansas to resolve the compact issues, we’re disappointed to receive a damage claim that has no basis in reality. Kansas’ method of calculating damages was rejected by a special master and the U.S. Supreme Court in the Arkansas River case,” said Bruning.

Republican River: Photo by Ron Schott (CC)    » read more »

February 28, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today released the following statement on the agreement between Illinois and Missouri on the Mississippi River Bridge:    » read more »