Elizabeth Grossman: Summarizing Drugs in our Water→

Ensia:

“There’s no way around it, the headlines are disturbing. And they come, not from tabloids or click-bait blogs, but from papers published in scientific journals. They describe fish and birds responding with altered behavior and reproductive systems to antidepressants, diabetes medication, and other psychoactive or hormonally active drugs at concentrations found in the environment. They report on opiods, amphetamines and other pharmaceuticals found in treated drinking water; antibiotics in groundwater capable of altering naturally occurring bacterial communities; and over-the-counter and prescription drugs found in water leaching from municipal landfills. And these are just some of many recent studies examining the countless pharmaceuticals that are now being found just about everywhere scientists have looked for them in the environment.”

Alana Semuels: Contaminated Drinking Water →

Atlantic:

“None of the samples Walters sent were safe to drink. Some had lead content of 200 parts per billion. Over 30 samples, the average lead content was 2,000 parts per billion, which meant that no matter how long Walters let her taps run, it still would have been toxic. This could easily have been causing the health problems that Walters and her children were experiencing.

“Lead is the best known neurotoxin, it adversely impacts every system in the human body,” Edwards told me. “Certainly it could have caused children’s lead poisoning.”

The city says it does not know why so much lead was found in Walters’ pipes, but Edwards has a theory: Many cities have lead pipes, and when water sits in those pipes, the lead can leech into the water. So cities usually add corrosion-control chemicals, such as phosphates, to keep the lead out of the water. But because Flint didn’t take such precautions when they began pumping their own water, “the public health protection was gone,” Edwards says.”

See the other 'lead' tagged articles on this site. The best crime prevention may be lead reduction programs. A causal link not understood by many city government officials. 

Also this is article on Chicago water pipes and lead pollution. Some of the violence in Chicago is likely attributed to lead pollution.

Matt Sepic: Too Much Salt Reaches Lakes→

MPR:

“A recent study found three dozen bodies of water with chloride levels that exceed state standards. Too much salt can harm fish and encourage invasive plants.

The MPCA’s Brian Livingston, who supervises the metro watershed district, said there are ways to reduce salt use without compromising winter road safety. Such methods, he said, include “wetting the salt so it doesn’t bounce off the highways and actually gets applied directly onto the surface, and measuring more accurately the amount of salt that’s being applied, and not over-applying it.””

Michael Swearingen: BP Settlement for Minnesota's Loons→

MPR:

“Minnesota loons could benefit from an $18.7 billion legal settlement over the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a Department of Natural Resources official said Wednesday.

Minnesota could receive up to $25 million over the next 15 years from the settlement between oil company BP and the federal government, Carrol Henderson, the department’s nongame wildlife supervisor, told MPR News.

Scientists have conducted a large amount of research documenting the effects of the April 2010 oil spill on wildlife, and the settlement might not have been reached without that research, Henderson said.

”Loons and pelicans were actually in the gulf in April when the oil spill first occurred,” he said. “My recollection is that there was just shy of 200 loons that were found dead in the oil.””

Ecological Principle: Many Things are Connected to Other Things.

Kaye LaFond: Lake Baikal Pollution→

Circle of Blue:

“Nutrient pollution from outdated sewage-treatment plants degrades water quality in the world’s deepest, oldest lake.

Siberia’s Lake Baikal is the world’s largest lake by volume, containing nearly 20 percent of the planet’s fresh surface water. The ancient lake harbors an astounding array of biodiversity and is so treasured in Russia that it has its own anthem.

Excessive nutrients, most likely from outdated sewage-treatment facilities in coastal cities, are now spoiling the waters of Baikal with waves of an alga called Spirogyra. During the fall of 2013, researchers found blooms of the algae along the northwest coast of the lake, near the town of Severobaikalsk and the estuary of the Tyya River.”

Great infographic summarizing the issues for this Great Lake.

John Seewer: States Agree to Reduce Phosphorus Runoff to Lake Erie→

Associated Press:

“ Ohio and Michigan have agreed to sharply reduce phosphorus runoff blamed for a rash of harmful algae blooms on Lake Erie that have contaminated drinking water supplies and contributed to oxygen-deprived dead zones where fish can’t survive.

The two states along with Ontario, Canada, said Friday that they will work to cut the amount of phosphorus flowing into western Lake Erie by 40 percent within the next 10 years.

It’s a significant move to combat the algae blooms that have taken hold in the western third of the lake over the last decade and colored some of its waters a shade of green that’s drawn comparisons to pea soup and the Incredible Hulk.

Researchers have linked the toxic algae to phosphorus from farm fertilizers, livestock manure and sewage treatment plants that flows into rivers and streams draining into the lake.”

The goal will need to be followed up with effective actions. Lake Erie is a great resource, and it is great to see politicians making commitments to clean up this lake.

John Myers: Study finds widespread drug pollution in Minnesota lakes→

Pioneer Press:

“A chemical associated only with X-ray technology is showing up in Lake Kabetogama in Voyageurs National Park and other northern lakes, one of many industrial compounds showing up in samples taken from Minnesota waterways.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency on Tuesday released the results of its latest survey of 11 lakes and four rivers tested for 125 different chemicals, many of which are suspected of being harmful to the environment and, possibly, to humans.

Several of the compounds are considered so-called endocrine-disrupting chemicals that, in other studies, were shown to cause male fish to develop female characteristics and spurred other disruptions in ecosystems.

The survey shows that even remote Minnesota waters are contaminated by a variety of pharmaceuticals, ingredients of personal care and hygiene products as well as endocrine-disrupting compounds — everything from antibiotics, nicotine, caffeine and antidepressants to medications that regulate diabetes, cholesterol and blood pressure.

The chemical DEET, for example, a common ingredient in most commercial mosquito repellents, was found in 10 of the 11 lakes studied.”

Anna Maria Barry-Jester: Baltimore’s Toxic Legacy Of Lead Paint→

FiveThirtyEight:

“State tests found more than 65,000 children in the city with dangerously high blood-lead levels from 1993 to 2013. Across the United States, more than half a million kids are poisoned by lead each year, and the majority come from cities like Baltimore: rust belt towns built up during the first half of the 20th century when leaded paint was dominant. As populations and employment opportunities shrank in recent decades, poverty and neglect combined with older housing allowed lead paint poisoning to plague the city.

Despite sharp declines, the city of Baltimore still has nearly three times the national rate of lead poisoning among children, and a look at the data reveals that, like other health disparities, just a handful of neighborhoods are responsible for almost all of the city’s cases over the last five years. Sandtown is one of them.

But even these relatively stark statistics hide much of the problem. The data here represents children with blood-lead levels of 10 micrograms per deciliter (ug/dL), while the acceptable limit was halved to 5ug/dL by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2012 after decades of research showed there is no safe threshold for lead exposure. More than a thousand children tested for blood-lead levels between 5 and 9 ug/dL in 2013 in Baltimore, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Lead paint can be absorbed through the skin, and even a small amount of dust from frequently used doors and windows is a risk without professional abatement. Exposure to larger, lethal doses of lead is mostly non-existent in the U.S. today, but ingesting even tiny amounts can have lifelong effects, and is particularly dangerous for children under age six. Speech delays, lack of impulse control, aggressive tendencies, ADHD and other learning disabilities have been associated with exposure to lead. While it’s impossible to draw relationships between lead paint and an individual’s behavior, what happens when a population is exposed to lead is pretty clear, and it’s not pretty.”

A polluted environment has social consequences, as noted in the following:

1. The urban rise and fall of air lead (Pb) and the latent surge and retreat of societal violence.
Howard W. Mielke, Sammy Zahran

2. Intellectual Impairment in Children with Blood Lead Concentrations below 10 µg per Deciliter.
Richard L. Canfield, Ph.D., Charles R. Henderson, Jr., M.A., Deborah A. Cory-Slechta, Ph.D., Christopher Cox, Ph.D., Todd A. Jusko, B.S., and Bruce P. Lanphear, M.D., M.P.H.

3. Lead Exposure and Behavior: Effects on Antisocial and Risky Behavior among Children and Adolescents. Jessica Wolpaw Reyes

Krishnadev Calamur: A Fish With Cancer Raises Questions→

NPR

“Late last year, an angler caught a smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna River near Duncannon, Pa. That fish, officials from the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission said this week, had a malignant tumor. It’s the first time this type of tumor has been found on a smallmouth bass in the river, the agency says.

Cancerous growths and tumors on fish are “very, very infrequent,” John Arway, the agency’s executive director, said in an interview.

”These cancers can be initiated by contaminants,” he said.”

In addition to this story, more Information on the fish populations in the Susquehanna River is available here.

Steven Elbow: Lake Conservation Can't Keep Up with Pollution Increases→

Cap Times:

“A new report says that a 14-year effort to clean up Lake Mendota couldn’t keep up with increasing amounts of phosphorous streaming from the watershed.

The study from the Water Sustainability and Climate Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison says a 14-year effort to clean up Lake Mendota failed because of changes in farming, land development and climate change.

“There’s been a lot of tremendous work and effort to at least stay on the treadmill,” said co-author Eric Booth, a Climate Project researcher. “The problem is the treadmill keeps getting faster and faster with these other unaccounted for drivers of change.”

The result is that increasing efforts have slowed but not improved the decline of the lakes.

The report is specific to Lake Mendota, but could have implications worldwide as communities elsewhere try to tackle similar problems.”

1. More information here and here!

2. In a world with increasing human population and exploitation demands, conservation will at best be a Red Queen Race. We know this to be true, but we don't dare say it because it is too unpleasant for most.

NASA: US Government Develops Tool to Detect Toxic Algal Blooms

Accuweather:

“Four government organizations are combining resources to tackle a threat to U.S. freshwater: toxic algal blooms. These harmful algal blooms cost the U.S. $64 million annually to combat.

NASA is working alongside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to transform satellite data used to monitor ocean biology into valuable information to monitor detrimental freshwater algal blooms.

The new project, using ocean color satellite data, will formulate an “early warning indicator” for toxic algal blooms in freshwater systems and aid public health advisories, NASA reported.
”Observations from space-based instruments are an ideal way to tackle this type of public health hazard because of their global coverage and ability to provide detailed information on material in the water, including algal blooms” said Paula Bontempi of the Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C..”

Elizabeth Dunbar: Polluted Minnesota Lakes and Rivers→

Minnesota Public Radio:

“Six and a half years after Minnesotans voted to raise taxes to clean up lakes and streams, it’s clear the state has a long way to go. A report released Wednesday representing data from half of the state’s watersheds shows half or more of lakes and streams monitored in the southern half of the state are plagued by bacteria, sediment, nutrients and other pollutants.

Those bodies of water are often too nasty to swim in and can’t fully support fish and other aquatic life, according to the report. With help from the Legacy Amendment, which voters approved in 2008 to raise sales tax revenue for the environment and the arts, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is monitoring and assessing lakes and rivers in all of the state’s 81 watersheds — geographic areas defined by all of the waters emptying into the same body of water.”

Links to Minnesota PCA information and full report.

Ron Meador: Can Minnesota Achieve Sustainable Water Use?→

MinnPost:

“Swackhamer has a serious gift for synthesizing complex scientific material in ways that non-specialist listeners can grasp, and it’s paired with matchless expertise on this subject: She directed the University of Minnesota’s Water Resources Center from 2002 to 2014, and led the effort to produce the massive Minnesota Water Sustainability Framework, commissioned with funds from the Legacy Amendment to provide policy guidance for decision-making over the next 25 years.

She has served in leadership roles on scientific panels advising the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the International Joint Commission, and has just begun a three-year term on a National Academy of Sciences panel focused on environmental science and toxicology, recognition of her focus on toxic-chemical pollution. And she does not shrink from controversy. For example, she had much to say about the fraught connections between large-scale agriculture and Minnesota’s water problems, some of it quite provocative.

If we shift from issues of water quantity to issues of water quality, she observed, we see that more than 4,100 lakes and stream sections across the state – or more than 40 percent of the total – are classed as “impaired” because they fail to meet federal quality standards. The major driver of these impairments is excessive inputs of nutrients, primarily phosphorus and nitrates from fertilizers, and the major source of those nutrients is row-crop agriculture.”

Dennis Anderson: Some Farmers for Buffer Bill→

Star Tribune:

““What happens to water as it goes through my farm is my responsibility,” Kanne said, noting that in his part of the state, the amount of drain tile laid by farmers has doubled every two years for the past 10 years, significantly altering the region’s hydrology.

“We need to get [buffer requirements] in place because, as a farmer, I’m not the problem,’’ Kanne said. “But I’m part of the problem. And I will be part of the solution.’’

Not so fast, say lobbyists who have plied the Capitol’s hallways in St. Paul this session representing Minnesota farm and commodity groups. Their objective since Gov. Mark Dayton announced his buffer initiative in January has been to weaken, stall and/or kill the proposal. Keep the dirty water flowing, they seem to say.”

Darrel Mosel: Farmers will Find Production Benefits with Buffers→

SC Times:

“As a farmer who has a drainage ditch, a small creek and larger creek flowing through my land, I know that when there isn’t a buffer between the crop field and the streambank, runoff takes soil and any chemicals along for the ride right over the edge. I have buffers that range from 50 to 120 feet wide. That leaves me plenty of room to raise crops on the rest of my land. And it makes a difference — the stream banks are stable, and I know my soil and inputs are staying where they belong.

But upstream and downstream, people are still trying to farm to the edge, and when heavy rains come, it’s a disaster. Creeks turn chocolate, and the banks cave in. This type of farm run-off is a major contributor to our state’s water pollution problems. It’s also an incredible waste of seed, fertilizer and chemicals.”

The intended benefits of shoreline buffers that is well described by a practicing farmer.

Mitch Smith: Conflict between Farm and City Water→

New York Times:

“The flat, endless acres of black dirt here in northern Iowa will soon be filled with corn and soybean seeds. But as farmers tuned up their tractors and waited for the perfect moment to plant, another topic weighed on their minds: a lawsuit filed in federal court by the state’s largest water utility.

After years of mounting frustration, the utility, Des Moines Water Works, sued the leaders of three rural Iowa counties last month. Too little has been done, the lawsuit says, to prevent nitrates from flowing out of farm fields into the Raccoon River and, eventually, into the drinking water supply for roughly 500,000 Iowans. The suit seeks to make farmers comply with federal clean-water standards for nitrates that apply to factories and commercial users, and requests unspecified damages.”

No price signals to farmers for their export of pollution downstream, so other legal means are being explored to address degraded water quality,

Julie Buntjer: Minnesota Governor Dayton Talks about Buffer Initiative→

Governor Dayton at Worthington

“An estimated 200 people, including farmers from more than a 12-county area of southern and western Minnesota, packed inside the Worthington Fire Hall Thursday morning to ask questions and voice concerns about Gov. Mark Dayton’s proposal seeking to require 50-foot buffer strips along all lakes, rivers and streams across the state.

Arriving a few minutes behind schedule to a standing-room-only audience, Dayton acknowledged immediately that there will be disagreements and everyone is entitled to an opinion. He listened to question after question and occasionally offered responses on his bipartisan bill (HF1534/SF1537) for nearly two hours.

Dayton’s proposal seeks to create an additional 125,000 acres of water quality buffer strips statewide, and he wants to see the initiative under way before his term expires in another three and a half years.

The idea for added buffers came from the governor’s first-ever Minnesota Pheasant Summit late last year. Since then, it has evolved to focus not only on additional habitat and space for pollinators, but also on improving water quality.”

More Information

Bobby Magill: Alternatives to Keystone XL are Moving Forward→

Quartz:

“There are myriad other projects on the table designed to do exactly what Keystone XL was designed to do: transport Canadian tar sands oil to refineries. Those pipelines, both in the US and Canada, are being designed to move the oily bitumen produced from the tar sands to refineries in Texas and eastern Canada, and to ports on the Pacific Coast where the oil could be shipped to Asia.

Combined, the pipelines would be able to carry more than three million barrels of oil per day, far in excess of the 800,000 barrels per day that TransCanada’s Keystone XL is designed to carry.
Canada is sitting on about 168 billion barrels of crude oil locked up in the Alberta tar sands northeast of Edmonton—a trove of carbon-heavy fossil fuels bested in size only by oil reserves in Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. Today, the roughly two million barrels of tar sands oil produced each day in Alberta is sent to refineries in the US and Canada via rail or small pipelines, none of which are adequate to carry the 3.8 million barrels of oil per day expected to be produced in the oil sands by 2022.”

Also from Quartz: 

Matt Phillips: The simple GIF that explains a giant shift in the global economy

Wendell Berry: As Farmers Fade, Who Will Care for the American Landscape?→

Wendy Berry, writing for the Atlantic:

CJ Buckwalker, Flickr

“The landscapes of our country are now virtually deserted. In the vast, relatively flat acreage of the Midwest now given over exclusively to the production of corn and soybeans, the number of farmers is lower than it has ever been. I don’t know what the average number of acres per farmer now is, but I do know that you often can drive for hours through those corn-and-bean deserts without seeing a human being beyond the road ditches, or any green plant other than corn and soybeans. Any people you may see at work, if you see any at work anywhere, almost certainly will be inside the temperature-controlled cabs of large tractors, the connection between the human organism and the soil organism perfectly interrupted by the machine. Thus we have transposed our culture, our cultural goal, of sedentary, indoor work to the fields. Some of the “field work,” unsurprisingly, is now done by airplanes.

This contact, such as it is, between land and people is now brief and infrequent, occurring mainly at the times of planting and harvest. The speed and scale of this work have increased until it is impossible to give close attention to anything beyond the performance of the equipment. The condition of the crop of course is of concern and is observed, but not the condition of the land. And so the technological focus of industrial agriculture by which species diversity has been reduced to one or two crops is reducing human participation ever nearer to zero. Under the preponderant rule of “labor-saving,” the worker’s attention to the work place has been effectively nullified even when the worker is present. The “farming” of corn-and-bean farmers—and of others as fully industrialized—has been brought down from the complex arts of tending or husbanding the land to the application of purchased inputs according to the instructions conveyed by labels and operators’ manuals.”

Read more. If you read anything today read this, then read more from Wendell Berry... 

MN DNR: Governor's Buffer Initative

Minnesota DNR:

ScootterFllix, Filckr

“Governor Mark Dayton has proposed an initiative aimed at protecting Minnesota’s waters from erosion and runoff pollution.

Known as the Buffer Initiative, the legislation requires at least 50 feet of perennial vegetation around Minnesota’s waters. Buffers help filter out phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment by slowing runoff, trapping sediment with these pollutants and allowing vegetation to absorb them.”

Good summary of riparian conditions across Minnesota, a collection of shoreline buffer reports, a review of the Governor's proposal, and links to the buffer bills currently being debated.