It took about $1 billion to restore Florida's historic Kissimmee River to its natural state and U.S. Rep. Darren Soto - D- Kissimmee - wants to keep it from another costly mistake.
Last year the Kissimmee River Restoration Project reached a milestone when it re-established flow to 44 miles of the river's channel and restored about 40 square miles of its floodplain ecosystem.
In the 1960s, the meandering river was channelized into a straight line to manage flood control, but it also caused significant ecological damage. More than 90% of waterfowl species disappeared.
Soto said he's trying to boost momentum for his bill that would designate parts of the Kissimmee into the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers System for added protections.
"It will be harmonious with what's already happening on the river now," said Soto. "But it will protect the river from future major development or future alterations, which is the real big goal. And it frees up an ability to get more funding to help with other areas of the restoration like the habitat around it."
Soto said even agricultural interests on the river welcomed the restoration after seeing extra flow of water.
It's been a multiyear effort to get the Kissimmee River Wild and Scenic River Act to pick up traction. Soto said he believes it's just a matter of time, as he also works to engage the Biden administration for technical support on the bill.
Garret Wallace is government relations manager with The Nature Conservancy, which has an 11,500-acre nature preserve at the top of the Kissimmee River watershed.
He said everything is connected, and nutrients that may end up in the water travel faster in a straight line, but a slow and meandering river gives those nutrients a chance to settle.
"Everything that we can do to help restore Kissimmee River will have positive net benefit on Lake Okeechobee," said Wallace, "therefore we hope to have a continuing ongoing benefit to the Everglades ecosystem south of the lake."
Now marshes of grass in the Kissimmee River's floodplains will help clean the water from nutrients from rainfall runoff that typically feeds harmful algal blooms. But it's a wait-and-see effort on whether Congress will move forward with granting the Wild and Scenic designation.
Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
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The State of Minnesota faces a new lawsuit over the connection between harmful nitrates from farm fields and the threat they pose to natural resources.
Groups behind the legal action have said that, despite recent changes, regulations need to be stronger. A trio of organizations, including the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, filed the lawsuit Tuesday. It comes just after the state finalized new permitting rules for larger animal feedlots. They cover practices such as manure application, with the hope of limiting surface and groundwater pollution.
The MCEA's supervising attorney, Joy Anderson, said actions like that are helpful, but don't go far enough.
"Those only apply to the largest feedlots in the state - about the top 6% of feedlots," she said. "The rules that we are asking MPCA to look at would cover all the registered feedlots. And so, that's many, many thousands more feedlots."
The plaintiffs want a district court to force the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Department of Agriculture to revisit their rules for these water permits, and make sure vulnerable regions have enough safeguards. In a joint statement, the agencies said they can't comment on the case, adding that the recent changes strike a balance in protecting the environment and supporting farmers.
Jeff Broberg, founder and member of the Minnesota Well Owners Organization, another plaintiff in the case, said information gathering has vastly improved in trying to get a handle on this longstanding problem. But he feels some tools are still being left on the shelf.
"We've made huge investments in data, geology, hydrology, land use, fertilizers," he said, "and we're asking that all of those tools be put to work."
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture just published an updated online map, showing vulnerable areas it said will help farmers comply with the Groundwater Protection Rule. But Broberg said it has limitations. These groups have said the case also is a response to the new Trump administration, contending that the federal EPA likely won't be as forceful on this issue as it was under President Joe Biden.
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President Donald Trump's new executive order on California water policy is drawing criticism from many water conservation advocates.
The order directs the feds to study ways to override state environmental protections and send more water from northern California down south.
Bruce Reznik, executive director of the nonprofit L.A. Waterkeeper, said the devastating fires can be blamed on extreme winds, dry brush and local infrastructure issues, not on a lack of water. He said Trump is taking advantage of a disaster to benefit corporate farms.
"To the extent that they're going to deliver more water, a lot of that is going to big agriculture in the Central Valley," Reznik observed. "Folks that have supported Trump."
Groups such as Restore the Delta said Trump's policies could harm the San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystems and devastate the salmon fishery. They also oppose Gov. Gavin Newsom's Delta Conveyance Project, which the state said is intended to capture more water from large but infrequent storm events.
Reznik argued if the state and federal governments really want to make an impact, they would invest a lot more money into existing projects to clean up contaminated groundwater, improve conservation and recycle more wastewater.
"In L.A. County, we import about 700 million gallons of water a day, of the 1.2 billion gallons we use," Reznik noted. "Importing that water requires a lot of energy and expense. Right now, we treat it, flush it, treat it again, and then we dump about 450 million to 500 million gallons of that back into the ocean. The Metropolitan Water District, the county and the city have plans that we could be reclaiming 330 million gallons a day. That would reduce our regional demand for imported water and save the energy it takes to move it here from faraway places."
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Lead contamination in drinking water continues to be a significant concern in Ohio.
With new federal regulations to tackle the issue, local water utilities are accelerating their efforts to replace aging infrastructure.
Kevin Kappers, lead program manager for the Greater Cincinnati Water Works, explained what the changes mean.
"How EPA regulates lead and copper in drinking water changed, so all utilities are reacting to make sure they stay in compliance," Kappers pointed out. "We have already had a lead service line replacement program since 2018, but what that means for us is, we're accelerating that."
Federal Lead and Copper Rule Improvements mandate replacing lead service lines within the next decade. But concerns remain about funding and logistic challenges, especially for smaller Ohio communities with fewer resources to comply with these changes.
Alicia Smith, executive director of the Junction Coalition in Toledo, and other advocates stressed the importance of communication and transparency about lead contamination between cities and their residents.
"You have to tell families what and how this impacts their lives. If you don't do that, then no one's doing it right," Smith argued. "The intersectionality of infrastructure impacts public health, public safety and public awareness, for the benefit of environmental and economic justice."
Maureen Cunningham, chief strategy officer and director of water at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center, emphasized the hazards of lead in water systems.
"Lead is a neurotoxin; there's basically no safe level of lead in drinking water for human health," Cunningham noted. "Replacing lead service lines, and replacing all lead in our water systems, will significantly reduce and hopefully even eliminate the threat of lead in drinking water."
Jeff Swertfeger, superintendent of water quality and treatment for the Greater Cincinnati Water Works, stressed the importance of public participation in updating the systems.
"Participation by the people who own those houses that may have lead lines is really important, to get cooperation in order to get those lines out," Swertfeger explained. "A lot of our pipes are over 100 years old. There's a lot of needs in drinking water now, besides just lead."
Nationally, $15 billion in federal funding is available for lead line replacements.
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