skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Sunday, January 5, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

House speaker vote update: Johnson wins showdown with GOP hard-liners; President Biden and the First Lady to travel to New Orleans on Monday; Hunger-fighting groups try to prevent cuts to CA food-bank funding; Mississippians urged to donate blood amid critical shortage; Rural telehealth sees more policy wins, but only short-term.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Federal officials present more information about the New Orleans terrorist attack and the Las Vegas cybertruck explosion. Mike Johnson prepares for a House speakership battle, and Congress' latest budget stopgap leaves telehealth regulations relaxed.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The humble peanut got its '15 minutes of fame' when Jimmy Carter was President, America's rural households are becoming more racially diverse but language barriers still exist, farmers brace for another trade war, and coal miners with black lung get federal help.

Clean-water advocates head back to court over Colorado factory farms

play audio
Play

Monday, July 8, 2024   

Clean-water advocates are heading to state district court after Colorado regulators turned their back on a judge's decision last year calling for better oversight of factory farm waste.

Tyler Lobdell, staff attorney for the group Food and Water Watch, explained human sewage goes through water treatment plants or septic systems. But he said operations where thousands of cattle are confined in concentrated spaces have been dumping millions of tons of untreated manure onto nearby fields.

"It inevitably overwhelms the landscape and overwhelms watersheds," Lobdell pointed out. "Such that this pollution has nowhere to go but into our drinking water and into our lakes, rivers and streams."

Last year's ruling found Colorado was in violation of state and federal law because the state's general permit did not require monitoring of water quality near factory farms. But the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment dismissed the ruling, arguing because there was no evidence of leaks, there was no need to monitor. Industry groups also claimed current regulations are tougher than in other states.

Lobdell countered Colorado's rules are strict, as they should be, to protect one of the state's most valuable assets, its water supplies. Without monitoring and enforcement of any violations, public health will continue to be at risk.

"You can have the strongest restrictions imaginable on paper," Lobdell noted. "The problem is those restrictions have been rendered largely meaningless because the facilities aren't required to report their compliance with those restrictions."

Factory farms, also called concentrated animal feeding operations, have faced growing scrutiny as corporate farming practices have replaced family-scale ranches. Such operations produce 17 million tons of manure a year in Colorado, according to the lawsuit, and many are located along the South Platte River.

Waste runoff from concentrated animal feeding operations contains fecal pathogens such as E. coli, antibiotics and cleaning chemicals. Excess nitrogen and phosphorus from manure can also produce toxic algae blooms in waterways capable of killing people, pets and livestock


get more stories like this via email

more stories
CalFood is a program of the California Department of Social Services that allows food banks to purchase California-grown and produced foods to augment donations. (Nadianb/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Groups working to fight hunger in California are calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to protect funding for the CalFood program in his initial budget …


Environment

play sound

The Department of Energy is taking a close look at the economic and environmental impacts of liquefied natural gas exports, which some experts argue …

Health and Wellness

play sound

As the new year unfolds, rural health providers in North Dakota and other states will continue to have extra latitude in using telehealth technology…


Nationally, electric vehicles represented 8% of the market share in 2023, an increase from 1.5% in 2019. (ARThitecture/Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

Michigan has poured $1 billion into electric-vehicle battery projects, with another billion pledged, but delays have stalled hiring for most of the 11…

Environment

play sound

By Jessica Scott-Reid for Sentient.Broadcast version by Mike Moen for Nebraska News Connection reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collabor…

According to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, 92% of Americans said they received spam calls in 2023, and 86% received spam texts. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

More than three years after a federal law was passed requiring phone companies to install anti-robocall technology, fewer than half of those …

Social Issues

play sound

A former White House cybersecurity expert is warning of potential cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. And in Illinois, security analysts are …

Health and Wellness

play sound

Holidays are traditionally a slow time for blood donations, but recent events have made the need for people to give blood and plasma in the Magnolia …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021