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Farmers Employ Strategies To Reduce Risk of Drought Damages

Farmers Employ Strategies To Reduce Risk of Drought Damages

Drought is the leading driver of production risk in U.S. agriculture. Although flooding, early frosts, pests, and other risk factors pose major challenges to farmers, no other source of production risk is as nationally significant as drought in terms of lost agricultural production and income. A major drought can reduce crop yields, lead farmers to cut back planted or harvested acreage, reduce livestock producthttps://www.h2oiq.org/?p=6729&preview=trueivity, and increase costs of production inputs … [more…]

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Wall Street spends millions to buy up Washington state water

Wall Street spends millions to buy up Washington state water

Photo: Don Lundgren’s family ranch sits next to the Chewuch River. Lundgren hoped to sell water rights to Crown Columbia for potential use beyond the Methow Valley, in the distance. (Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times)

WINTHROP, Okanogan County — Follow the water and you’ll find the money.

That’s how it often works in the dusty rural corners of Washington, where a Wall Street-backed firm is staking an ambitious venture … [more…]

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Brewers warn Supreme Court: Back the Clean Water Act, or beer will taste like medicine

Photo: Geoff Bado and Lori White at their brewery, Zed's Beer, in October of 2019. Brewers warn Supreme Court: Back the Clean Water Act, or beer will taste like medicine

Photo: Geoff Bado and Lori White at their brewery, Zed’s Beer, in October of 2019.

MARLTON, N.J. — Like craft breweries around the country, Lori White’s business is all about being local. But an upcoming Supreme Court case over water pollution in Maui has shifted her focus about 5,000 miles west.

The case, to be argued early next month, was brought by environmentalists who are opposed to what they see … [more…]

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‘Only Option’: Japan May Dump Fukushima Nuclear Plant Water Into Pacific Ocean

‘Only Option’: Japan May Dump Fukushima Nuclear Plant Water Into Pacific Ocean

Photo: The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, seen on Feb. 22, 2016. (TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images)

Japan’s environment minister said the country will have to dump large quantities of contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, which was damaged during the March 2011 earthquake, because the facility is running out of room.

During the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami, three Fukushima reactors were damaged. However, by 2022, storage space will … [more…]

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Household water and energy bills soar 30% in four years

Utility bills - Household water and energy bills soar 30% in four years

Despite general inflation running between 1.8% and a maximum of 4% per year since 2015, the cost of some of the core utilities has skyrocketed in that time, disproportionately impacting poorer households, including single parent families.

According to the September 2019 Money Statistics produced by The Money Charity, UK households spent £111.27 million per day on the core utilities of water and energy in Q1 2019, equating to £4.05 per … [more…]