Water is life. Knowledge is power.
CAFOs often store animal waste in massive, open-air lagoons, like this one at Vanguard Farms in Chocowinity, North Carolina. Bacteria feeding on the animal waste turns the mixture a bright pink. picstever / Flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0
It has been almost a year since Hurricane Florence slammed the Carolinas, dumping a record 30 inches of rainfall in some parts of the states. At least 52 people died, and property … [more…]
Photo: Excessive nitrate in lakes, seas and rivers can increase algae growth that can lead to toxic blue-green blooms. The IAEA, in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts, has developed an innovative method to trace the origin of nitrate pollution in water. (Photo: L. Wassenaar, IAEA)
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts, has developed an innovative method for tracing the origin of nitrogen … [more…]
Snow geese erupt against a blue sky trimmed with fresh, white clouds. The air is so clear you can see for miles, east to the distant peaks of the Sierra Nevada and west to the gentle slopes of the Coast Ranges. But Carson Jeffres and Jacob Katz are less interested in the view above them than the one at their feet. Standing knee-deep in a flooded field at Knaggs Ranch, … [more…]
No one is completely satisfied with action this week from the Republican-led Joint Finance Committee on proposed fees and additional positions to oversee concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, in Wisconsin. The growing number of large farms in the state has contributed to increasing concerns over the potential for pollution.
Gov. Tony Evers’ budget proposal would have raised annual pollution permit fees from $345 to $660, as well as institute … [more…]
By Mark Arax
Reported by J. Steven Young
When delegates to the second International Irrigation Congress convened in Los Angeles in October 1893, pessimism about their mission was not supposed to be on the agenda. The gathering, after all, was meant to encourage reclamation of arid lands throughout the American West, using irrigation to transform an immense wasteland into an agriculturally … [more…]