Tag: North America

Safety Be Dammed: High-Risk Dams on the Rise

by | 9.9.2011 at 9:30am
Teton Dam, in Southeastern Idaho, collapsed on May 5, 1976, killing 14 people. Photo courtesy U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

In the still hours just before midnight on March 12, 1928, thousands of people slumbered in the handful of agricultural communities nestled along the Santa Clara River in Ventura County, California. Tony Harnischfeger and his family slept quietly in a small house at the foot of the St. Francis Dam, a 195-foot high concrete gravity [...]

Western Water Woes – Is Big Infrastructure the Way to Go?

by | 9.6.2011 at 9:45am | 1 Comment
Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, has a grand plan.  Photo: Las Vegas Sun

Guest Blog by Michael Clark Pat Mulroy, the general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, spoke on July 20 at a US Chamber of Commerce conference, as part of its Invest in Water Initiative, and proposed a bold idea: build a pipeline to divert Mississippi River flood waters to the West. This, she said, [...]

Walking the Tightrope of Groundwater Management

by | 8.29.2011 at 11:39am
USGS image, 2005.

As climate changes and supplying water becomes more challenging, one company says it has a better management strategy.

Canadian Boreal: Protecting Today’s Water for Tomorrow

by | 8.5.2011 at 10:40am | 2 Comments
HDRI photograph of sunset on Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. 2008. Photo by Non-dropframe via WikiCommons

Canada’s Boreal forest is far from the public eye, but it contains 25 percent of the world’s wetlands.

The Less Thirsty Cars of the Future

by | 8.2.2011 at 11:40am
The Toyota Prius has become a symbol of more efficient passenger cars, but fuel efficient technology is poised to expand. 2005. Photo by Chris 73 via WikiCommons

Good news for clean air and water: President Obama unveiled an agreement last week to raise the bar on fuel economy by 2025.

Cooling the Former Frontier: Using Water to Save Energy

by | 7.25.2011 at 10:00am
Rooftop air conditioning units cool 80 percent of commercial buildings in the U.S. 2009. Photo by P199 via WikiCommons

AC units have become more efficient over the years, but energy consumption during hot summer months can increase significantly, boosting both the amount of money spent on electricity and the volume of greenhouse gasses emitted in the energy production process.

The Fairytale of “Organic” Water

by | 7.15.2011 at 10:15am | 7 Comments
2007. Photo by Ten Thousand Bullets via Wikimedia

Time and time again, marketing teams have proven that people will buy pretty much anything. So many examples exist that the topic was enough for Brooks Jackson to write an entire book about it. One of the more recent flim-flam schemes is selling organic water. Wait a tick, did I just say that? Yes, I [...]

Fracking Gains Ground in New York

by | 7.11.2011 at 10:00am | 3 Comments
Anti-fracking demonstrators begin the half-mile march to the state's DEC headquarters. Photo by Benjamin Preston

Fracking is back in the news again, and in a big way. On July 1, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, backed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration, released its recommendations regarding the controversial natural gas extraction technique. Amidst the din of statewide protests, the agency supported fracking in most of the state’s portion [...]

Ripple Effect Author Talks Efficiency; Cleanup

by | 7.7.2011 at 1:00pm
Ripple Effect author Alex Prud'Homme (L) and Written in Water editor Irena Salina (R) at Bryant Park's outdoor reading room. Photo by Benjamin Preston

The outlook for global water is bleak, but Alex Prud’Homme still believes in the power of human ingenuity.

Cape May, New Jersey’s Battle Against Nature

by | 6.20.2011 at 9:00am | 1 Comment
The lighthouse at Cape May Point guards the mouth of the Delaware River. 2010. Photo by Paul Lowry via WikiCommons

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers battles an encroaching ocean, but how long will their funding hold out?