"About 12.5 trillion tons (11.3 trillion metric tons) of ice from glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica have melted since 1979, which is enough frozen water to stack ice 5 feet (1.5 meters) deep across the continental United States, according to a major scientific report."
"The decision allows Colorado’s largest water utility to triple a reservoir’s storage, despite concerns about diverting more water from the dwindling Colorado River."
"Climate attribution researchers say “there is absolutely no doubt” that decades of global warming set the stage for the deadly rock and glacier collapse on Langtang Lirung Mountain in Nepal."
"The City of Reno and Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA) broke ground last week on an Advanced Purified Water Facility, a plant that will treat roughly 2 million gallons of wastewater a day to make it compliant with drinking-water standards and send it into a groundwater aquifer near Stead Airport, a first for Nevada."
"The Himalayas are approaching a tipping point as glaciers melt faster than a decade ago, threatening water security as the region approaches "peak water" by mid-century, according to a study released this month."
"When officials in Wyoming conducted a routine test on the water that was being discharged from a massive under-construction Meta datacenter, it was a shock to find it contained a rare and potentially hazardous bacterium."
"The Environmental Protection Agency is finalizing a rule that’ll drastically weaken restrictions on “stripper wells,” which tend to be old, poorly maintained and prone to leaking methane, the highly potent greenhouse gas."
"The Richmond airport is renewing its stormwater discharge permit, and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) added general requirements for the airport to monitor and lower its discharge of PFAS. Some stakeholders say that’s not enough and are asking for specific reduction targets."
"A group of commercial fishers, fishing guides and seafood processors in southwest Louisiana is suing liquefied natural gas company Venture Global, claiming that dredging operations in preparation for the construction of a new terminal resulted in a sediment spill that killed millions of oysters and diminished catches of finfish, crabs and shrimp."
The Farm Bill — omnibus legislation that affects the food supply of millions of Americans, as well as their air, water and soil — is bogged down in hyperpartisan division. But as Backgrounder outlines, environmental journalists would be wise to track how Congress ultimately uses it to address matters like land and water conservation, rural water supply and pollution, pesticides and more.
