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Southwest (AZ NM OK TX)

"Mexico To Send Water To Texas Farmers As US Treaty Threat Grows"

"Mexico will make an immediate water delivery to Texas farmers to help make up its shortfall under a treaty that has strained US relations and prompted tariff threats by Donald Trump, said Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on Friday."

Source: Reuters, 04/14/2025

#SEJ2025 — Confronting the Past, Surviving the Future

Next week, hundreds of environmental journalists are expected to gather in Arizona for #SEJ2025, the Society of Environmental Journalists’ expansive annual conference. Co-chair Kendal Blust has highlights of the four-day event, plus how the challenges facing the Southwest are those of communities across the United States, and why now is a critical time for journalists to come together. Read her rundown and register now, before the April 16 midnight deadline.

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Rio Grande Valley Was Once Covered In Forest. One Man Tries To Bring It Back

"The Tamaulipan thorn forest once covered 1 million acres on both sides of the border. Restoring even a fraction of it could help the region cope with the ravages of a warming world."

Source: Grist, 04/08/2025

"Fumed Episode 4: Locked and Loaded"

"This season, two stubborn Texans try to salvage what’s left of their working-class community. That’s a problem, though, because they live in East Harris County, where the petrochemical industry calls the shots — and where pushing back can be dangerous."

"Set in Channelview, Texas, in the heart of the nation's petrochemical industry, Fumed follows Carolyn Stone and Greg Moss as they risk everything to fight for their community’s future."

Source: Public Health Watch, 04/01/2025

Follow the Money … for Lobbying State Legislatures

With many states dominated by a few powerful industries — whether oil, mining or agriculture — the influence of campaign dollars can have an outsize effect on legislation, even to the point of corruption, notes the latest Reporter’s Toolbox. So while the U.S. Congress may be languishing, environmental journalists can dig up stories on lobbying at the state level using a powerful data source.

SEJ Publication Types: 
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"New Mexico Set To Become Third State To Implement Full PFAS Product Ban"

"New Mexico is poised to become the third state to institute a full-fledged ban on products that contain toxic “forever chemicals,” as two key bills head to the governor’s desk."

Source: The Hill, 03/28/2025

Sewage Sludge Is Used As Farm Fertilizer. Some Neighbors Hate It

"When Leslie Stewart moved to her home in a rural expanse of Lincoln County outside of Oklahoma City more than 20 years ago, she thought she’d found a slice of heaven. ... But several years ago, her neighbor began applying sewage sludge, which consists largely of human waste left over from municipal wastewater treatment facilities, as a fertilizer on his farmland, causing a rancid smell so powerful it nearly took her breath away."

Source: AP, 03/27/2025

Treating Texas’ Oilfield Wastewater Could Use More Energy Than Most States

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"As Texas stares down a water shortfall, its leaders are looking at vast volumes of brown, briney oilfield wastewater as a hopeful source of future supply. They don’t have many other options. But extracting clean water from this toxic slurry will require enormous amounts of energy, just as Texas fights to keep up with the rapidly growing power demands of a high-tech industrial buildout."

Source: Inside Climate News, 03/26/2025

"Uranium Waste Threatens A Western New Mexico Region's Last Clean Aquifer"

"Near the western New Mexico town of Grants, the toxic legacy of Cold War uranium mining and milling has shattered lives, destroyed homes and created a contamination threat to the last clean source of groundwater for an entire region"

Source: Searchlight New Mexico, 03/20/2025

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