China banned West Coast shellfish after finding traces of toxins.
Pollution
Posted inMarch 3, 2014: Fallon’s deadly legacy
Fallon, Nevada’s deadly legacy
In a small town once plagued by childhood cancer, some families still search for answers.
Posted inFebruary 3, 2014: The Hanford Whistleblowers
The Hanford Whistleblowers
For decades, insiders have reported problems in the cleanup of our worst nuclear mess — but is anyone listening?
Posted inFebruary 3, 2014: The Hanford Whistleblowers
The Latest: EPA released a final assessment of Pebble Mine impacts
BackstoryThe proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region could yield $300 billion in copper, gold and molybdenum, but also harm the world’s largest sockeye salmon runs, a vibrant fishing industry and some of North America’s last salmon-based cultures (“Worst place for a major mine?” HCN, 11/25/13). In 2010, nine Native tribes asked the U.S. […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
The Latest: Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site looks more distant than ever
BackstoryAfter decades of indecision about where to store nuclear waste, in 2002 President George W. Bush approved building a permanent repository at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. In 2009, under political pressure, President Obama halted construction plans. Still, the U.S. Department of Energy continued collecting fees from nuclear power plants for […]
Posted inJuly 23, 2012: The Hardest Climb
Coal-export schemes ignite unusual opposition, from Wyoming to India
On India’s sweltering Western coast, Bharat Patel heads a group of traditional fishermen called Machimar Adhikar Sangharsh Samiti, which loosely translates as the Association for the Struggle for Fishworkers’ Rights. Meanwhile, up in the arid breaks of southeast Montana, Mark Fix wants to preserve the rural character of his 9,700-acre ranch along the Tongue River, […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2009: The Half-life of Memory
A battle for the land — and soul — of the West
The American West at Risk: Science, Myths, and Politics of Land Abuse and RecoveryHoward G. Wilshire, Jane E. Nielson, andRichard W. Hazlett617 pages, hardcover: $35.Oxford University Press, 2008. It’s no secret that the West’s public lands are in deep trouble. The American West at Risk presents a familiar litany of problems: damage from overgrazing, […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2009: The Half-life of Memory
The struggle to remember the nuclear West
After toxic waste leaks, catastrophic fires and years of protests, Rocky Flats was raided by both the FBI and the EPA.
Posted inAugust 4, 2008: Hostile Takeover
Measuring Tahoe’s blues
Sediment and pollution obscure lake and light
Posted inWotr
Asarco would take us back to a polluted past
I remember the first time I tasted the air near the Asarco copper smelter in El Paso, Texas. It was 1990, and my wife and I had just moved there from Tucson, Ariz., to start teaching jobs in the English Department at the campus of the University of Texas-El Paso. I soon met two professors […]
Posted inMay 29, 2006: 'Clinging Hopelessly to the Past'
Good Samaritan bill could clean up old mines
The Clean Water Act inadvertently hampers efforts to clean up thousands of orphaned hardrock mines across the West. Legislation introduced in April by Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., may help solve the problem. Under the act, anyone who attempts to clean up acid drainage from a mine becomes liable for continuing or future pollution from the […]
Posted inApril 17, 2006: The War on Wildfire
City makes desperate bid for watershed
Note: this article is a sidebar to a news article, “Citizens unite against gas field chaos.” “This is your first time, isn’t it?” whispered a kindly Bureau of Land Management matron to an apprehensive Greg Trainor at a recent oil and gas lease auction in Denver, Colo. Trainor, who manages the water supply for Grand […]
Posted inMarch 20, 2006: Town Shopping
U.S. Department of Energy elbows in on Clean Water Act
Feds challenge Montana’s efforts to establish pollution controls for coalbed methane
Posted inOctober 3, 2005: Out of the Four Corners
Contaminated water can’t stop California sprawl
Rocket fuel ingredient and other pollutants now commonplace in groundwater
Posted inAugust 8, 2005: The Gangs of Zion
The Great Salt Lake’s dirty little secret
High mercury levels may have a surprising source
Posted inJuly 25, 2005: The Many Faces of Richard Pombo
Mining waste dumped in streams — and now lakes
The Bush administration tweaked Clean Water Act regulations to reclassify mining waste as “fill.” Now, that revised definition has been applied to metals mining for the first time — allowing a gold mine to put its tailings directly into an Alaskan lake. The 1972 Clean Water Act prohibited dumping waste into streams and lakes. But […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2005: The Many Faces of Richard Pombo
Tales of Colorado’s high-elevation tailings
In 1983, an anonymous caller warned Doc Smith that “his river would turn red.” Sure enough, the next day, the rancher and veterinarian watched toxic mining metals surge through the Arkansas River as it crossed his property. This wasn’t the first time: His grandfather had fought the effects of mining on his ranchlands and livestock […]
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
Factory wants to squeeze cheese underground
A massive cheese factory, mired in controversy over water-quality violations, has innovative plans for its wastewater: It wants to pump the milky liquid deep underground. In December, the Sacramento Bee exposed wastewater disposal violations at Hilmar Cheese Company near Modesto, which produces over 1 million pounds of cheese every day. A subsequent state investigation into […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Colorado River kisses a toxic mess good-bye
A 12 million-ton relic of the Cold War willget hauled away from Moab
Posted inApril 18, 2005: What Happened to Winter?
A chemical cocktail pollutes Western water
Traces of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, other compounds turn up in streams and wells