FORT HANCOCK, Texas – Red-headed Jimmy Frank Rogers, a junior and an agile receiver on Fort Hancock High’s six-man football team (school enrollment: 102), straddled some spindly salt cedar on the steep banks of the Rio Grande and surveyed what was once the Great River. “I’d guess maybe 20 yards across,” offered Rogers, tugging at […]
Pollution
From driveways to watersheds
Suburbs and ranchettes sprouting across the Western landscape often add pollution to already burdened watersheds. Residential pollution comes from oil, pesticides, and fertilizers washed off driveways and yards. The University of Nevada Cooperative Extension in Reno has launched an effort to reduce nonpoint pollution of the Truckee River by educating residents about sources of pollution […]
Seattle resident turns open sewers back into streams
After John Beal returned to Seattle from the Vietnam War, he and his family often picnicked on a wooded hillside where a large pond fed a meandering stream. Twelve years ago, developers bought the property and sold it to a sand-and-gravel pit operator. “I watched over a period of five years as it was absolutely […]
From driveways to watersheds
When oil became scarce in the 1970s, New Mexico’s solar industry quickly boomed and then busted. State tax subsidies had helped sell complicated new systems that sometimes didn’t work, and by the mid-80s many people ditched their solar designs. In an effort to rebuild its solar industry, the New Mexico Natural Resources Department has published […]
Wet and wild symposium
With memories of drought still fresh in the West, the Montana Environmental Education Association is sponsoring “Water, Wet & Wild: Flowing into the 21st Century” from March 25-27 in Billings, Mont. Designed for elementary and high school teachers, the meeting offers workshops on water pollution and water rights and exhibits by film makers and publishers. […]
Idaho’s unsettling sediment
A new government study shows that Idaho’s Lake Coeur d’Alene is one of the most contaminated bodies of water in the world. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 85 percent of the 50-square-mile lake bed is contaminated with 75 million metric tons of sediments containing silver, copper, lead, zinc, cadmium, mercury and arsenic. The contamination […]
Defunct refinery fouls Wyoming river
The Sierra Club charges that a Texaco oil refinery is polluting the North Platte River in Wyoming. To read this article, download this HCN issue in PDF format. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Defunct refinery fouls Wyoming river.
Drought costs firms big bucks
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Drought costs firms big bucks.
Troubled waters
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Troubled waters.
Rio Grande not so
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Rio Grande not so.
Idaho nixes fish farm
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Idaho nixes fish farm.
High pressure bust
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline High pressure bust.
