Proposed Va. toll highway hits speed bump over wetlands

Cute headline here from the Norfolk paper. In any case, a stated reason for the hew highway, I-460, is relieving congestion on I-64. But, as usual, the highway engineers, in this case the Virginia Department of Transportation, are clueless. New roads built to relieve congestion  on existing ones always become congested themselves, sometimes in just a matter of weeks. The Army Corps of Engineers is correctly worried about the sanctity of wetlands (under the Clean Water Act). So, will VDOT get is way and pave over yet more of our natural heritage?

The EPA and stopping the Spruce (rape-the-Earth) mine

Good editorial here on the EPA’s recent decision to rescind the permit for a mountaintop removal coal mine in West Virginia that would have continued the criminal-like burying of natural streams with the mining rubble.

Chesapeake Bay’s Tangier Island among climate change’s victims

Rising sea levels, a result of the melting of polar ice and the Greenland ice cap by the human-caused warming of the atmosphere (climate change!), are swamping Tangier Island off Virginia’s mainland coast. Some folks, this article notes, see engineering and high-tech stuff as the solution, forgetting that nature bats last in this human-caused debacle. Yes, a way of life and a rich marine culture are at risk, but it does no good to blame anybody other than ourselves.

Debate about Missouri River spending roils

A proposed boost in spending for environmental projects along the Missouri River is angering farmers who claim last year’s flooding is evidence that the spending focus needs to shift to flood protection. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers disputes the idea that flood protection is taking a backseat to the environment.This article from the Billings, Mont., paper has the arguments.

Corps rethinking strategy with Missouri River

Well at least the vaunted Corps of Engineers isn’t proposing to line the Missouri with concrete or rip-rap. Or are they? Here is the tale: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20111108/NEWS/311080063/Corps-will-rework-river-strategy

Danger pent up behind aging dams

That’s the headline over this NY Times article from today’s edition. I e-mailed the writer just for the heck of it, as I saw no mention in the article about the Teton Dam of Idaho, which burst and failed as the Bureau of Reclamation was filling its reservoir for the first time in 1977.

BPA’s dpin vs. real Snake River salmon recovery

Here’s a good opinion piece from the Idaho Statesman about the seemingly never-ending debate about whether to barge or spill migrating fish over Bonneville Power Administration-operated dams on the Snake River. Of course, the real long-term solution is to breach the three dams on the lower Snake and let fish do what nature taught them to.

Judge backs EPA’s Glades cleanup plan

This judge in Miami, Fla., shows some guts in his ruling. But is this another case of too little, too late?

Read about the judge’s ruling here.

Getting ready to battle zebra mussels

Among the new battlegrounds against this invasive aquatic species is the Zolinsky reservoir (locals call it a lake) near Omaha, Neb. Read about the Army Corps of Engineers vs. zebra mussels right here.

Salmon show ‘spills’ work better than barging

Well,yeah. But better still would be breaching Columbia River dams and letting the migratory fish do what Nature taught them to do: Migrate up free-flowing rivers to spawning grounds.

Read about the dumb “spill” vs. barge argument in this article.