Waterways

Perilously situated between rising sea levels and pressures from upstream lie coastal river deltas and their roughly half a billion inhabitants. These regions have played an important role in societal development since the last ice age, offering flat, fertile lands with abundant freshwater which are ideal for agriculture.

(The Center Square) — The governors of Georgia and Alabama have agreed with the United States Army Corps of Engineers that could end a years-long legal fight over water.

In a joint statement released at COP 28, the CEOs of the largest international shipping companies urged the International Marine Organization (IMO) to quicken the decarbonisation of the marine transportation industry.

Colorado lacks strong state-level wetlands protections

On Sept. 8, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) changed the regulatory definition of the term “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). This is the fifth time that this definition – which determines the scope of the Clean Water Act – has been amended within 8 years.

Copenhagen/Vevey - Nestlé, the world's largest food and beverage company, is cutting its ocean logistics greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by using Maersk’s ECO Delivery solution for 100% of its ocean containers shipped by Maersk in 2023, with an option to extend this agreement into 2024 and beyond.

505 manatee deaths recorded between Jan. 1 and Nov. 24 this year

Washington, DC – U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both R-Alaska, last week announced the Federal Transit Administration is awarding $131 million more in bipartisan infrastructure investments to support the Alaska Marine Highway System’s operations and recapitalize portions of the fleet.

The Indian River Lagoon was considered one of the last “unpolluted coastal lagoons” in Florida in the 1970s. Fast forward to today and most of the 156-mile lagoon is now considered impaired because of external sources of nutrients including human waste, fertilizers, stormwater runoff, agriculture, rainfall and sub-marine groundwater discharge.

The Mississippi is one of the world's great rivers — but it seems to carry less reverence than other iconic water bodies across the country. River advocates are finding their own ways to help people connect.

Fast-spreading invasive aquatic mussels are hitching rides on boats, kayaks and jet skis. So, people are working to keep them out of the Columbia River Basin, the only major river basin in the U.S. without an established quagga mussel population.

Sarasota Bay’s water quality has begun improving, though threats remain from warming sea temperatures, stormwater runoff, and the potential wide-ranging environmental impact of more than 200 million gallons of polluted waste released from the Piney Point phosphate plant in 2021, experts say.

The invasive quagga mussel has already gained a foothold in numerous bodies of water in Switzerland. For three affected Swiss lakes, a prediction of the extent to which the quagga mussel will continue to spread has now been made for the first time as part of the SeeWandel project, as a collaboration between researchers from the aquatic research institute Eawag, the universities of Geneva and Constance and others.

TOBERMORY — Over the past 20 years quadrillions of invasive mussels have been sucking the life out of the Great Lakes. They’re trapping nutrients, the basic building blocks of life, on the lake bottom. Without nutrients, organisms of all kinds - from the tiniest plankton to the largest fish - are vanishing. In Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Ontario, vast offshore areas have become “biological deserts,” heralding one of the biggest changes to the Earth’s freshwaters in 10,000 years.

TWIN FALLS (Idaho Capital Sun) — Idaho state officials are hopeful that the approximately $3 million effort to kill invasive quagga mussels detected in the Snake River in September was successful. But they don’t expect to know if they wiped out all of the mussels until waters warm up and water sampling surveys resume next spring.

Vernon is being asked to throw its support behind a call to action over invasive mussels. The Okanagan Basin Water Board is seeking the city's support in calling on senior governments for immediate action to prevent the introduction of invasive zebra and quagga mussels into B.C. waters.

All aquatic species in the river mouths flowing into the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean are contaminated with microplastics, with molluscs being the most affected due to their ability to filter water.

The binational agency that operates the aging federal wastewater treatment plant at the U.S.-Mexico border said declaring the sewage crisis an emergency to expedite the facility's expansion may no longer be effective.

Sarasota and Manatee counties aim to spend as rising water temperatures and the legacy of Piney Point threaten positive momentum.

The groups say PCB levels in the river show dredging was not as effective as the federal government predicted

TOPSAIL BEACH — A coastal Pender County town may have to pay more for this year’s dredging after survey work revealed many areas in the channel have more shallow depths than anticipated.

And then there were three. The nonprofit Klamath River Renewal Corporation recently announced that work to remove the first of four hydroelectric dams clogging the lower Klamath River is complete, bringing the largest dam removal project in the nation’s history one step closer to fruition.

Grants are intended to strengthen supply chains and bringing down costs

The James River Association (JRA) released their biennial State of the James report grading one of the Chesapeake Bay’s three largest rivers at a B. The 66% score is much improved from its failing health decades ago—Scientists estimate the James’s health in the 1970s would have been a D-minus.

Asia-West Coast spot container rates outperforming Asia-East Coast rates