Report: Three-pronged approach needed to battle dead zone-causing nutrients By Amy Wold - Baton Rouge AdvocateFebruary 4, 2015 Photo provided by NASA -- A satellite image shows the Mississippi River drainage, carrying vast quantities of sediment and depositing it along the shore of Louisiana and into the Gulf of Mexico.   Careful management of fertilizers [...]

Past water dispute shows opportunity to fix nitrate problem By Dick Goodson - Des Moines Register OpinionFebruary 8, 2015Over the past few weeks a number of articles and editorials have been written about the Des Moines Water Works suing three northern Iowa counties because of high levels of nitrates, creating a huge cost to the [...]

World-Herald editorial: Nitrate issue confronts Iowa By Omaha World-HeraldJanuary 29, 2015Rain is a welcome sight to Midlands farmers. But that rainfall, along with melting snow, poses a problem when drainage carries away agricultural nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus that can build up to environmentally harmful levels. Perhaps the nation’s most troubling example is the [...]

Magnificent blue glow of Hong Kong seas also disturbing By Seth Borenstein, Associated PressJanuary 23, 2015      Eerie fluorescent blue patches of water glimmering off Hong Kong's seashore are magnificent, disturbing and potentially toxic, marine biologists say.   The glow is an indicator of a harmful algal bloom created by something called Noctiluca scintillans, nicknamed [...]

Topsoil changes get first round of approval By Donnelle Eller, Des Moines RegisterJanuary 21, 2015 (photo: The Register) The debate over how much topsoil should be in Iowans’ yards continued Wednesday as a state commission moved closer to giving homebuilders more discretion over the amount of dirt they must return. State rules require builders to [...]

Des Moines Initiates Clean Water Act Lawsuit to Stem Farm Pollution By Brett Walton - Circle of BlueJanuary 20, 2015  Iowa’s largest city will sue three upstream counties to reduce nitrate contamination.   Photo © Flickr/Creative Commons user w4nd3rl0st Des Moines, the Iowa capital, sits at the confluence of the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers. The [...]

Will Des Moines water lawsuit change farming rules? By Donnelle Eller - Des Moines RegisterJanuary 19, 2015  (Photo: Michael Zamora/The Register)   A Des Moines utility's plan to sue three northwest counties for polluting central Iowa's drinking water supply may have broad ramifications for state and U.S. farmers, who environmentalists complain have been too slow [...]

USDA-private projects affect Mississippi and Louisiana By AP - Sun HeraldJanuary 17, 2015 U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced this projects selected for a new conservation initiative encouraging partnerships between government and nonprofit organizations. Here are those involving and affecting Louisiana and Mississippi. Some Regional Conservation Partnership Program projects are national, others regional and others [...]

Civilization has crossed 4 out of 9 planetary boundaries By World NewsJanuary 15, 2015    Planetary boundary according to the international team of researchers has published a report on “safe operating space for humanity.” And humans, according to the scientists, have crossed four out of the nine so-called “safe operating space” as a result of the [...]

Vilsack doubts lawsuit will speed water-pollution cleanup By Des Moine RegisterJanuary 19, 2015A "holistic" conservation approach to curbing fertilizer runoff polluting Iowa and U.S. streams will work quicker than litigation, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told The Des Moines Register's editorial board Monday. Vilsack fielded questions about Des Moines Water Works' decision this month to [...]