Protecting Rivers & Your Clean Water
Study Finds 11 Billion Gallons of Sewage Entered Rivers & Bays after Hurricane Sandy
Stacey Detwiler, Associate, Conservation & Government Relations
May 2, 2013 | Climate Change, Stormwater & Sewage, Urban Rivers
More than six months ago, Hurricane Sandy swept through the mid-Atlantic leaving a path of destruction across New York, New Jersey, and surrounding states. With total damage estimates reaching $70 billion, communities across the region are still recovering from its impacts.
Read more »Getting Climate Smart!
Fay Augustyn, Conservation Associate
April 22, 2013 | Climate Change, Stormwater & Sewage, Water Supply
Last year, drought wreaked havoc across more than 65% of the country. Wildfires blazed through 9.2 million acres of the west, crops suffered across the Midwest and 2012 topped out as the hottest year on record. While the fall and winter of 2012 provided the country with much needed wet weather, Mother Nature didn’t produce quite enough to break the drought.
Read more »Preparing Utilities for a Changing Climate
Fay Augustyn, Conservation Associate
April 15, 2013 | Climate Change, Stormwater & Sewage, Water Supply, Urban Rivers
In the last two years, we have seen a record number of extreme weather events including floods, heat waves, droughts, fires and snowstorms. In 2011, 14 different extreme weather events resulted in damages of more than $1 billion each. That trend has shown no signs of abating.
Read more »Maintenance: It’s Not Just for Your Car
Stacey Detwiler, Associate, Conservation & Government Relations
April 11, 2013 | Climate Change, Stormwater & Sewage, Urban Rivers, Water Pollution
Many of us are familiar with maintenance in some form. Whether it’s getting an oil change for the car or unclogging the sink, if we don’t get around to it, we usually end up paying in the long run.
Maintenance for infrastructure that manages stormwater runoff works in much the same manner, albeit at a larger scale. Without consistent maintenance, these practices can fail forcing expensive repairs and posing significant health and safety risks.
Miles Per Gallon for Raindrops - What is a Performance Based Standard for Managing Stormwater?
Gary Belan, Director, Clean Water Program
April 5, 2013 | Stormwater & Sewage, Urban Rivers, Water Pollution
American Rivers has been a leader on clean water issues for some time now, and nowhere is this more evident than in our work on stormwater. In particular, we have been working to ensure that the USEPA comes out with a balanced and effective approach to managing stormwater in its anticipated new stormwater rule.
Read more »A Bleak Assessment for Rivers
Amy Trice, Lapham Conservation Fellow
March 28, 2013 | Stormwater & Sewage, Water Pollution
Earlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency released a study which assesses the health of rivers and streams across the country. While the good news is that the National Rivers and Streams Assessment (NRSA) provides important data to monitor river health; the bad news is that more than half of our streams and rivers remain in poor condition.
Read more »Taking Control: Managing Your Stormwater Runoff Contribution
Jacob Dyste, River Restoration and Assessment Assistant, AmeriCorps Member
March 18, 2013 | Stormwater & Sewage, Water Supply, Climate Change
The challenges facing our rivers today are daunting; and frequently the solutions are equally so. Dam removal, floodplain restoration, and political maneuvering to protect wild and scenic rivers are not solutions that an everyday river enthusiast can relate to. Even as a professional in river conservation, the road forward sometimes feels overwhelming. I frequently find this frustrating – what needs to be done seems so obvious, yet so out of my control. Recently I’ve been working on a project that gives me the feeling that I can be in control of the difference that is made to the health of our rivers.
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