Circle of Blue

In the struggling Colorado River basin, where water is scarce, the White House has signaled its priorities for how to use the remaining gallons. Even as scientifically-determined thresholds have been met for releasing water from Glen Canyon Dam for ecological and recreational benefits in Grand Canyon, the Trump administration has decided against those actions in […] The post At Glen Canyon Dam, T…

Printed lists of the missing were fixed this month to the dry walls of Nepalese buildings not swept away by the boiling tower of mud and boulders so tall, and moving so fast, that it looked like an AI fake.  It wasn’t of course. The Himalayas are warming and melting faster than almost anywhere else […] The post The Nepal Flood Looked Fake. It Wasn’t appeared first on Circle of Blue .

Great Lakes researchers warn that changing Lake Ontario’s name is a costly waste of time that complicates longstanding collaboration to manage and protect an iconic water body named by indigenous people before either the United States or Canada were founded. The August 27 executive order signed by President Trump directs the federal government to change […] The post Trump’s ‘Lake America’ Name Ch…

Great Lakes researchers warn that changing Lake Ontario’s name is a costly waste of time that complicates longstanding collaboration to manage and protect an iconic water body named by indigenous people before either the United States or Canada were founded. The August 27 executive order signed by President Trump directs the federal government to change […] The post Trump’s ‘Lake America’ Name Ch…

In 2006, in the first chapter of Omnivore’s Dilemma, his best-selling takedown of the American food production system, author Michael Pollan offered a stunning exposé of the havoc that corn caused on water, soil, taxpayers, rural economies, and public health.  Really? Corn is a serious problem? Indigenous, peaceable, abundant corn?  Twenty years after Pollan’s exposé […] The post Demon Corn appea…

In 2006, in the first chapter of Omnivore’s Dilemma, his best-selling takedown of the American food production system, author Michael Pollan offered a stunning exposé of the havoc that corn caused on water, soil, taxpayers, rural economies, and public health.  Really? Corn is a serious problem? Indigenous, peaceable, abundant corn?  Twenty years after Pollan’s exposé […] The post Demon Corn appea…

This story was originally published by Michigan Public | By Anna Barnes The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has detected invasive carp in the Illinois River only 80 miles from Lake Michigan. That’s the closest the fish are known to have gotten to the Great Lakes and hundreds were detected. Officials from the department also suspect […] The post Invasive carp get closer to Lake Michigan a…

Circle of Blue and True Elements Launch Situation: Colorado River from Stockholm World Water Week STOCKHOLM (August 27, 2026) — As some 2,000 experts gather for World Water Week to address global water challenges and solutions, Circle of Blue and True Elements today launch a new, live data, information and context platform for the Colorado River basin, which faces unprecedented stress as the rive…

Ever since Jacob Leinenkugel discovered spring waters here that were pure enough to brew his famous beer, this small Wisconsin city’s devotion to clean water has been paramount.  That’s why in 1997, when Chippewa Falls utility managers detected potentially dangerous concentrations of nitrates in a well supplying city water, officials acted. They installed new filtration […] The post Nitrate Is Po…

Ever since Jacob Leinenkugel discovered spring waters here that were pure enough to brew his famous beer, this small Wisconsin city’s devotion to clean water has been paramount.  That’s why in 1997, when Chippewa Falls utility managers detected potentially dangerous concentrations of nitrates in a well supplying city water, officials acted. They installed new filtration […] The post This American…

Ever since Jacob Leinenkugel discovered spring waters here that were pure enough to brew his famous beer, this small Wisconsin city’s devotion to clean water has been paramount.  That’s why in 1997, when Chippewa Falls utility managers detected potentially dangerous concentrations of nitrates in a well supplying city water, officials acted. They installed new filtration […] The post This American…

by Brian Bienkowski, The New Lede August 6, 2026 Michigan is giving a green light to a large new concentrated dairy farm that would add millions of gallons of animal waste to a region where water quality is already suffering from manure saturation.  The decision from Michigan’s Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) department is […] The post Michigan regulators approve dairy CAFO in polluti…

by Brian Bienkowski, The New Lede August 4, 2026 The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has backed off its re-assessment of cancer-causing nitrates despite decades of research suggesting the contaminant is more harmful than previously thought and that nitrate pollution is at crisis levels in US drinking water.  The agency would not confirm the assessment […] The post EPA stalls long-planned…

A look at the global water-food-energy nexus after one of the hottest Julys on record The post HotSpots H2O: Scenes From an Overheating, Drying World appeared first on Circle of Blue .

The Michigan Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the Michigan Public Service Commission erred when it granted a key permit for the Line 5 petroleum pipeline tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac.  Among other findings in its 58-page ruling, the majority found the commission’s permit review was overly narrow, failed to consider whether the tunnel project […] The post Michigan Supreme Court Vacates K…

Top executives of Bayer, the German chemical maker, were understandably elated on June 25, the day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in their favor in a product injury case involving the company’s Roundup herbicide. The high court reversed a state court decision and dismissed the legal theory that prompted a jury to award $1.25 million […] The post Despite Supreme Court Decision, Bayer Faces More Chal…

By Carl Meyer; This article was originally published by The Narwhal Wildfires are raging in every province and territory across Canada, leaving entire First Nations communities burnt, upending the lives of thousands of evacuees and creating plumes of toxic smoke dirtying the air in major cities like Toronto and New York.  While some politicians claim the out-of-control wildfires are being primari…

Real change occurs in America when civic pressures from outside the centers of influence force insiders to retreat. Arguably the most compelling example of systemic change in how a state could operate is now unfolding in Iowa. Severe water contamination from crop and livestock production linked to the nation’s second highest and fastest rising incidence […] The post Toxic Terrain: How Journalism …

NORTHWEST INDIANA — The defining scenes of the era of artificial intelligence look nothing like science fiction. They are bright yellow, neon orange, dusty, sweaty, greasy, and loud.  They are excavators parked in a tallgrass field in rural Indiana. They are backhoes trundling down an Ohio farming town’s lone road. They are the neon vests […] The post Inside America’s First Data Center-Only Utili…

COLUMBUS, Oh. — After months of deliberation, Ohio’s Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) has decided not to move forward with a proposed general permit that would have allowed all data centers across the state — regardless of their size, location, or type — to discharge untreated waste- and stormwater directly into waterways.  The decision follows a […] The post Ohio Scraps Controversial Plan …