DENVER - The Obama Administration is calling for national coordinated action to address the growing threats to food supplies and local economies from widespread drought.
James Eklund, director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, is also Gov. John Hickenlooper's representative for the Colorado and Arkansas Rivers. He says western states experiencing a 16-year drought can use the help.
"We're seeing the effects of drought on an annual basis, if not a monthly and daily basis," says Eklund. "And so, we've got to make sure we're addressing what can be summarized as a natural disaster that just moves very, very slowly."
A memo sent this week outlined the need for coordinated action, part of the first White House National Water Summit in the nation's capital.
The event officially launched the National Drought Resilience Partnership, a multi-agency program rolled out as part of the administration's climate-change agenda.
Eklund notes Gov. Hickenlooper, as chair of the Western Governors Association, helped lead the charge to coordinate state work on water with federal agencies.
Eklund says those efforts shaped the new plan that will help some 13 agencies, including the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Interior, and the Environmental Protection Agency, pool their resources to focus on drought.
"To date, they've been largely siloed; they don't work together, especially to tackle drought," he says. "And what this memo signals is a willingness to really look at making sure that they're coordinated."
Eklund says Colorado's priority going forward is to intensify water conservation efforts.
He says by deploying cutting-edge technologies, it isn't "pie in the sky" for the state to save 400,000-acre-feet of water by the year 2035 through conservation alone.
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Michigan water rates have surged more than 40% since 2010, and it is a trend that's expected to continue as cities and utilities work to upgrade aging systems.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said people shouldn't be paying more than 4.5% of their monthly income for water and sewer services.
Monica Lewis-Patrick, co-founder, president and CEO of We the People of Detroit, said water rates can run as high as 25% of some households' income.
"When a person is spending that much just to access water, then we know some other things are being challenged," Lewis-Patrick explained. "In terms of their access to food, being able to pay their rent, clothing, medical needs, those kinds of things."
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill to invest nearly $280 million for water infrastructure projects, but Lewis-Patrick argued there is a lot more to be done.
If water rates rise at projected amounts in the next five years, the percentage of U.S. households finding their water bills unaffordable could triple, from almost 12% now, to more than 35%.
A 2021 report in the Journal of Public Health estimated 100,000 Detroit households had been disconnected from water and sanitation services since 2013.
Lewis-Patrick suggested people contact their state lawmakers to ask them to make water affordability a priority, and legislate lower-income households have water bills capped at no more than 3% of their income. She added families should also be protected from water shut-offs while they are going through the process to attain protections.
"We need our legislators and our governor to work in tandem," Lewis-Patrick stressed. "To make sure that we're not only ensuring that resources are going to the utilities, but we're ensuring there's a legislative protection that keeps water on for as many Michiganders as possible."
Last month, after years of public campaigns and $45 million in federal aid, the EPA confirmed Benton Harbor complies with safe water requirements. Almost all the system's pipes were replaced, but residents were told in the next five years, water bills will grow 10% annually.
It is estimated around 200 communities across Michigan are overburdened with the cost of their water infrastructure.
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With kids in South Dakota and around the nation back in school, the issue of whether all students and staff have access to safe drinking water remains a focal point of education and environmental groups. They want federal officials to update a key rule.
Organizations such as the National Parent Teacher Association and National Education Association have sent the Environmental Protection Agency a letter - asking it to bolster the Lead and Copper Rule, which regulates the levels of these contaminants in public drinking water.
Environment America signed on to the letter too, and the group's Clean Water Director John Rumpler said despite more awareness about the dangers, students and teachers still are at risk.
"What the data shows us, from the last few years," said Rumpler, "is that lead contamination of schools' drinking water is in fact, widespread."
Recent findings from his group show that more than 70% of schools in several states have confirmed instances of lead contamination.
The Biden administration is carrying out funding initiatives approved by Congress to remove lead pipes. That includes $426,000 to address the matter in South Dakota schools.
But Rumpler said updating the federal rule would compel more states, school boards and utilities to respond.
The agency is expected to consider the matter this fall, and advocates say they want the EPA to be aggressive.
Despite an overhaul of the Lead and Copper Rule in 2021, Rumpler still described it as "weak" in protecting kids. He added that this is not just a concern regarding schools that were built decades ago.
"The federal standards limiting the amount of lead in plumbing and faucets and fountains was only updated as recently as 2014," said Rumpler, "which means it's quite likely that school buildings that are only a decade old have a substantial threat of lead contamination."
The coalition says those materials should be replaced. Meanwhile, it says only schools that provide their own water are regulated under the federal rule.
For these buildings, the letter calls on the EPA to require filters to remove lead and set a one-part-per-billion limit on lead in water. They say those changes would also help guide school districts that use public water systems.
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Connecticut legislators and environmentalists are taking action against an invasive species in the Connecticut River.
Hydrilla was first identified in the waterway in 2016, and has slowly made its way to other parts of the state. Surveys done in 2019 and 2020 found the plant made its way as far as Agawam, Massachusetts. Now, the concern is it can lead to other waterways such as the Long Island Sound.
Rhea Drozdenko, river steward for the Connecticut River Conservancy, described the long-term effects Hydrilla can have.
"Hydrilla will completely outcompete any other native aquatic species including eelgrass, which is really beneficial for our native wildlife, our native fish," Drozdenko explained. "It can completely take over, replace all native plants with itself."
She pointed out the plant's decomposition at the end of the season consumes a lot of oxygen from the water column.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be applying nontoxic Rhodamine dye to different parts of the Connecticut River to learn more about how to maintain and eliminate the species. Site-specific treatment surveys will be done in fall 2024 to review the Hydrilla's condition.
Some short-term solutions being taken to battle Hydrilla include establishing benthic barriers along the Connecticut River and having boaters practice the clean, drain and dry method.
Drozdenko noted some of the challenges the species poses to the river.
"If a cove gets completely choked out by Hydrilla, no one's going to come and put their boat in there anymore," Drozdenko contended. "They're not going to come to that town. So, there's a lot of fears around economic and tourist loss."
The National Invasive Species Information Center finds most East Coast states have some form of Hydrilla in their waterways.
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