NEW HOPE, Pa. -- A dam removal project is having a positive impact on the Delaware River's ecosystem, including a boost to the population of migratory fish.
Removal of the Columbia dam on the Paulins Kill in New Jersey has given migrating shad and sea lamprey access to 20 miles of spawning waterways that had been inaccessible for a century.
Shad are especially important for fishing in the Delaware where there are shad festivals and fishing contests.
But Beth Styler Barry, director of river restoration for The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey, points out that people aren't the only ones who will benefit from increasing the number of fish in the river.
"More shad means more food for things like eagles, heron, bears, otter," she states. "It brings an additional source of nutrition to the entire ecosystem."
Removing the dam also made it possible to restore 32 acres of floodplain that had been covered by the water behind the dam.
Kent Smith, chief of the steering committee for the Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership, says the dam removal project on the Paulins Kill is a good example of restoring what environmentalists call white water-to-blue water connectivity.
"You allow for natural tidal cycles," he explains. "Freshwater lenses can flow out over the surface of the estuaries and animals like American shad have the ability to move into their freshwater habitat to complete their life cycle."
Shad started returning to the area less than three weeks after dam removal was completed last year and this year breeding sea lampreys also have been observed.
Barry points out that the restoration brings a number of environmental benefits including washing away built-up sediment and improved water quality.
"The Delaware as a whole is continuing to improve as an ecosystem and, especially as climate changes, the cooler water will be more and more important not only for spawning and feeding but for the temperature refuge," she states.
Two more dams on the Paulins Kill will be removed over the next two years, giving migrating fish access to 45 miles of rivers for spawning and improved habitat for resident species.
Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
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A new film documents the 2018 battle between Colorado environmentalists and the oil and gas industry over proposed fracking regulations.
The film also documents a grassroots effort by Colorado Rising to pass a ballot initiative which would create a 2,500-foot setback for all hydraulic fracturing wells in the state, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Sarah Schulte, organizing committee member of GreenFaith Boulder County, which recently previewed the film for about 100 members, said the film has a strong message.
"What probably makes the film pretty dramatic and kind of shocking is the length to which oil and natural gas industries in Colorado set out to thwart them," Schulte pointed out. "Not only with some of the tactics you might expect, but also some kind of more nefarious tactics sabotaging their signature gathering, for example."
In the end, the petroleum industry defeated the measure after a $50 million campaign opposing it. Schulte acknowledged Colorado Rising raised only $1 million for its campaign. After the election, the state adopted a 1,000-foot drilling setback from schools and residential property lines.
Hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, involves drillers injecting a mixture of chemicals underground to break up the shale and free the oil. The chemicals used in the process, which are sometimes toxic, can pollute groundwater and make the surrounding land unstable.
Schulte emphasized the movie had a powerful effect on the group's members.
"I think most people were pretty angry and maybe even a little sad after seeing how these kinds of politics play out in Colorado," Schulte observed. "They asked questions like what can we do next? How do you keep going when it's so difficult to fight such a big and powerful industry?"
The film, Fracking the System: Colorado's Oil and Gas Wars, is currently being previewed by select audiences. It has won the "Spirit of Activism" award at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival
and the "Environmental Award" at the 2024 DOCUTAH International Film Festival.
Disclosure: GreenFaith contributes to our fund for reporting on Climate Change/Air Quality, Energy Policy, and Environmental Justice. If you would like to help support news in the public interest,
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As part of an effort to restore the Mississippi River delta, an organization is collaborating with nature to address environmental challenges.
The Big Muddy is the second-longest river in North America, flowing more than 2,300 miles.
Simone Maloz, campaign director for the group Restore the Mississippi River Delta, said the coalition uses nature-based solutions to help tackle some of the river's environmental problems in Louisiana and Mississippi.
"We use the power and the sediment the river provides to help us to put solutions into place," Maloz explained. "For example, we might have an area of wetlands that needs to be nourished with freshwater sediment, we can tap into that wonderful resource that we have."
Maloz pointed out some farmers are turning to nature-based solution, using cover crops like clover or other plants to protect the soil. Cover crops typically grow in between primary crops, or are planted in the offseason to help keep nutrients on the ground so they do not become toxic in the water as runoff.
Maloz emphasized nature-based solutions are key to building resilient communities, which she said are those communities thinking about how to plan for climate change, such as floods, droughts, and rising sea levels, wildfires, hurricanes and coastal threats.
"What we know about resilient communities, whether you're on the coast, or whether you're not on the coast, is about how you can brace yourself for these impacts and how you can more quickly recover," Maloz stressed. "We know that when you include nature in those plans, it helps you to better do that."
Maloz added her group is involved in various projects along the Mississippi River, using sediment to replenish marshes, rebuild ridges and barrier islands and create habitats for migratory birds.
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The Iowa Environmental Council has petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to invoke emergency powers to protect sensitive soil and groundwater in northeast Iowa.
The council is holding a public webinar today and wants the EPA to address groundwater contamination in northeast Iowa's so-called Driftless region. The groundwater there has a well-documented history of nitrate contamination.
Alicia Vasto, director of water program for the council, said the highly porous and soluble karst soil prevalent in the region is susceptible to contamination from centralized animal feeding operations.
"We did some analyses of private well data and public water systems and found that there was a lot of contamination of nitrate in those drinking water sources," Vasto reported. "The state has really failed to take action meaningfully that would address those problems."
The state has said it is constantly working to upgrade groundwater quality standards and is in the process of taking public input on creating yet another set of rules.
Vasto emphasized since the state has failed to address the water safety concerns for decades, the council and a coalition of other environmental groups have, in effect, gone above the state's head to the EPA, asking the agency to implement an emergency stop gap on nitrate pollution the way the agency did in neighboring Minnesota last year.
"We're asking that at, at minimum, the EPA would require the state of Iowa to do what they required the state of Minnesota to do under the same petition," Vasto explained. "Because the geology of northeast Iowa is the same as of southeast Minnesota."
The council's recommendations include calling on the EPA to create a communications plan with residents whose water could be at risk, create a drinking water sampling plan, and establishing a thorough permitting process for centralized animal feeding operations.
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