Wildfires in Wyoming and across the West are creating bigger impacts on snowpack supplying farms, energy production and drinking water for millions of downstream users, according to a new study.
Steven Fassnacht, professor of snow hydrology at Colorado State University and the report's co-author, said the 2020 Mullen Fire in southern Wyoming and Cameron Peak Fire in Colorado were both very large fires destroying forests in places which have historically not seen fires spark or spread.
"They were burning at this high elevation where the snowpack is deep," Fassnacht observed. "They burned up there not because of a lack of snow; they burned because of a lack of rain in the summer."
Researchers found snow in wildfire-burned locations is now melting roughly three weeks earlier than normal, and Fassnacht explained as climate change expands fire zones into more snow areas, water managers and others may need to make adjustments. Increasing storage capacity can help capture melting snowpack, and managers can also re-time water releases from reservoirs to be in sync with time-sensitive users including farms.
Instead of less-than-precise tools such as snow courses and SNOTEL stations to estimate annual water supplies, Fassnacht urged managers to tap technologies including LIDAR, which works like radar using light instead of radio waves to measure snowpack, and new modeling, which can better calculate actual water volumes.
"We need to use multiple tools from our toolbox to better manage the water," Fassnacht emphasized. "One is the storage, and two is the information of how much is there, and how much is actually coming into the system?"
After the Cameron Peak fire, the city of Fort Collins was forced to cut off water coming down the mountain because it was filled with ash and soot. Wildfires also can increase landslides in watersheds, which Fassnacht pointed out can harm fish habitat and water quality for downstream users.
"Especially municipalities, especially for residential water use downstream of any of these fires," Fassnacht asserted. "The ash is very difficult to treat in water treatment plants."
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A new study by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality found nitrate levels have continued to rise across the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area.
The report found about 40% of the wells tested exceed the limit of safe nitrate levels for drinking water. Exposure to nitrates can lead to blue baby syndrome, birth defects, thyroid problems and cancer, among other things.
Kaleb Lay, director of policy and research for the advocacy group Oregon Rural Action, said the state has known about the high levels of nitrate in the area for decades but has not done enough to address the issue.
"The state's approach has been basically just voluntary measures to reduce groundwater pollution," Lay explained. "Unsurprisingly, what we've seen ever since is nitrate levels continue to go up."
Lay pointed out synthetic fertilizer, liquefied manure and wastewater are the main sources of nitrate pollution in groundwater. Factory farms, including a major dairy supplying the brand Tillamook, spread their waste on Oregon fields. Lay added the contamination disproportionately impacts low-income Hispanic communities, many of whom work on the polluting farms.
Oregon Rural Action started testing wells in 2022, Lay noted, and has found disturbing levels of contamination.
"Hundreds of people were drinking water that was polluted by nitrates and had no idea," Lay reported. "They hadn't been warned about it."
A good place to start reining in the problem, according to Lay, is to collect more data. Senate Bill 747 would require farms 200 acres or larger to report how much fertilizer they use. It would allow the state to identify overuse and advise where farmers could use less fertilizer.
In written testimony, Oregon farmers opposed to the bill said they do not overuse fertilizer and are burdened by too many regulations.
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Legal action continues in efforts at cleaning up a portion of Ohio's waterways.
The Ohio EPA has been added as a defendant, along with the U.S. EPA, in a lawsuit filed by the Board of Lucas County Commissioners, the City of Toledo, and the Environmental Law and Policy Center, arguing the two agencies failed to have an effective plan to prevent dangerous amounts of phosphorus from occupying Lake Erie. Phosphorus produces cyanobacteria which appears in water as blue-green or brownish algae.
Sandy Bihn, executive director of the nonprofit Lake Erie waterkeeper, calls the EPA's control plan ineffective.
"We've got now, just in the last two years, an increase of 100,000 cattle coming into the Maumee watershed, most of it unpermitted, piles of manure on the ground here, there, and everywhere," Bihn pointed out. "You can actually physically see the manure running off into the streams."
Bihn noted commercial fertilizer phosphorus use has decreased by almost 40% but livestock is increasing and with that comes more manure runoff. She stressed the agencies being sued are more focused on the phosphorus in farmers' chemical fertilizers.
With the reduction in phosphorus, farmers are still having good yields. However, the number of livestock increases, which creates more untreated manure that seeps into nearby land and water. Excessive phosphorus pollution is joined by E. coli bacteria, pathogens, and other harmful pollutants in Ohio waterways and streams.
"About 90% of it is from runoff from the fields; agricultural runoff, and the two major sources of that are commercial fertilizer and manure," Bihn explained. "The path to reducing those harmful algal blooms is simply to reduce the sources, which is not something the programs are focusing on."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said swallowing water, eating fish or blue-green algae supplements contaminated with cyanobacteria can damage a person's liver and central nervous system or cause death.
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The Eastern hellbender, North America's largest salamander and Pennsylvania's state amphibian, is one step closer to receiving federal protection.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing listing the species as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
Kassie Fenn, Pennsylvania student leadership and education coordinator for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said their student leadership program's research and advocacy efforts led to the Eastern hellbender becoming Pennsylvania's state amphibian in 2019. She added protecting ecosystems and habitat for the hellbender will also protect habitat for other organisms.
"It's really important for the Eastern hellbender to make it on the endangered species list," Fenn emphasized. "Not only will it draw attention to the hellbender habitat, but it will also draw attention to fresh water habitats in general, and the importance of clean water and the impact it has on ecosystems."
Fenn pointed out the public has until Feb. 11 to submit comments. She noted the Chesapeake Bay Foundation recommends people sign onto its online letter, while high school students can draft their own. Comments can be submitted online.
Fenn highlighted the strong link between the Eastern hellbender and water quality, especially in relation to outdoor recreation.
"A lot of anglers in Pennsylvania love to fish for trout, either through fly-fishing or with their spinning rods," Fenn observed. "Trout really need those clean waterways and healthy waterways to survive and thrive, just like our Eastern hellbender. "
Eastern hellbenders can grow up to 29 inches and have been known to live 30 years. Fenn said evidence shows the Eastern hellbender inhabits certain streams, particularly in western Pennsylvania, although its historical range is much broader, extending into the southeastern United States.
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