Launch of Center for Land and Water Policy celebrated in Arizona.
PHOENIX, May 2, 2017 — The Lincoln Institute today announced the establishment of the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy, the centerpiece of a new initiative to integrate land use planning and the management of an increasingly scarce resource.
The Center, which will be based in Phoenix, is named for Bruce Babbitt, former Arizona governor, Interior secretary, and longtime board member of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
An initial activity will be to develop a map, using satellite imagery, for selected tributaries of the Colorado River Basin.
"We seek to help state and local officials integrate land and water policies across an entire geography, to imagine better futures."
At the same time the Babbitt Center is launched, the longstanding joint program between the Lincoln Institute and the Sonoran Institute, previously known as Western Lands and Communities and now renamed Resilient Communities and Watersheds, will aim to better integrate land use planning and water management at the local level.
Ultimately, it is hoped that the Babbitt Center will become a hub that connects the people and practices of the arid American West to people and practices in the rest of the world.
"The Lincoln Institute has emphasized the importance of land and land policy in addressing the world’s toughest problems, and the stewardship of water resources is at the top of the list.
"We are optimistic as we all share the goal of ensuring water for future generations," said Holway, formerly director of the Lincoln Institute-Sonoran Institute joint program and assistant director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, who currently serves on the board of the Central Arizona Project.
SOURCE Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

The problem began about eight years ago when the leaves of his newly planted cherry orchard started turning brown, Hopkins said.
Soon the almond trees followed.
His irrigation water contained the very same salty compounds found in the wastewater produced by dozens of nearby oil wells.
State regulators told Hopkins the wastewater injection well right across the street from his farm couldn’t be to blame, because it was abandoned years ago.
According to the lawsuit, abandoned injection wells reach into the same area deep underground where dozens of other active wells are injecting wastewater.
"Nobody is testing the water wells nearby, even though the Division of Oil and Gas knows there are multiple farmers complaining," Oliver said.
The Division of Oil and Gas that oversees the drilling, operation and abandonment of oil wells and injection wells in California also turned down an interview request, sending CBS San Francisco instead to the State Water Resources Control Board.
Jonathan Bishop, the department’s chief deputy director, is assisting the Division of Oil and Gas in a federally mandated review of hundreds of injection wells that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined could potentially be contaminating California’s drinking water supplies.
Back at the farm, attorney Patricia Oliver predicted things are just going to get worse.
Meanwhile Mike Hopkins has planted pistachios on the field where his cherry trees once blossomed.

South Beloit moves toward plant loan.
SOUTH BELOIT — The South Beloit City Council took a preliminary step in applying for an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Water Pollution Control Loan to assist in financing a new wastewater treatment plant.
City Attorney Roxanne Sosnowski told council members at their meeting Monday the city engineering firm, Fehr Graham, now will prepare a loan application to be submitted to the program.
Once terms of a loan have been finalized, the agreement will come back to the city council for review and final approval.
No amount or terms for repayment have been presented yet, said council member Linda Chambers.
The city is planning to construct a new wastewater treatment plant with an estimated cost of $27.8 million.
City officials have talked about a new sewer plant for at least eight years as previous and current city council members have argued the current facility is outdated and not effective to handle future needs of the citys population or business community.
The sewer plant was built in 1955 with expansions in 1968, 1977 and 1986.
He said the sewer plant is handling about 3.5 million gallons a day currently when it was taking in about 2 million gallons a day at this time last year.
Reininger said the groundwater leaking into the sanitary sewer system is most likely not coming from the areas that recently were repaired, but there may be new leaks.

The Trump administration got an earful Tuesday from people who say federal rules limiting air and water pollution aren’t tough enough, even as it was seeking suggestions about what environmental regulations it should gut.
The Environmental Protection Agency held a three-hour "virtual listening session" on Tuesday to collect public comments by phone about which clean water regulations should be targeted for repeal, replacement or modification.
The call was part of the agency’s response to President Donald Trump’s order to get rid of regulations that are burdensome to business and industry.
"I actually enjoy breathing clean air and drinking clean water and would find it quite burdensome not to," said Emily Key, who identified herself as a citizen worried about what cancer-causing chemicals children may be exposed to.
"I’m from Pittsburgh, where our skies were dark at noon and people changed their shirts at lunch because they were filthy from the smoke from the mills," Doug Blair told EPA.
"I oppose any rollback of environmental protections premised on the ‘jobs vs. the environment’ dilemma.
Since his appointment by Trump, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has been accepting confidential petitions from lawyers and lobbyists for businesses asking him to eliminate regulations affecting their profits.
An example came last month when Pruitt acted against the recommendations of his own agency’s scientists to reverse an Obama-era effort to bar the use of a widely-used pesticide on fruits and vegetables.
Recent peer-reviewed studies found that even tiny levels of exposure of Dow Chemcial’s chlorpyrifos could hinder the development of children’s brains.
In his prior job as Oklahoma’s attorney general, Pruitt often aligned himself in legal disputes with the interests of executives and corporations who supported his state campaigns.

KCC: Dow water pollution will not affect sports complex construction.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha County Commission says West Virginia State University’s lawsuit against Dow Chemical in connection with alleged groundwater contamination will not stop the commission’s exploration of a multi-sports complex at nearby Shawnee Park.
“There’s no health risk to those who are actually playing at the golf course located next door in Institute and there doesn’t appear to be any reason to delay the project for the sports complex,” Commissioner Ben Salango told 580-WCHS Monday afternoon.
The commission and Kanawha County Parks released a joint statement Monday.
Salango said they remain committed to the Institute community to provide recreational opportunities.
It’s also important for the youth in Kanawha County to be able to play there — baseball, lacrosse, football, soccer, those types of sports — so we want to move forward with the project,” he said.
Salango said while “it’s not a surprise there are chemicals in the chemical valley,” he believes WVSU did what it had to do to take protective measures.
The lawsuit, he said, has not created an issue between Dow and the county.
“I don’t think the county’s relationship with Dow has been damaged,” he said.
“This is an issue between West Virginia State and Dow.” A Dow spokesperson previously said in a statement, “It is unfortunate the university chose this path, given our partnership with them over many years.” The county has contacted the state DEP to obtain additional information and studies regarding underground water issues at the school’s campus.

Nickel shriek turns to shrug as Philippines dithers on audit.
In 2016, prices of the metal used mostly to harden stainless steel surged the most in two years after the Philippine government said it would shut down mines blamed for water pollution and denuded forests as part of an environmental audit of about 300 open pits.
“It’s taken such a long time for the Philippines to make the final decision, and in the meantime the market has changed,” Peter Peng, a nickel analyst in CRU Group’s Beijing office said by phone.
An avowed anti-mining crusader, Ms. Lopez ordered the closure of eight mines that month, and by the end of the year, nickel prices had surged almost 25%, touching a 16-month high of $12,145 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange.
Mr. Duterte hasn’t indicated how or when he will decide.
And while he has vowed to make quick decisions on matters brought to his attention, Ms. Lopez has claimed that appeals already filed with the President’s office haven’t reached him yet.
The Mining Industry Coordinating Council will check whether the orders were carried out with due process, one of the mining companies’ chief complaints.
Nickel traded on the London Metal Exchange has given up all its gains, dropping to $9,230 a metric ton last week, the lowest since before Ms. Lopez announced her audit, as the prospect of more Indonesia supply collides with signs of peaking demand from the Chinese steel sector.
“The market would certainly still need to re-price based on a particularly tight market even with weaker demand growth.” Ms. Lopez’ own future as environment secretary hangs in the balance.
She still remains determined to censure the miners and has now signed an order banning open-pit mining for new projects.

SPOKANE, Wash. — Toxic mine pollution is no longer flowing into Washington state’s picturesque Lake Chelan for the first time in nearly 60 years because of a $500 million cleanup to contain contamination from the a mine, officials said this week.
The payoff of the mine cleanup means that clean water now flows into a creek that feeds the lake, a prime recreation destination, said Kari Grover Wier, district ranger for the Wenatchee National Forest, where the lake is located.
The Holden Mine operated from 1938 to 1957, extracting copper, zinc, gold and silver.
It was abandoned in 1957, but continued to contaminate the environment with toxic metals including aluminum, cadmium, copper, iron and zinc.
The metals also created a hazardous, hard orange coating on the creek’s streambed.
Unstable waste rock and tailings piles from about 10 million tons of mined ore further compounded the problem, the U.S. Forest Service said.
No taxpayer funds were used, the Forest Service said.
As part of the project, a 30-to-90 foot (9-to-27 meters) concrete barrier wall was erected between toxic mine tailings piles and Railroad Creek to prevent runoff.
Thousands of gallons of contaminated ground water are also treated daily at a plant on the site.
The cleanup spending sent about $240 million into the local economies because much of the work was performed by people and businesses in the area, the Forest Service said.

News Food | Media Release Center for Food Safety, Kupale Ookala will take megadairy to court for polluting HI waters.
"The residents of Ookala were disappointed that the State Department of Health and Department of Agriculture didn’t take action in 2014 when reports from an investigation clearly showed wrongdoing by the Big Island Dairy.
Our community is standing strong and we want to be in the driver’s seat so we can hold this polluter accountable and protect our community," said Charlene Nishida, member of the community group Kupale Ookala.
Intensive confined animal operations like Big Island Dairy have devastating environmental and human health impacts, and our local communities unfairly must bear the brunt of those harms," said Dr. Ashley Lukens, Director of the Hawai’i Center for Food Safety.
Any unpermitted discharge from Big Island Dairy would violate state and federal water pollution laws.
"The Clean Water Act prohibits Big Island Dairy from releasing animal waste pollution," said Sylvia Wu of the Center for Food Safety and attorney for the groups.
"These laws and regulations are in place to protect our communities and waterways, and it is time for the Big Island Dairy to play by the rules."
"The Clean Water Act provides communities such as Ookala the means to protect themselves.
### Center for Food Safety’s mission is to empower people, support farmers, and protect the earth from the harmful impacts of industrial agriculture.
Twitter: @CFSTrueFood

REPORT: Nearly One in Four Americans’ Drinking Water Comes from Untested or Contaminated Systems.
“America is facing a nationwide drinking water crisis that goes well beyond lead contamination,” said Erik Olson, Health Program Director at NRDC and a report co-author.
We take it for granted that when we turn on our kitchen tap, the water will be safe and healthy, but we have a long way to go before that is reality across our country.” “Threats on Tap: Widespread Violations Highlight Need for Investment in Water Infrastructure and Protections” found nearly 80,000 violations impacting drinking water systems in every state, but under-reporting and lax enforcement could mean the number of violations is much higher.
Trump’s Cuts to EPA’s Budget Would Make it Worse for Rural America President Trump’s proposed budget for the EPA would make our failing drinking water system worse.
NRDC’s report shows that even at its current level of funding, the EPA and states are doing an inadequate job of monitoring, testing, and enforcing safe drinking water laws.
The Trump budget also proposes to eliminate all $498 million dollars in funding for rural drinking water and wastewater systems from the Department of Agriculture.
Small systems have the highest percentage of water violations, and it’s largely due to financial and technical capacity issues that will only get worse when the EPA cuts drinking water programs,” said Mae Wu, Senior Attorney with NRDC’s Health program.
Beyond regulated contaminants, which are the focus of this report, many more unregulated contaminants are also found in drinking water.
The EPA has not set a single standard for a new drinking water contaminant since the law was amended in 1996 to change the way new contaminants are regulated.
Safeguarding our Tap Water Investing and improving infrastructure and enforcing the drinking water laws are solutions that will make a difference.

Photo: COB Brookhaven, GA, May 2, 2017 – The Post Reports – The City of Brookhaven announced Monday they have closed on and now owns the “PDK Greenspace”.
on the outer edge of the Ashford Park Neighborhood.
“This is an exciting milestone for Brookhaven and its residents who worked so tirelessly to preserve Brookhaven’s green and vibrant environment,” said Brookhaven Mayor John Ernst in the release.
“We still have work to do to ensure that the property is safe for all residents to enjoy, but I’m looking forward to exploring this greenspace with my sons when it opens.” For the first 5-years of the loan, the City explains they will utilize $2.4 million in proceeds from the sale of land at Skyland Park to the DeKalb County School System for a new John Lewis Elementary School, to pay the note.
frontage as a staging area for maintenance equipment.
The City says they are already looking for a place to relocate the staging area to.
While the City now owns the property, the land will remain closed to the public throughout the summer so staff and community partners can address site environmental remediation, cleanup and safety issues.
Now, Brookhaven is solely responsible for the future of this priceless urban forest.” The CWSRF, is as a federal loan program administered by GEFA, and provides communities throughout Georgia with low-interest loans to fund wastewater infrastructure and water pollution control projects.
These projects conserve and improve water resources, and facilitate economic growth, and development.
Low-interest loans from this program are available up to $25 million.” The GEFA loan awarded to Brookhaven includes $500,000 in principal forgiveness, for the financing of the PDK Greenspace.