Mississippi River Basin Water Resource Weekly News

~Virtual Newspaper for an Aquatic World~

This Week and Next

Here is the link to a one-paragraph summary of what we learned this past week; a week in which an algal bloom research bill passed Congress, but also one when partisanship, a veto threat and specious amendments stalled an already moribund Federal appropriations process (also see below, under "Federal Budget").  And here a link to next week's Mississippi River Basin-related Congressional schedule, one packed relatively full with hearings and bill mark-ups, including a bill to "prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from proposing, finalizing, or disseminating regulations or assessments based upon science that is not transparent or reproducible," and a hearing on “new Federal schemes to soak up water authority."  (It's not that we're counting, but there are 136 days until the U.S. mid-term elections, and only about 32 of those days will be active legislative days on the House calendar).

Noteworthy @UpperMiss Twitter Postings for the Week

Water Quality -

• LEAD STORY: House Ag Committee members challenge USDA role in proposed Clean Water Act rule as Senators draft bill to block it http://ow.ly/yfVkM
• LEAD STORY: Senate Republicans introduce bill to block EPA's proposed clarification of the Clean Water Act jurisdiction http://ow.ly/yfTRY (bill link: http://ow.ly/yfTX1)
• LEAD STORY: USDA finds little support for Clean Water Act agricultural practices interpretive rule on either side of the aisle http://ow.ly/yej7r
• House Agriculture Subcommittee Examines Impact of EPA Water Rule on Agricultural Producers (Committee release and links to testimony) http://ow.ly/yewcv
• Senate unanimously passes legislation to study and combat algae blooms, sends it to President for signature http://ow.ly/ydreF
• EPA's April 7 webinar on the Waters of the U.S. proposed rule has been posted online http://ow.ly/ydqqm
• MPR News: Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program rewards farmers who keep pollutants from waterways http://ow.ly/xZmIX
• New USGS report on elevated surface water dissolved solids concentrations; dominant sources contributing to high TDS http://ow.ly/y7Ql9 (see related webinar under "Events")
• House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.): EPA Waters of the United States rule will “drown” farmers in regulations http://ow.ly/y7SMS
• Los Angeles Times editorial board calls proposed "Waters of the U.S." Clean Water Act jurisdiction rule "sensible" http://ow.ly/ydwME
• New study identifies five Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota metro lakes in need of restoration or protection http://ow.ly/y7VXX
• Cities like Des Moines often send nitrate downstream after removing it from drinking water through treatment http://ow.ly/y8IhJ
• WildEarth Guardians lawsuit charges Western Sugar with polluting the South Platte River http://ow.ly/yaTf7
• Missouri Attorney General files suit against Tyson Foods over state costs, natural resource damages from fish kill http://ow.ly/yb1ig (also see: http://ow.ly/yb1Dc)
• Blue-Green Algae Blooms Appearing in Southern Wisconsin Lakes, Will Continue Northward http://t.co/HKYgVPVYu3
• Harmful algal blooms making "comeback" in Kentucky waters http://ow.ly/ydEQu
• Spring 2014 Hypoxia Task Force Public Meeting website has been updated with presentations from the meeting http://ow.ly/ygVvY

Water Resource Management (Floodplains, Dams, Navigation, Wetlands, Flooding, Supplies, etc.) -

• Interested parties can access community-specific FEMA Preliminary Flood Hazard Data at this site: http://ow.ly/yfSsz
• Minnesota River keeps on rising; expected to crest at 27.5 feet by next Monday in Jordan http://ow.ly/y8HsR
• Army Corps reduces releases from Gavins Point Dam following heavy rain across parts of the Missouri River Basin http://ow.ly/yaQOH
• Department of Energy report: Problems with water scarcity and uncertainty are becoming more prominent http://ow.ly/ydqPC

Agriculture -

• USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service: Agricultural Land Values Final Estimates 2009-13 http://ow.ly/yfW4R
• Weekly USDA Column: Local Markets, Local Growth http://ow.ly/xZjOD focuses on work to boost local food economies http://ow.ly/xZkeG
• World Resources Institute's second and third papers in  3-part series on better targeting of U.S. farm conservation funds http://ow.ly/y7U3o (Related webinar on Thursday, June 26,  noon to 1:30 pm EDT http://ow.ly/y7UnI)
• USDA Natural Resource Conservation to begin accepting applications to re-enroll in the Conservation Stewardship Program on July 11 http://ow.ly/y82oJ
• Application for nearly 2,500-head hog confinement feeding operation in Iowa stirs up opposition http://ow.ly/y85Bv
• Senate Agriculture Committee hosts hearing showcasing homegrown biobased products and companies that make them http://ow.ly/yaHVh
• EPA likely will not issue final 2014 Renewable Fuels Standard volume requirements this week as the agency had planned http://ow.ly/yfWrL

Climate and Weather -

• NOAA National Drought Summary: Great Plains conditions unchanged; significant Midwest drought  improvement, although long-term precipitation deficits linger in west-central Iowa http://ow.ly/wmTdv
• EPA officially publishes Obama administration's climate rule in Federal Register, kicking off 120-day comment period http://ow.ly/ydp1K

Biodiversity, Wildlife and Invasives -

• American burying beetles in Missouri may be "digging" their way off the endangered species list http://ow.ly/y83Mg



An adult male of the fish-eating Ancylometes genus

• Environmental groups file lawsuit challenging Interior Department listing of lesser prairie chicken as "threatened" instead of "endangered" http://ow.ly/yaP9i
• Western Illinois University faculty researching ways to mitigate Asian carp in the upper Mississippi River basin http://ow.ly/yaRoN
• Wisconsin DNR expects that Upper Mississippi River habitat restoration project will wrap up by September http://ow.ly/yaSrd
• Fish-eating spiders reported worldwide (except Antarctica), including hatchery rearing ponds in Oklahoma and Tennessee http://ow.ly/ye5rm (direct link to journal article: http://ow.ly/ye5Ak)

In the Cities -

• Kansas City, MO http://ow.ly/yaDuR Springfield, IL http://ow.ly/yaDyj Louisville, KY http://ow.ly/yaDAw make livability.com list of top ten green cities
• Chattanooga leaders want to accelerate adoption of new stormwater standards to improve green infrastructure practices http://ow.ly/yaEac
• Movement hopes to transform New Orleans from a city that recoils from water to one that embraces it http://ow.ly/yaEvI

Louisiana Coastal Region-

• Louisiana: one of the fastest disappearing land masses on earth: "a landscape and a way of life on  borrowed time" http://ow.ly/y8H2w
• Op-ed: Louisiana shrimp season threatened by dead zone fueled by US ethanol policy  http://ow.ly/y8HTX
• Here's a "drone's eye view" of New Orleans, Louisiana http://ow.ly/y7TDI (go here for interactive worldwide drone video map: http://ow.ly/y7THM)
• Scientists to release 4 torpedo-like, remote-controlled gliders into northern Gulf of Mexico to measure oxygen levels http://ow.ly/ydEqN

Federal Budget -

• Senate deadlocks over  three-bill appropriations package (including USDA and NOAA funding) after Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) insists that amendments clear a 60-vote threshold http://ow.ly/yfTq6
• Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development advances Army Corps' FY 2015 spending bill http://ow.ly/y8W1M - includes  $5.134 billion: increase of $601 million above President's budget request (subsequently, the full Committee markup scheduled for Thursday was cancelled)
• Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski delays action on key water and energy appropriations bill in the face of partisanship http://ow.ly/yfQYU
• White House veto threat led Senate Democratic appropriators to put energy-water spending bill on hold http://ow.ly/yeiCp
• House Appropriations Committee passes $34 billion spending bill for Army Corps of Engineers, Dept of Energy, other agencies http://ow.ly/ydrHX

Events -  Information on all past and future events listed here can be viewed in the on-line calendar (here as a stand-alone calendar)

• Webinar: Analyzing the Water-Energy Nexus: Case Studies that Examine Connection; June 30, 2-3:30 PM EDT http://ow.ly/y7S5R
• USGS Webinar: Human Actions Increase Salt Content in many of the Nation's Streams; July 22, 1-2:30 PM EDT register: http://ow.ly/y7QCu
• 2014 Water Education Summit: Think Globally - Act Locally; September 8-10, Asheville, NC www.h2osummit.org/

e-Newsletters, Publications, Journals, Multimedia  -

• 1 Mississippi campaign June Newsletter – Neighborhood Water Watch http://ow.ly/yfUqj
• Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's Waterfront Bulletin for June 2014  http://ow.ly/xZlV1
• Montana Watershed Coordination Council's June 12 http://ow.ly/xZkNQ and June 19  http://ow.ly/yfT6k Watershed News 
• The Horinko Group's June 2014 "Sustainabulletin" http://ow.ly/ydtz8
• Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy June 17 "TUWaterWays" e-newsletter http://ow.ly/ydG98
• Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's Watershed Network News - June 19 http://ow.ly/ydNEI

Other news-

• Scroll down this eleven-foot, 1866 Mississippi River map: http://ow.ly/y8ITP
• In U.S. and Canada, trains hauling crude oil from production hot spots like North Dakota’s Bakken region are spilling in record numbers http://ow.ly/yaCnN
• Newly published global Nielsen data indicate that significant percentage of consumers care about company social responsibility http://ow.ly/ydxpa
• America’s Waterway Blog: "Imagining the Internet & the Mississippi River" http://ow.ly/yewBG

Politics and People-

• Over a nine-day House Whip race, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.-1) cashed in on years of network building to win leadership position http://ow.ly/yfS0I and http://ow.ly/yfQ7U
• Six Republicans will face off next Tuesday after struggling to break through in primary race for open Oklahoma 5th District U.S. House seat http://ow.ly/yfUQb
• Businessperson Zach Dasher (R) announces he will run for Louisiana’s 5th District U.S. House seat http://ow.ly/y7PQ9
• Congressional job approval at 16%, on pace to be lowest in midterm election year since Gallup first measured in 1974 http://goo.gl/jE5YSU
• Control of U.S. Senate might not be decided until a Saturday three weeks before Christmas - in Louisiana runoff vote http://ow.ly/ydqjr
• GOP candidates for Iowa’s 3rd U.S. House District scramble for 513 delegates who vote Saturday for party’s nominee http://ow.ly/yg9NT

Last Word -

Photo (circa 1920) of a Mountaineer: Courtesy Kenneth
King West Virginia and Regional History Collection

"Montani semper liberi" (Mountaineers are always free) - the West Virginia state motto.  On June 20 in 1863 West Virginia (the "Mountain State") became the 35th state in the United States.