High Country News

A citizen activist forces New Mexico's dairies to clean up their act

When a giant dairy proposed building near Jerry Nivens' beloved New Mexico home, the chain-smoking Texas hermit became an activist who organized other locals to fight the industry.

by Stephanie Paige Ogburn, Dec 05, 2011
Relicensing dams hangs on warm water, endangered fish

Idaho Power Company needs permits from Idaho, Oregon and the federal government

by Ken Olsen, Jan 30, 2008
Oregon ignores logging road runoff, to the peril of native fish

Oregon has long refused to regulate sediment runoff from logging roads as pollution under the Clean Water Act. Now, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide what the state should do.

by Joshua Zaffos, Jul 27, 2012
States tighten rules, challenge feds to follow

The state of California pioneered pollution-control efforts decades ago in response to L.A. smog, and today, the Western states are hoping to set the course for national action on climate change

by Michelle Nijhuis, Mar 06, 2006
The Latest Bounce

EPA abandons attempt to regulate hydraulic fracturing; BLM briefly cuts forestry school funding and Republican Rep. Greg Walden grills logging critic Dan Donato; California regulator tries to stop ecological crash in San Francisco Bay-Delta

by Matt Jenkins, Mar 20, 2006
Leaky border

Efforts to stop wastewater pollution from Tijuana have bogged down in a nasty mess.

by Rob Davis, Sep 12, 2008
Water-quality standards unfairly burden rural communities

The plight of a small water and sewer association in rural Mora, N.M -- caught in a tangle of federal and state clean water rules it can’t afford to meet -- echoes experienced by other rural communities around the West.

by Judith Lewis Mernit, Dec 20, 2011
Excremental gains?

Kern County, Calif., is trying to prevent Los Angeles sludge from entering the county, where it is used to fertilize farmland, and the resulting stink is raising all kinds of questions about how we handle human waste

by Matt Jenkins, Dec 25, 2006
Non-navigable River Blues

An obscure legal ruling muddied U.S. water-protection standards, leaving Western intermittent streams and rivers unprotected.

by Tony Davis, Feb 02, 2009
Brace yourselves for the counterrevolution

Don’t worry so much about what President Bush will do to the environment; worry instead about the three new justices he might put on the Supreme Court

by Jon Margolis, Dec 06, 2004