Part 1: Oregon County Faces Gas Industry Funding, Lobbyists in Battle to Halt Jordan Cove LNG Project

This Read the Dirt production was published by DeSmogBlog and Truthout. Scattered throughout Coos County, situated on Oregon’s southern coast, are signs [read more …]

Bottled Water Facility Stopped, Local Government Replaced

Editor’s Note: Citizens in Anacortes stopped what would have been North America’s largest bottled water facility. The locals engaged to vote out [read more …]

Washington State attempts to sell Columbia River water for $6 million

The appeal: state can’t sell rivers, favor corporate farms over family farms.   By Rachael Paschal Osborn and Lee Bernheisel, NAIADS   [read more …]

USA Refuses to Ban Atrazine

Editor’s Note: Atrazine is used in many herbicides in the USA. It is a known endocrine disruptor that reduces testosterone production and [read more …]

When Public Utility Districts Forget Who They Serve

Editor’s Note: Democracy, local Native culture, a Public Utility District and a dam are all converging in Okanogan County. Below is a [read more …]

Water Quality, Who Should Decide?

Editor’s Note: A written conversation between Read the Dirt editor Simon Davis-Cohen and John Osborn MD, Board President, Center for Environmental Law [read more …]

The Balancing Act: Exploring Water in the Skagit Basin

Photo: US Forest Service via Wikimedia Commons By Catherine Phelps, Intern, Center for Environmental Law and Policy Editor’s Note: If water is [read more …]

Water in the West: Diverse Tools for Conserving our Rivers and Communities

Photo: Trout Unlimited – Washington Water Project By: Szilvia Rideg, Project Associate, Trout Unlimited – Washington Water Project Nobody likes to see a [read more …]

Managing Many Waters the Walla Walla Way

Photo: Walla Walla Watershed Management Partnership By Cathy Schaeffer, Executive Director, Walla Walla Watershed Management Partnership Editor’s Note: An invaluable perspective on [read more …]

The Clean Water Act – A Story of Activism and Change

Photo: Courtesy of Puget Soundkeeper Alliance By Chris Wilke, Executive Director of Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and Pacific Regional Representative to the Waterkeeper [read more …]

Privatizing a Basic Human Right: Water

Photo: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons By Samuel Bliss Editor’s Note: One of our young and empowered voices—Samuel Bliss—gives us a run down [read more …]

A complicated situation: Lake Roosevelt and the Grand Coulee Dam

By Andy Dunau, Executive Director of the Lake Roosevelt Forum, President of Dunau Associates, Executive Director for the Spokane River Forum and [read more …]

Bottle the Skagit River?

By Sandra Spargo, Defending Water in the Skagit River Basin, The Alliance for Democracy Editor’s Note: Sandra Spargo, a dedicated citizen, clues [read more …]

One Step Back for Clean Water in the Boise River

By John Robison, Public Lands Director of Idaho Conservation League. Editor’s Note: The Boise River watershed is the source of drinking water [read more …]

If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It: Portland’s Water System

By Jeffrey Boly,  one of the founders of the Friends of the Reservoirs, Neighborhood Association Board President and Westside leader of the [read more …]

Protecting Our Region From Hanford’s Spreading of Contamination and From Being Used (Again) as a National Radioactive Waste Dump

By Gerry Pollet, JD.  Gerry Pollet is Executive Director of Heart of America Northwest, a 16,000 member citizens’ group which is widely [read more …]

New Gold Rush Threatens the West

By Gary Macfarlane, a native of the interior West. He graduated from Utah State University’s College of Natural Resources about 30 years [read more …]

America’s Antiquated Mining Policy

Photo: Miners operate a hydraulic sluice in San Francisquito Canyon, Los Angeles County, California between 1890 and 1900 (Wikimedia Commons). Editor’s note: [read more …]

Drinking Water in Bellingham and much of Whatcom County

An introduction to Lake Whatcom By April J. Markiewicz, Associate Director/Toxicologist II, Institute of Environmental Toxicology at Huxley College of the Environment, [read more …]

Thurston County Hydrologic Cycle

Editor’s Note: The graph above documents the highest rainfall event for the given years at the Olympia, WA airport. By Nadine Romero, [read more …]

River Watch-Thomas Creek

By Christine Woodward, Director of Natural Resources, Samish Indian Nation Thomas Creek is a tributary to the Samish River in Skagit County [read more …]

Water Wealth

By Rick Glenn The 20th century was an era of tremendous economic growth in the United States.  Horses were replaced by automobiles, [read more …]

River Watch-The Teanaway

Restoring Flows and Fish in the Teanaway River Since 1999, Washington Water Trust (WWT) has been quietly restoring stream flows in the [read more …]

Why Conserve Water in the Pacific Northwest?

By Janet Nazy, Executive Director, Partnership for Water Conservation We live in the rainy Pacific Northwest. Water is plentiful so why conserve [read more …]