State
Updated water contact advisory for segment of Mississippi River
KARK
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Based on water sampling conducted by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), the water contact advisory is being extended.
How baby oysters in Mississippi survived this year’s influx of fresh water
WVUE
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) -- Mike Arguelles dips a measurement tool into the sound near Deer Island off Biloxi to gauge the salinity of the waters.
Oil Spill
Lake Salvador breakwater, Cameron Parish island to be built with $36 million from BP
NOLA.com
Building a 2.2-mile-long rock breakwater along the northern shore of Lake Salvador in Jefferson Parish and restoring an island to serve as a nesting bird rookery in Cameron Parish, at a combined cost of $36 million, are the latest projects proposed for funding under the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill's natural resource damage assessment program.
Regional
National Park Service to help plan 8 local areas in 5 states
AP
The National Park Service will provide consultants to help create eight local parks and other recreation and conservation areas in Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Kentucky and Florida.
'The glue that binds the Delta': Researchers fight die-off of vital roseau cane
NOLA.com
Wild-growing cane that holds together the soil of Mississippi River Delta marshlands through its dense, underground growth — stopping saltwater intrusion and keeping the river's distributary channels clear at the Gulf — is dying off at the mouth of the river.
Queen Bess Island, a key nesting spot for Louisiana's state bird, becomes official wildlife refuge
NOLA.com
Each spring, thousands of brown pelicans flock to Queen Bess Island, about three miles off the coast of Grand Isle, to have babies. This month state wildlife officials designated it a state wildlife refuge.
Testing confirms no toxins were in blue-green algae spotted last week in Santa Rosa Sound
PNJ
National
Solar, wind and hydro power could soon surpass coal
CNN
Coal, long the king of America's electric grid, will soon get toppled by renewable energy.
Solar and wind power are growing so rapidly that for the first time ever, the United States will likely get more power in 2021 from renewable energy than from coal, according to projections from the Institute for Energy Economic and Financial Analysis.
Old turf fields raise environmental, health concerns
AP
The hulking wall of rubber was first discovered by a borough maintenance crew.
About 6,000 rolled pieces were neatly stacked about 10 feet high, covering more than an acre of private land, according to the mayor of Cleona, Pennsylvania.
Toxic fog may be poisoning some of California’s mountain lions, study says
Sun Herald
Mountain lions dwelling in the Santa Cruz Mountains along the California coastline have three times as much mercury in their system as those in other parts of the state, a UC Santa Cruz study shows.
Seattle area’s William Ruckelshaus, who refused to join in Nixon’s ‘Saturday Night Massacre,’ dies at 87
Seattle Times
William Ruckelshaus, a pragmatic and resolute government official who served the Environmental Protection Agency in the early 1970s as its first administrator and who later, as second in command at the Justice Department, became a kind of icon of resistance after President Richard Nixon fired him in the “Saturday Night Massacre,” died Wednesday at his home in Medina. He was 87.
Opinion
DESPITE STUDY, ONE LAKE HURTS STURGEON, TURTLES
Northside Sun
Recent newspaper articles about the Biological Opinion from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on the effects of the One Lake project would have readers believe that the document exonerates the Rankin-Hinds Flood Control and Drainage District (levee board) for the damage that their dredging and damming project would do to two threatened species (one turtle, one fish) found in the Pearl River.
