America's Wetland Foundation

Millions of gallons of raw sewage flowing into Mississippi River daily

By: KMOV.com Staff, KMOV.com

It’s been one week since flood waters forced two large pumps at a north St. Louis treatment plant to fail. The pumps have allowed hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage to run into the Mississippi River.

Dead zone research is vital

By: Lafourche Parish Daily Comet

The Gulf of Mexico’s annual dead zone is located just off the shores of Louisiana. But it is just the manifestation of a problem that resides up and down the Mississippi River. The zone, which is depleted of oxygen every summer, causes a massive shift of ocean life that must either move or die.

Up to 375 flood gauges to turn off because of fund cuts

By: Doyle Rice, USA Today

Flooding will remain a major concern over the next few days and weeks in the Midwest. (Photo: USGS file photo via AP) STORY HIGHLIGHTS The USGS will discontinue operation of up to 375 stream gauges nationwide due to budget cuts The total yearly maintenance and upkeep cost of all 8,000 gauges is $150 million The shutoff of the gauges could start as early as Wednesday, May 1 Just in time for the spring flood season, the federal sequester is threatening to shut off funding for hundreds of stream gauges used by the U.S. Geological Survey to predict and monitor flood levels across the country.

Congress needs a plan for the Mississippi

By: St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial Board, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

When St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and 11 other mayors from cities along the Mississippi River went to Washington, D.C., last month to bring attention to the nation's most important waterway, the dominant problem on their minds was drought. Today, for many of those mayors, it's flooding.

Mississippi River's Many 'Parents' Look To Unify

By: NPR

Life on the Mississippi River is a roller coaster of highs and lows: record high floodwaters one year, a drought and near-record low water levels the next. And those are just two of the many problems faced by river stakeholders like barge operators, farmers and conservation groups.

Cuts would jeopardize dead zone research

By: Houma Today

A long-running project aimed at mapping the annual dead zone that forms off Louisiana’s coast each summer could be in jeopardy because of federal budget cuts.

Why Chicago has stake in saving Mississippi delta

By: Thomas Frisbie, Chicago Sun Times

The erosion of the MIssissippi River delta in Louisiana might not seem like Chicago's problem, but a group of environmentalists was in town last week for The Big River Works leadership forum to argue it is.

Scott Fujita, former New Orleans Saint and friend of AWF, retires.

By: America's WETLANDS Foundation

Scott Fujita officially retired yesterday from the NFL. He signed a one day contract with the Saints atop Machu Picchu where he is traveling with Steve Gleason to raise awareness for ALS. He signed the one day contract in order to retire from the game as a Saint. Here's America's WETLAND Foundation's PSA Scott helped us with from a few years ago.

Congress needs to hold the corps accountable: Editorial

By: Nola.com Editorial Board, Nola.com

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval spoke for South Louisiana residents last week when he expressed frustration that there is no way to hold the Army Corps of Engineers legally accountable for levee failures during Hurricane Katrina. In what is likely his last ruling in an almost eight-year legal saga, the judge excoriated the corps for engineering mistakes that led to massive flooding and bemoaned the blanket immunity long-granted the agency.

Downpours swamp homes in St. Louis metro area, Mississippi River building toward major flood

By: Tim O'Neil, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Pounding rains Thursday flooded roads and swelled creeks across the area, swamping homes in De Soto and East St. Louis and flooding employee parking lots at Scott Air Force Base.

Gulf Coast still waiting for funds after spill

By: Deborah Barfield Berry and Mary Orndorff Troyan, Gannett Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Three years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill polluted the Gulf Coast's ecosystem and hammered its economy, the region is still waiting on billions of dollars in fines and other payments from BP.

Kentucky to develop water pollution plan to curb 'dead zone'

By: James Bruggers, The Courier-Journal

Kentucky’s top environmental regulator on Thursday said his agency was drafting a statewide plan to control pollution that causes algae blooms around the state and contributes to an oxygen-depleted “dead zone” as far away as the Gulf of Mexico.

Louisiana coastal scientists say criticism of plans to build large sediment diversions is unfounded

By: Mark Schleifstein, New Orleans Times-Picayune

Three key Louisiana coastal scientists on Wednesday rebutted growing criticism by some oyster growers and commercial fishers that state plans to build major diversions of Mississippi River sediment and freshwater to restore coastal wetlands could instead speed the disappearance of saltwater wetlands. Other critics of the diversions, which are expected to cost $4.1 billion, say rising sea levels driven by global warming and the coast’s sinking soils will outpace their ability to grow new land.

Environmental leaders send BP a message: ‘It’s not over’

By: Kari Dequine Harden, The Advocate

NEW ORLEANS — Five days ahead of the third anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and the ensuing underwater oil gusher, the message at a rally Tuesday in front of the Hale Boggs Federal Building was clear: It’s far from over.

Letters to the Editor April 13, 2013

By: Val Marmillion, America's WETLANDS Foundation

Your recent story, “Lawmakers urge bill for river shipping,” demonstrates the need for Congress to pay more attention to the Mississippi River’s entire ecosystem, as there is growing support for multi-state cooperation to its problems from top to bottom.