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With Infrastructure Funding On Horizon, Beleaguered Martin County Looks To Raise Water Rates Again
By: Katie Meyers | Ohio Valley ReSource
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In December, Kathy Fletcher, a lifelong Martin County, Kentucky, resident and mother, found her water was shut off. When it came back on, something was wrong with it. Fletcher remembers that after she showered, her skin and nails felt completely dried out. The water smelled acrid, like chemicals. For years, Fletcher has been frustrated by… Read More
Clean Water Wanted: Contaminated Wells and the Legacy of Fossil Fuel Extraction
By: Benny Becker | Ohio Valley ReSource
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“You seen that one with the tombstone up there?” seven-year-old Timothy Easterling asks, looking toward the grass just uphill from his home. “That’s my papaw.” Timothy’s grandfather Chet Blankenship died in 2016, at age 69. Blankenship lived on land he and his family have long owned at the end of a road atop Bradshaw Mountain… Read More
Ohio River Regulators Planning Riverwide PFAS Study
By: Ryan Van Velzer | WFPL
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Scientists are designing a new study to test for PFAS, so-called “forever chemicals”, along the entire length of the Ohio River. Concerns are mounting about PFAS contamination in drinking water systems along the Ohio Valley. Studies have shown the contaminants in the drinking water of dozens of cities. The scientists work with a multi-state commission… Read More
High Waters, More Hazardous Cargo Complicate Job of Keeping Ohio Watershed Safe
By: Alexandra Kanik | KyCIR
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Just before dawn in January 2018, 27 barges were floating like a net along the banks of the Ohio River, downstream of the city of Pittsburgh. Instead of fish, the fleet caught chunks of ice that broke off in the warming, fast-moving waters as it waited for a tow through the nearby Emsworth Locks and Dams…. Read More
New Testing Reveals ‘Forever Chemicals’ In More Water Systems Across OH, PA, U.S.
By: Brittany Patterson | Ohio Valley ReSource
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New testing by the Environmental Working Group has identified the presence of toxic fluorinated chemicals, broadly known as PFAS, in the tap water of dozens of cities across the U.S. where contamination was not previously known. EWG, an advocacy organization that tracks environmental pollutants in consumer products, sampled water in 44 places between May and December… Read More
Rising Waters: Aging Levees, Climate Change And The Challenge To Hold Back The Ohio River
By: Liam Niemeyer | Ohio Valley ReSource
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When 78-year-old Jim Casto looks at the towering floodwalls that line downtown Huntington, West Virginia, he sees a dark history of generations past. The longtime journalist and local historian is short in stature, yet tall in neighborhood tales. On Casto’s hand shines a solid gold ring, signifying his more than 40 years of reporting at… Read More
Two Decades of Resistance: Coal River Mountain Watch Takes Stock at 20
Coal River Mountain Watch’s history of resistance to mountaintop coal mining is plastered across the wood-paneled walls of the group’s modest office in Raleigh County, West Virginia. Framed photos, many of demonstrators being handcuffed, dot the walls. In the back of the building, a floor-to-ceiling length tapestry depicts the “true cost of coal” as envisioned… Read More
Nature’s ‘Brita Filter’ Is Dying and Nobody Knows Why
By: Nathan Rott | NPR
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A mysterious die-off of freshwater mussels has scientists scrambling to find a cause. Freshwater mussels clean water and provide habitat to countless other species.
‘Dark Waters’ Puts PFAS Saga on Big Screen as Ohio Valley Contamination Comes to Light
By: Brittany Patterson | Ohio Valley ReSource
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The new film “Dark Waters” depicts the real-life story of the 20-year battle waged by attorney Rob Bilott against chemical giant DuPont. We meet Bilott, played by Mark Ruffalo, as a young corporate defense lawyer living in Cincinnati. His grandmother, who lives in Parkersburg, West Virginia, gives his phone number to local farmer, Earl Tennant…. Read More
Ohio Valley Residents Among Millions in America Lacking Access to Clean Water, Sanitation
By: Brittany Patterson | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Communities across the Ohio Valley are among an estimated 2 million Americans that do not have consistent access to clean drinking water and basic indoor plumbing, according to a report published Monday by two nonprofits, DigDeep and the US Water Alliance. The report titled, “Closing the Water Access Gap in the United States,” synthesized data… Read More
DeWine Pours Out Details of H2Ohio Water Quality Program
By: Karen Kasler | Statehouse News Bureau
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Gov. Mike DeWine has released details of his plan to improve water quality in Ohio, starting with preventing toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie. The H2Ohio program will start in the Maumee River watershed near Toledo but he wants to eventually broaden it to rest of the state. DeWine said agricultural runoff is the biggest contributor… Read More
Kentucky Removes Warning for Ohio River Waters
By: Associated Press
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FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – Kentucky officials have removed a public health advisory for harmful algal blooms along the Ohio River. Kentucky’s Division of Water and Department for Public Health issued the advisory on Sept. 26 for people using the waterway for recreation from the McAlpine Dam near Louisville to the Greenup Dam in northeastern Kentucky…. Read More
W. Va. Water Utility Awards Grants for Bottle-Filling Stations
By: Associated Press
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – West Virginia American Water has awarded grants to provide bottle-filling stations to 10 groups throughout the utility’s service area. The company says in a statement that the program is aimed at reducing plastic waste from single-use bottles and providing filling stations to nonprofit groups, schools and local government facilities. Among the… Read More
First These Kentuckians Couldn’t Drink The Water. Now They Can’t Afford It
By: Sydney Boles | NPR
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In a struggling coal region of Kentucky, moves to fix a notoriously dirty water supply have created a new crisis: Many are now unable to afford their water bills.
W. Va. College, State Team Up on Groundwater Pollution Project
By: Associated Press
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia State University is working with the state environmental department to figure out how to keep groundwater safe from pollutants. The school announced the research partnership on Tuesday. The project will study how plants can be used to remove or destroy contaminants in soil and groundwater. A news release from… Read More
EPA Proposes New Regulations For Lead In Drinking Water
By: Paolo Zialcita | NPR
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The new proposal is being criticized for not proactively replacing lead service lines across the nation. It also keeps the same threshold for lead in drinking water that the U.S. currently has.
Report: Water Unaffordable for Nearly Half of Martin Co., Kentucky
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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A new report finds nearly half the residents of Martin County, Kentucky, cannot afford water service. Local activists with the Martin County Concerned Citizens are ringing alarm bells about water affordability as the beleaguered county faces another likely water rate increase in the coming months. Since the ReSource first reported on its water crisis two years ago,… Read More
Federal Grant Awarded to Combat Lead Poisoning
By: Associated Press
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded $45 million to Ohio to identify and eliminate lead paint in homes. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine says the grants will help make Ohio homes safer. Grants will go to Columbus, Akron, Canton, Cleveland and Lima as well as Cuyahoga, Erie, Mahoning,… Read More
Ohio To Test For Toxic PFAS Chemicals In Drinking Water
By: Brittany Patterson | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Ohio will begin testing some public and private water systems for the presence of toxic nonstick, fluorinated chemicals, broadly called PFAS. In a press release issued Friday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced the state’s environmental and public health agencies will analyze drinking water systems located near places with known contamination. That includes near firefighting training… Read More
Troubled Kentucky Water System to Receive Grant Funding
By: Associated Press
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INEZ, Ky. (AP) — An eastern Kentucky county will receive nearly $4 million in grant funding to support its troubled water system. The grants for Martin County were announced Thursday by U.S. Rep. Harold “Hal” Rogers and Gov. Matt Bevin. Rogers says the new funding will help the county take the next steps to repair… Read More
Watershed Moment: “Ephemeral” Streams Debate Could Reshape Ohio Valley Waterways
By: Liam Niemeyer | Ohio Valley ReSource
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West Liberty University Professor Zachary Loughman has dedicated his professional life to crustaceans – specifically freshwater crayfish. He dips his hand into one of the water tanks at his laboratory near Wheeling, West Virginia, to pick up a teal crayfish the size of a dollar bill. “See the little guy dropping down? We caught mom… Read More
Senators Seeking Faster EPA Action On PFAS Chemical Pollution
By: Brittany Patterson | Ohio Valley ReSource
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A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators including West Virginia Republican Shelley Moore Capito this week introduced two bills aimed at further regulating a group of toxic chemicals known as PFAS. The chemicals include PFOA, or C-8, used to make nonstick products and other similar chemicals used in flame retardants. They have been detected in at least… Read More
EPA To Limit PFAS Chemical Contaminants Found In Some Ohio Valley Water Systems
By: Brittany Patterson | Ohio Valley ReSource
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today said it will move forward with a series of actions to regulate toxic fluorinated chemicals, including proposing drinking water limits by the end of this year. In its long-awaited “PFAS Action Plan,” EPA laid out a series of actions to address the widespread contamination of fluorinated PFAS chemicals. Those… Read More
Researcher Compares Cleveland’s Lead Levels To Flint, Michigan
By: Lecia Bushak | Ideastream
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Children in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County have a higher risk of lead exposure than other parts of the state, according to a report out of Case Western Reserve University this week. The report found 10.7 percent of kids born in 2012 who were screened for lead in Cuyahoga County had an elevated blood lead level by age 5. In… Read More
Toxic “Teflon” Chemicals On EPA Regulatory Agenda
By: Brittany Patterson | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Environmental Protection Agency officials told a Congressional panel Thursday that the agency will announce by the end of the year whether it will take the next step to regulate a group of toxic fluorinated chemicals found in some water systems in the Ohio Valley. The PFAS group of chemicals, which include PFOA or C-8, were widely… Read More