 | | Navajo Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant on Navajo Nation land in northern Arizona, was shut down permanently on November 18, 2019. Photo courtesy of Salt River Project |
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| A few minutes after noon on November 18, the largest coal-fired power plant west of the Mississippi River permanently ended operations, a vivid illustration of the nation’s rapid pivot away from burning coal to produce electricity. The shutdown of Navajo Generating Station, which was planned for several years, also brought an end to a four-decade bond in Arizona between a coal plant and water-supply infrastructure. It was one of the most significant such bonds in the American West. |
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 | | The Baltimore City Council approved wide-ranging legislation that addresses rising water bills, water debt, and billing disputes. Shown here is the Jonestown neighborhood in downtown Baltimore. Photo courtesy of Flickr/Creative Commons user ellenm1 |
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| The Baltimore City Council, in the face of rising water and sewer rates and public anger over billing errors, approved a discount program that ties monthly water bills for its poorest residents to their annual household income. The wide-ranging legislation that authorizes the program also includes provisions to eliminate customer water debt and settle billing disputes. |
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Devastating wildfires are sweeping across large swathes of Australia’s drought-stricken eastern coast, heralding what is likely to be a long and unforgiving bushfire season. |
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What's Up With Water - November 18, 2019
“What’s Up With Water” condenses the need-to-know news on the world’s water into a snapshot for the start of the workweek via podcast.
This week's episode features coverage on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which intends to impose significant limits on the research used for public health policy. Additional U.S. news includes a report which states that thousands of dams in the United States threaten communities with deadly floods. Finally, this week's episode takes a look on how the discolored water of Cleveland, Ohio, may be a sign of something serious, linked to the deteriorating health of Lake Erie, the source of the city’s water.
Circle of Blue's featured coverage for this week's episode looks at how water connects climate to health.
You can listen to the latest edition of What's Up With Water, as well as all past editions, by downloading the podcasts on iTunes, following Circle of Blue on Spotify, following on iHeart Radio, and subscribing on SoundCloud. |
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| From Circle of Blue's Archives: |
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 | | The Greenfield Energy Center in Courtright, Ontario, is a 422-megawatt natural gas fired power plant completed in 2008. Photo courtesy of jon_lin via Flickr. |
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| Ending Ontario’s reliance on coal-fired power is the latest step in a long program of environmental progress in that province. Over the last half-century, Canada’s wealthiest province required and enforced cities and industries to treat every gallon of wastewater, dramatically reduced the level of sulfur and other pollutants that caused acid rain, and convinced the big and politically powerful pulp and paper industry to install state-of-the-art emissions control equipment.
The decade-long process to replace coal-fired generating capacity with new plants fueled by natural gas and renewable energy sources represents one of the most ambitious low-carbon generating strategies in the world. Achieving the coal-less electricity sector also yielded lessons about the constraints of public policy and civic acceptance in an industrial democracy seeking to make such a momentous transition. |
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