Growing Returns

Arizona water is at a crossroads. Will the Legislature respond?

By Christopher Kuzdas / Bio / Published: January 13, 2022

The Arizona Legislature opened this week with the state facing significant water insecurity. Water has climbed to one of the top three concerns of Arizona voters, who are getting engaged in water issues and will be watching the Legislature closely this session as an election year looms large.

EDF Action and our Water for Arizona Coalition partners are focusing on the following five priorities for this year’s legislative session to respond to residents’ concerns and help ensure water security for Arizona.

Posted in Uncategorized / Tagged arizona drought, arizona infrastructure, arizona water, colorado drought, colorado river, Colorado River Basin, ecosystems, western water | Comments are closed

Virginia must stay in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to successfully address its flood crisis.

By Grace Tucker / Published: January 13, 2022

In 2020, Virginia made history as the first southern state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a highly successful, multistate carbon emissions cap-and-invest program for the electricity sector.

In its first year, the commonwealth netted $228 million through auction proceeds, with half going toward low-income energy efficiency and weatherization programs and 45% dedicated to Virginia’s statewide Community Flood Preparedness Fund. The fund has made tens of millions of dollars available for local governments and tribes to build capacity, plan and implement flood resilience projects.

Posted in Uncategorized / Tagged ecosystems, RGGI, rural Virginia, virginia flood, virginia greenhouse gas | Comments are closed

Breakthrough agricultural loan rewards farmers for environmental stewardship

By Maggie Monast / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: January 11, 2022

Quantifying the long-term financial benefits of conservation practices that build farm resilience and recognizing that value in the financing offered to farmers would be transformative for farms, lenders and the environment.

That idea received a major boost when Farmers Business Network, a global farmer-to-farmer network and ag tech company, launched a new farm operating loan that includes a lower interest rate incentive for farmers who achieve climate and water quality benchmarks.

Posted in Carbon Market / Tagged carbon sink, farm finance, nitrogen balance, nitrogen sink, sustainable agriculture | Comments are closed

Arizonans have spoken: It’s time to protect rural groundwater.

By Rachel O'Connor / Bio / Published: January 7, 2022

Across roughly 80% of Arizona, there are virtually no groundwater regulations, meaning that anyone can drill a well and pump groundwater, even if it dries up neighboring drinking wells or depletes flows in nearby rivers and streams. It’s the land of “the deepest well wins,” putting livelihoods, communities, agriculture and ecosystems at risk.

To help address this risk, state Rep. Regina Cobb introduced legislation two years in a row that would safeguard critical groundwater supplies by providing at-risk groundwater basins or subbasins in rural Arizona the opportunity to opt in to Rural Management Areas (RMAs). Doing so would trigger the creation of a local advisory board that can leverage a suite of tools to develop a groundwater management plan that considers local needs and context.

Posted in Uncategorized / Tagged Arizona, Arizona groundwater, arizona legislature, rural grundwater, rural water, water security, western water | Comments are closed

2021 began with a Texas-sized water crisis. In 2022, Texas needs solutions.

By Vanessa Puig-Williams / Bio / Published: January 6, 2022

Last February, Texans got a terribly clear view of the fragility of their state’s water infrastructure, as a statewide freeze left millions of Texans without heat or electricity and almost half of the state’s population lost water.

This event provided a stark reminder of what’s at stake. The state’s 2022 water plan estimates that more than $80 billion in projects are needed to meet future water demands and build resilience across Texas.

Posted in Uncategorized / Tagged aquifers, texas aquifers, texas blackout, texas groundwater, texas infrastructure, texas legislature, texas water freezing, western water | Read 1 Response

Nearly 1 million Virginians are at risk of flooding by 2080. The state just released a plan to address that risk.

By Emily Steinhilber / Published: December 20, 2021

Last week, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam released the commonwealth’s first Coastal Resilience Master Plan, the result of a multiyear effort to guide action to address flood risk to better protect communities, businesses and vital natural resources against sea level rise and climate change.

Here are four ways the plan provides a foundation and path forward for Virginia to comprehensively meet the urgency of its flood crisis in a coordinated, equitable way.

Posted in Climate Resilience / Tagged ecosystems, virginia coast, virginia coastal flooding, virginia flooding, virginia infrastructure | Comments are closed

New EDF video helps Texans visualize and protect the groundwater they cannot see

By Vanessa Puig-Williams / Bio / Published: December 16, 2021

Protecting Texas’ vulnerable groundwater supplies raises a challenging dilemma: How can you motivate people to stand up for an underground resource they cannot see?

So we made a video to bring this vital resource to life.

This year, EDF released “Beneath the Surface and Above: The Journey of Groundwater.” The video combines beautiful natural footage from filmmaker Ben Masters and others with computer-generated animation to illuminate the connection between Texas’ groundwater supplies and iconic rivers and springs — and to show how they all need to be protected to safeguard the state’s people, economy and environment.

Posted in Uncategorized / Tagged agriculture, conservation, drinking water, groundwater, rivers, Texas, western water | Comments are closed

Virginia Beach’s new flood bond can be a model for other cities. Here’s how.

By Emily Steinhilber / Published: December 10, 2021

Virginia Beach, the most populous city in the commonwealth with 38 miles of shoreline, faces increasing flood risk due to rising sea levels and more intense storms. Recurrent flooding hurts critical sectors including the military and tourism, both major contributors to the local economy.

Fortunately, Virginia Beach voters took an important step to reduce flood risk in their community by passing a historic $567.5 million flood mitigation bond last month. This funding will not only reduce the city’s flood risk — it will also boost the economy and create thousands of jobs.

As other cities across the country grapple with how to pay for the increasing costs of flood protection projects, here are four ways this bond serves as a model for success. Read More »

Posted in Uncategorized / Tagged Coasts, flood bond, floodplain restoration, virginia beach coast, virginia coast, virginia flood | Comments are closed

Wells and springs are drying up in Texas. Here is what leaders can do about it.

By Vanessa Puig-Williams / Bio / Published: December 8, 2021

Millions of Texans are in danger of seeing their water supplies dry up as groundwater is being pumped out of aquifers across the state at an unsustainable pace.

Fortunately, there is still time for Texas to turn the tide and preserve groundwater for future generations.

Those are the conclusions of a new pair of reports released by EDF and the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University.

The first report Five Gallons in a Ten Gallon Hat: Groundwater Sustainability in Texas by Robert Mace, executive director of the Meadows Center, shows Texas is losing groundwater at nearly twice the maximum sustainable rate. Moreover, according to long-term management plans approved by local groundwater agencies, overpumping is likely to increase in coming years unless officials change course.

A second report co-authored by EDF, Advancing Groundwater Sustainability in Texas: A Guide to Existing Authorities and Management Tools for Groundwater Conservation Districts and Communities, lays out a path for addressing the looming groundwater crisis utilizing existing law.

Posted in Uncategorized / Tagged groundwater agencies, Ogallala, texas drought, texas groundwater, texas springs, texas streams, texas water, texas wells, western water | Comments are closed

New program sheds light on cover crop financials with big data

By Vincent Gauthier / Bio / Published: November 10, 2021

This post was co-authored by Katherine Wilts Johnson, extension economist at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Farm Financial Management.

Farmers’ interest in cover crops is growing rapidly along with increased focus on soil health. But one of the most important questions farmers continue to ask is how cover crops will impact their finances.

A new program launched by Environmental Defense Fund and the University of Minnesota’s Center for Farm Financial Management (CFFM) aims to answer the economic questions farmers have about cover crops by developing a new farm financial benchmarking program within the FINBIN database — the largest publicly available farm financial database in the country.

Posted in Uncategorized / Tagged cover crops, farm finance, FINBIN, soil health, sustainable agriculture | Comments are closed