Friday, October 23, 2015

Four Mile Run Birds (and litter)

From David Harris

I walked down to the location where I saw the spraying on October 15, but I could not see any obvious effects today of that spraying. I will check again later.

Here is one example of the kinds of birds I see at times along this stretch of Four Mile Run; I took this picture of three Great Egrets (and some trash) on September 7 of this year:

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Four Mile Run spraying earlier in 2015

Photos by David H. on the Four Mile Run spraying he witnessed earlier this year.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

This is the paper that our own Helen Lane wrote on Donaldson Run,m providing multiple perspectives on this uncommon urban stream and its history, geology and natural characteristics.

See the original formatting here.

Federal court blocks nationwide small waterway regulations

From The Hill:

Court blocks Obama’s water rule nationwide

Getty

By Timothy Cama - 10/09/15 10:55 AM EDT

A federal court ruled Friday that President Obama’s regulation to protect small waterways from pollution cannot be enforced nationwide.

In a 2-1 ruling, the Cincinnati-based Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit delivered a stinging defeat to Obama’s most ambitious effort to keep streams and wetlands clean, saying it looks likely that the rule, dubbed Waters of the United States, is illegal.

“We conclude that petitioners have demonstrated a substantial possibility of success on the merits of their claims,” the judges wrote in their decision, explaining that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new guidelines for determining whether water is subject to federal control — based mostly on the water’s distance and connection to larger water bodies — is “at odds” with a key Supreme Court ruling.

The judges said they have yet to decide whether they have jurisdiction to review the regulation, but a