Public water is tested for toxins, but private well-water is not; some residents push for required testing to save lives

Well water that looks and tastes clean isn't always
contaminant free. (Photo by A. Sikdar, Unsplash)

Water used by public utilities is subject to testing and contaminant limits, but well water from private wells is not. Around 43 million Americans drink, bathe and cook with water from private wells that have never been tested, which often leaves them unaware of what's in their water, reports Silvia Foster-Frau of The Washington Post. "The levels and pervasiveness of some contaminants in [private] wells are increasing, studies show."

Public drinking water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, which sets ceilings for toxins; however, water from private wells is excluded from the agency's oversight. "The agency doesn’t regulate the drinking water of the more than 1 in 10 people who get their water from their own private wells," Foster-Frau writes. Private well owners often believe that their water is fresher and purer than "city water" because it's drawn directly from the earth, but that's often not the case. "Experts say private wells can be a breeding ground for a host of toxins, from dangerous bacteria to known carcinogens."

Especially in rural areas, where residents often want more independence from regulation, conflicts have grown as some individuals want required water well testing and others want it to be their choice. In the case of Cathy Cochrane, a resident in Toutle, Washington, who is struggling with cancer, she would have preferred the county had required private well testing. Foster-Frau reports, "Cochrane discovered that the water she had been drinking for nearly a decade contained 638 parts per billion of arsenic, a toxin that can cause cancer and increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease. . . . There is no reliable way to tell if cancer is caused by arsenic versus other factors."

Arsenic occurs naturally in soil, so many residents don't give it a second thought -- or they don't realize it's there to begin with. Cochrane told Foster-Frau, "Arsenic is the perfect murder weapon. You can’t detect it.” After Cochrane spoke at a Toutle commission meeting, "The commissioners agreed to extend a public water supply line from the town of Toutle to Cochrane’s neighborhood, less than a mile away."

Cochrane's presentation spurred further inquiry. "Central Washington University graduate student William Hays has taken up the issue as his thesis project," Foster-Frau adds. "He has been knocking on doors in the Toutle area where Cochrane lives and requesting samples of water from private wells. He wants to understand just how far the naturally occurring arsenic is spread throughout the county, which would provide insight into the scope of the contaminated water problem."

Community newspapers can benefit from more effective promotion and marketing

Benjy Hamm

By Benjy Hamm

Director, Institute for Rural Journalism

ESPN has long promoted itself as the “worldwide leader in sports.” You can forgive its audience if they don’t realize that ESPN has been losing millions of customers who have been “cutting the cord” from cable and satellite TV.

ESPN’s long-time business model -- and that of cable TV -- has been collapsing in recent years, even though it remains profitable and has retained a loyal audience. Sound familiar? But in the face of many difficulties, ESPN has never stopped relentlessly and effectively promoting its shows, content, employees and overall brand.

When I talk to my students and community groups, most people have a highly favorable opinion of ESPN and overestimate its average audience and business outlook.

Compared to ESPN and most TV and radio stations, newspapers are reticent to promote themselves, outside of an occasional story about awards they’ve won, a house ad during National Newspaper Week or subscription flyers. That approach is grounded in a news philosophy 200 years old that valued the anonymity of journalists – emphasizing that the stories are more important. And it has continued for other reasons, too, including the fact that many newspaper journalists don’t see the need for promotion, and some even find it unseemly.

Our modesty – and in many cases silence – about the value of what journalists do and the importance of strong community newspapers might have worked OK when the media world was less competitive and newspapers were flourishing. But in this era of an attention economy and endless demands on people’s time, a lack of marketing and promotion is damaging.

That vacuum also has allowed others to define us, and frequently in extremely negative terms. When I speak to community groups or at events, even loyal newspaper readers express concerns that “no one reads a newspaper” anymore, that newspapers are dying and that “everyone gets their news on their phone.” You know that’s not true. A lot of people read your stories, your great journalism changes lives and changes laws, and the cell phones people use are simply another way news and information is delivered.

When I ask community members how well their phone covers local council meetings, they are often confused by the question. But we know the answer. It doesn’t. The local community newspaper journalist is frequently the only person covering those meetings. Even much of the discussion about community news on social media is commentary on facts reported by journalists, not original reporting by social media sources.

We probably all know what it’s like to be the only person – not just journalist – in the audience at a local meeting, budget session or court hearing. Community newspapers produce a significant amount of original, exclusive content in their communities. Yet, few people realize those facts.

If we don’t promote our work, who will? If we don’t develop marketing campaigns for our news organizations, staff and products (Ex. special sections), then residents won’t fully value what the newspaper means to that community.

Allowing other people to define community newspapers hurts in other ways, too. Large foundations that plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to support journalism in the United States are proposing spending millions on digital start-ups or giving large sums of money to urban news organizations to increase their coverage of rural areas. There’s little talk about helping the thousands of newspapers already in existence in these communities. I have heard these large funders speak at conferences, and they do not seem to know much about the strengths and importance of community newspapers.

Not all of these problems are new. When I worked at a newspaper in South Carolina, we were surprised to see the results of a study that measured the most trusted sources for news in our region. The TV stations ranked highest in every category, even though local newspapers produced many more stories overall and were responsible for nearly all of the major investigative and enterprise coverage.

The researcher said the results were similar in every region where he conducted surveys, and he attributed it to how often TV stations promoted their work and their journalists – in addition to that personal “connection” of seeing someone on TV. He said newspapers did little or no promotion and took for granted that residents would understand their value and recognize their outstanding qualities.

I have seen examples of newspapers that effectively promote what they do – in print, online, through social media and at community events. In many cases, the ones that do well with promotion and marketing are in competitive markets.

At the Institute for Rural Journalism, we would like to learn more about the ways that community newspapers are successfully promoting themselves and the overall importance of good journalism in local communities.

If you have examples that have proved successful, please send them to me at benjy.hamm@uky.edu. I will follow up in a future column with your ideas. In the meantime, if you’re not doing much promotion, consider ways your newspaper can help residents realize that you’re the leader in local news coverage for that area and that what you do is of huge value to the community. Feel free to reach out if you are unsure of what to do.

Benjy Hamm is director of the Institute for Rural Journalism, which is based at the University of Kentucky. He previously served as editorial director for Landmark Community Newspapers, as an editor for The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group and as a reporter and editor for The Associated Press.

Opinion: Appalachian 'diggers' are not the main cause of wild ginseng's decline, but they could be part of the solution

Wild ginseng plants (Va. Ag photo)

Appalachian "diggers" have harvested wild ginseng roots for medicine or sale since the late 1700s, but recently, wild ginseng populations have shrunk and Appalachian diggers have been accused of overharvesting the plant and put under governmental scrutiny. In her opinion for The Conversation, Justine Law, an ecology and environmental studies professor, maintains that local harvesters are not to blame for wild ginseng's decline, but they can be part of the solution.

"I’m an environmental geographer who studies rural livelihoods and conservation in North American forests. As I see it, large-scale threats to ginseng, including mining and climate change, are bigger concerns than small-scale harvesting by negligent diggers. I believe many diggers can be valuable conservation partners," Law writes. "Ginseng was listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in 1975. This indicated that the plant was not threatened at the time. . . .Today, ginseng is classified as vulnerable in 13 of the 19 states that allow its harvest and sale, subject to state regulations."

The tap roots of wild ginseng plants will fetch thousands of dollars per pound in Asian markets as well as hefty prices in the United States. As the wild ginseng populations declined, "state and federal agencies have tightened ginseng regulations and ramped up enforcement," Law explains. "In 2018, West Virginia increased fines for illegal ginseng harvesting from . . . $100 to between $500 and $1,000 for a first offense. That same year, Ohio began using K-9 dogs to detect ginseng held by people suspected of illegal digging."

Historically, wild ginseng diggers have been blamed for the plant's scarcity since the late 1800s. Law writes, "But diggers are not, and never have been, the only reason for small ginseng populations. Starting in the late 1800s, forests across virtually all of the eastern United States were logged for farming, fuel, and industry."

Most local diggers know the plant's needs for continued growth and harvest it with that in mind. "I have interviewed dozens of ginseng diggers. Nearly all of them harvest only a portion of the plants in a patch, and they will wait until a plant’s berries are ripe before they dig it up and replant the berries," Law adds. "Other researchers have also highlighted diggers’ conservation practices, the complex pressures on ginseng populations and the injustice of excluding Appalachians from their historical forest commons. Still, the 'crooked digger' narrative persists."

Opening up opportunities to Appalachian ginseng harvesters could also help the plant thrive. Law explains, "There’s already a robust movement to plant ginseng seeds under existing forest canopy on private land, but most diggers don’t own land. A complementary effort might distribute seeds to them for planting in designated zones. . . . Participating could be a way to earn ginseng harvesting permits in state or national forests."

To find out more about wild ginseng's history in Appalachia, click here. Watch the video below for a more global view of the plant's history.

Drought causes transportation headaches along the Mississippi River for the third year in a row

Bridge near Vicksburg, Miss., and a pusher tug headed up
the Mississippi River. (Photo by Justin Wilkens, Unsplash)

A drying Mississippi River is causing transportation headaches and delays for the third year running in what scientists suggest could be a long-lasting change. "Extreme drought conditions in the Midwest are drawing down water levels on the Mississippi River, raising prices for companies that transport goods downstream and forcing governments and business owners to seek alternative solutions," reports Kristoffer Tigue of Inside Climate News. "The situation could signal an emerging reality for the region, scientists say, as climate change alters the planet’s weather patterns."

Despite Hurricane Francine's water dump in the Ohio Valley, Mississippi River levels have dipped since mid-July, which slows traffic. "Load restrictions force barge operators to limit their hauls, which squeezes their profit margin," Tigue explains. "Barge rates from St. Louis reached $24.62 a ton in late August and $27.49 per ton by the following week, according to the Department of Agriculture."

Moving cargo via the Mississippi River is more "efficient pound for pound than ground transportation, business groups say, and gives the U.S. an edge in a competitive global market," Tigue reports. "According to the Waterways Council, a trade association for businesses that use the Mississippi River, a standard 15-barge load is equivalent to 1,050 semi trucks or 216 train cars—meaning domestic farmers and other producers can save significant time and money moving their goods by boat."

Too much rainfall or not enough causes river transportation backups, and over the past several years, weather fluctuations in the Midwest have swung between the two. Drought conditions at harvest time are particularly troublesome. Tigue writes, "While it’s typical for water levels on the Mississippi to drop during the fall months, Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, said the recent years of drought have been a real wake-up call for farmers to diversify their supply chains."

If there's a little good news, it's that this year's drought headaches are not as extreme as those from 2023, when the Mississippi dipped to record lows. Tigue reports, "Deb Calhoun, senior vice president of the Waterways Council, chalks that up to proactive efforts this year by companies and federal agencies, like the Army Corps of Engineers, to mitigate transportation disruptions."

NASA offers environmental and science journalists a 'cool tool' and free graphics with its 'Worldview' database

NASA's Worldview offers seemingly endless data and free graphics. (NASA Worldview photo)

Part of NASA began with Caltech students blowing up part of their dorm room while experimenting with rockets. From those extraordinary-sounding beginnings, the space agency has combined its data-gathering satellites with analysis powerhouses and offers "unimaginably huge" troves of data, some of which is open to the public and journalists, reports Joseph A. Davis for the Society of Environmental Journalists.

While the sheer vastness of information may seem daunting, don't worry, "there is a system (or a system of systems) for handling it," Davis explains. "It goes by the acronym EOSDIS, for Earth Observing System Data and Information System. . . . . Meanwhile, NASA’s query site, called 'Worldview,' translates some of the most meaningful data into graphic form. You can access the Worldview landing page, which is also the query engine, here."

The Worldview database is a "cool tool" for environmental journalists and their production teams to use. Davis adds, "It’s not simply data; it’s free graphics." That's a huge upside. The downside to Worldview is that it's not easy to use. "Some important parts of it just don’t work. . . . . On the other hand, the number of choices you have about what to look at is very large."

The options are virtually endless and the data and graphics are "right in the strike zone of stories environmental journalists often cover," Davis writes. "You can request many different time spans, you can compare views from one time period against another, and you can choose particular places, zooming in and out almost at will. You can find out about wildfires, floods, dust storms, smoke plumes, drought, vegetation cover, human built-up areas and settlement areas, and even dams. And more."

Worldview also covers climate. Davis explains, "It tells you many details about albedo, sea-ice cover, surface temperature, etc."

Rural jail offers newly released prisoners with addiction disorders a long-lasting drug to prevent relapse

Cost is a major barrier to using Sublocade as an
addiction treatment for prisoners. (Adobe Stock photo)

In rural Maine, a county jail began giving a long-lasting form of buprenorphine to inmates with drug addictions before they left incarceration. The medicine, which curbs opioid cravings for 28 days, helps past inmates avoid "withdrawal, relapse and overdose — dangers that newly released prisoners confront nationwide," reports Jan Hoffman of The New York Times.

Once out of jail, addiction sufferers can face several obstacles to staying in recovery while re-entering their communities. Maine's Somerset County sheriff, Dale P. Lancaster, was discouraged by the number of inmates who would leave prison and die from overdoses. Lancaster pushed for the extended-release medical treatment. Hoffman writes, "According to a recent analysis in Health and Justice, the switch had a remarkable effect. The long-acting injection afforded newly released prisoners a crucial buffer period after they were discharged, with more time to set up continuing addiction treatment and stabilize their lives."

People suffering from drug addictions are more likely to end up on the wrong end of the judicial system. "Of the more than 1.2 million prisoners in the United States, up to 65 percent of prisoners have active substance use disorders, according to some studies," Hoffman explains. And while those institutions have an opportunity to treat the addicted, few have the resources or staffing. In the case of extended-release shots of buprenorphine, known as Sublocade, the treatment's cost remains a big barrier, with the list price for a monthly injection about $2,000, while a month's supply of pills ranges from $90 to $360.

But the success of Maine's program may help turn the tide. "After being released, the Somerset County prisoners who got the shot were three times as likely to continue treatment as those at another rural Maine jail who received the daily pills" [which are discontinued upon release], Hoffman adds. "Between September 2022 and September 2023, three prisoners from the jail where the pills were dispensed died from overdoses within three months of being released; a fourth died by suicide. None of the former Somerset prisoners who had received the injections died."

Dr. Alane O’Connor, co-chair of Maine's Opioid Response Clinical Advisory Committee, said that "as word of the Somerset program spreads, she is getting inquiries from other county sheriffs about how to bring the shots on board," Hoffman reports. "She is also hearing from former prisoners." O'Connor told Hoffman, "Many wanted to stay on the shots, so they would come back to the jail asking our help in finding a provider."

The sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel has politicians up in arms, but some workers think sale might save their jobs

Wikipedia map

The fear of foreign control and the possible loss of jobs has many U.S. politicians and United Steelworkers’ leaders stoking opposition against the sale of U.S. Steel to Japanese-based Nippon Steel, but many of the industry's workers see the sale differently.

"Outside Pittsburgh, in Monongahela River valley towns where steel is still made, some workers and officials say the rhetoric is disconnected from what is happening on the ground," report Kris Maher, Bob Tita and Aaron Zitner of The Wall Street Journal. "Some say fears of foreign ownership are overblown and that the deal with deep-pocketed Nippon Steel offers the best chance to keep steel industry jobs in the region, and communities from being erased."

The voices against the $14.1 billion sale are big names, including President Joe Biden, both presidential candidates and "all four senators from Pennsylvania and Ohio, including Sen. John Fetterman," the Journal reports. However, West Mifflin Mayor Chris Kelly told the Journal: "I would bet that none of the national politicians have seen what I’ve seen and have not talked to these local workers. . . . This is nothing but politics." West Mifflin's U.S. Steel mill employs about 800 workers.

Both sides have cranked up their lobbying machines. "Kelly and other local officials are asking Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to get the Biden administration to hear their concerns. . . . A spokesman said the governor said his priority is protecting Pennsylvania workers," the Journal reports "Nippon Vice Chairman Takahiro Mori recently met with U.S. regulators. Ads running in Pittsburgh urge they 'keep steel jobs in steel city.'"

In Braddock, the Edgar Thomson plant "is among the world’s oldest mills, producing steel from liquid iron heated in blast furnaces. Active since 1875, it hums day and night," Maher, Tita and Zitner write.
"Braddock Mayor Delia Lennon-Winstead backs the deal and said presidential candidates who oppose it should provide another solution. 'Do they actually walk these streets and live in this area?” she said. 'Do they know the devastation of closing the mill, what it would do to this area?'"

Opinion: New farmers with 'can-do' attitudes learn the trade from older farmers and agriculture support systems

Josh Pearson and Esme Martinson
(Turner Road Farm photo)

The life of U.S. farmers is often depicted by some "experts" as difficult, solitary and lacking many services, but that view only offers one slice of the profession. For many farmers, especially those new to farming, the career is full of learning, abundance and people helping people, writes Jason Maloney in his opinion piece for Agri-View.

Commentators and politicians often "talk of young people leaving rural areas, saying those rural areas have poverty and unemployment, and lack emergency services and nutritious food," Maloney adds. "But in the countryside of far-northern Wisconsin, where broadband and cellular service can be spotty. . .the outlook can be quite different. . . . There’s a sense of optimism that comes from building community and having a can-do attitude. . . . There are young people on the land who are making remarkable progress."

In northern Bayfield County, Wisconsin, Josh Pearson and Esme Martinson, who own Turner Road Farm, are learning how to be food and animal farmers, and they enjoy sharing their knowledge. Pearson told Maloney, "Esme and I are first generation; we didn’t grow up on farms. We read. A lot is possible if you put your mind to it.. . . . People have an experience coming up to our farm. We bring a lot of school groups to our farm – kindergartners, high schoolers, and even some college classes come out. It’s fun to see them react to the animals."

Location of Bayfield in Wisconsin
(Wikipedia map)

Turner Road Farm slowly purchased its livestock from a nearby cattle ranching family who wanted to retire. Part of Pearson's approach to the "generational transition of agriculture" is to learn from those leaving the profession. Pearson told Maloney, "Now they are done with their beef herd, and their beef herd is here on our farm. . . . I’m making hay in Port Wing, Wisconsin, with Dale Peacock of Red Hoof Farm. I’m helping him as he’s getting out of the business, and he’s mentoring me as I am going in."

Pearson and Martinson credit the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service and Farm Service Agency as great support sources. Pearson told Mahoney, "My first suggestion to [new homesteaders] is to develop a relationship with the FSA office. There are programs out there to help us. We didn’t do this all on our own."

Right now, there are "things happening in places that aren’t seen by 'experts,'" Mahoney adds. "The important work that solves problems like hunger, environmental disasters, dying communities. . . is happening all around us. . . . Young people are grabbing hold and pulling us forward. If that doesn’t provide one with optimism, nothing else will."

Rural co-ops are slated for a $7.3B federal cash infusion to help them shift from coal to cleaner energy

Map indicating the wide geographic reach of the co-ops awarded funding.
(Map by Jeremy Fisher, Sierra Club Law)

Creating cleaner energy sources for communities in the more remote parts of the United States means helping rural co-ops afford the switch from coal to renewables. To help make the change possible, the Biden Administration "announced $7.3 billion in financing for 16 rural co-ops serving about 5 million households across 23 states, reports Jeff St. John of Canary Media. The Department of Agriculture will manage the funds, which "will also be matched by more than $29 billion in private investments."

The $7.3 billion infusion won't all go toward moving sparsely populated areas to renewables. Instead, some of it will cover the costs of closing coal plants, which are a "particularly thorny financial challenge for co-ops, which can’t raise financing the same way that investor-owned utilities can," St. John explains. For the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, [the funds] "will help accelerate the closing of 1,100 MW of coal-fired generation in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico."

The federal assistance means more rural cooperatives can afford to drastically shrink their energy reliance on coal. St. John reports, "A 2023 analysis by researchers at the Sierra Club, Energy Innovation, and the Department of Energy found that federal funding could help co-ops secure enough wind, solar, and battery resources to retire their entire coal capacity by 2032. . . . That would be a huge shift."

Much of the federal money deal-making is still in process. Of the 16 awards announced last week, "only one has been finalized by USDA — nearly $573 million to Dairyland Power Cooperative, which serves 24 distribution cooperatives and 27 municipal utilities in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota. . . . Dairyland will use the funding to back a total investment of $2.1 billion to build and contract for 1,080 megawatts of clean power."

A celestial trifecta -- including a supermoon and partial lunar eclipse -- will fill up tonight's sky

Tonight's full moon sky will offer an unusual trifecta of celestial delights. "September’s harvest moon will not only coincide with a supermoon, but also with a blood moon and partial lunar eclipse," reports Chandelis Duster of NPR. "While harvest moons happen each year close to the start of fall and supermoons three to four times a year, all three events taking place at the same time are 'quite rare,' astrophysicist Teresa Monsue of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center told NPR. . . . The moon is considered 'super' when it is full and its orbit is at the closest point to Earth."

The best time to view the three events depends on where you live and the weather. "The lunar eclipse will peak at 10:44 p.m. E.T., according to NASA. All of North and South America will have a chance to see the partial lunar eclipse and harvest supermoon," Duster adds. "This lunar eclipse will be a partial one, with only the upper portion of the moon [known as the umbra] being plunged into the darkest part of the Earth's shadow."

No special protective viewing glasses are required for tonight's cosmic viewing. "Unlike a solar eclipse, where you must wear special glasses to protect your eyesight when looking at it, skygazers can see the lunar eclipse with ease and without eye protection," Duster reports. "The eclipse should also be a good chance for views of contrast on craters and other features on the lunar surface if you use a telescope or binoculars, Monsue said."

If you miss tonight's eclipse and supermoon, you'll have to wait awhile for another chance. "The next one will not happen until Oct. 8, 2033, according to Monsue," Duster adds. "But you will be able to see another full supermoon on Oct. 17 and a total lunar eclipse on March 14, 2025."