Our Sustainable Northwest

Pullman's Lost Artesian Wells

Washington State Magazine just released an article called What Lies Beneath, Pullman and its Water. They've also gathered a collection of photographs, including the one you see here. "What Lies Beneath" tells the tale of a western town founded on what seemed an endless supply of free-flowing water.

Earth Day Retrospective: Taking Responsibility for Water Use

The 39th annual Earth Day is April 22, 2009. This year's events come at a time when there is a global concern about water supplies and water quality.

Water pollution was a problem decades before the modern environmental movement began. Stagnant, filthy water was the norm in and around dozens of cities in the midwest and east.

In 1948, the Water Pollution Control Act, authorized the Surgeon General of the then Public Health Service, along with other Federal, state and local entities, to prepare plans and programs for reducing the pollution of interstate waters and tributaries and improving the sanitary condition of surface and underground waters (major amendments were enacted in 1961, 1966, 1970, 1972, 1977, and 1987).

1962 was the year when Silent Spring hit bookstands and created a sensation. Rachel Carson was a marine biologist who researched 12 dangerous poisons used by the chemical industry, including DDT.

Dam Safety

September 6, 2007

NORTHWEST/We have a lot of old dams. Roughly 25-hundred hold back waters here in the Northwest. Even the sturdiest structures made from concrete and wood don't hold up forever.

Correspondent Elizabeth Wynne Johnson reports on the status of dam safety and why some groups are raising a red flag.