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As the Mississippi River drops to one of its lowest levels in recent history, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said salt water from the Gulf of Mexico could threaten drinking water as far north as New Orleans’ French Quarter if no action is taken.
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Three weeks after a state judge struck down a controversial zoning law, St. John the Baptist Parish Council is considering reinstating the same law to allow the construction of a $479 million grain elevator.
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Louisiana broke ground on a nearly $3 billion coastal restoration project that aims to rebuild the broken marshes on Plaquemines Parish’s west bank by reconnecting the area to the land-building power of the Mississippi River.
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Unlike the rest of the state’s chemical corridor, no plants have been built on St. John the Baptist Parish's west bank. But some residents fear that could change as industrial developers eye farmland near the predominantly Black community of Wallace. As part of an effort to slow industrial encroachment and preserve the community’s history, federal officials are now contemplating whether St. John’s west bank could earn one of the country’s most prestigious historic designations: a National Historic Landmark.
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Water sampling after the recent explosion and fire at the Dow Chemical facility in Plaquemine found elevated levels of the hazardous compound ethylene oxide. But when the same sample was tested at a separate lab, it showed virtually no contamination, according to a preliminary incident report from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.
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Today we are bringing you an episode from a new podcast from our friends at Colorado Public Radio. The podcast is called Parched, and it’s about how the multi-decade drought in the West is impacting the Colorado River. It’s about people who rely on the river that shaped the West—and have ideas to save it.
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The Mississippi River flowed lazily under the Centennial Bridge, which connects Illinois and Iowa in the Quad Cities. Cars cruised past on a Saturday afternoon in early May, waving and occasionally honking at a long line of environmentalists who say the river is alive.
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A long-delayed $25 million, five-year study of how to manage the Mississippi River from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to the Gulf of Mexico was officially launched by the Army Corps of Engineers on Thursday.
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Around 175 million tons of freight travels on the Mississippi River each year, and from the river’s headwaters to southern Illinois, a series of locks and dams guide barges through the journey.Traffic is only increasing, but the locks and dams have aged far past their life expectancy. Even functioning properly, they slow barges down, and shippers and commodity groups fear a worse infrastructure breakdown is on the horizon.
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A coalition of more than 100 Mississippi River mayors are pushing for more investment in natural infrastructure, ecosystem restoration and disaster resilience. The Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI) released its policy platform during their annual meeting in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, March 1.