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Arsenic risk high in Sumatra, Myanmar, Cambodia: study Fri Jul 11, 2:15 PM ET Eastern Sumatra, the Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar and Cambodia's Tonle Sap lake are among areas in Southeast Asia facing a high risk of arsenic contamination in the water, according to a study published on Friday. The researchers use innovative digitalised techniques, drawing on geology, geography and soil chemistry, to compile a "probability map" of naturally-occurring arsenic concentrations in five Southeast Asian countries and Bangladesh. The map is intended as a useful pointer for health watchdogs, urban planners and water engineers worried about concentrations of this poison...

Products based on NASA Earth observations and a new Internet-based decision tool are providing information to help land and water managers combat tamarisk (saltcedar), an invasive plant species damaging precious water supplies in the western United States. This decision tool, called the Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS), is being used at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Institute of Invasive Species Science in Fort Collins, Colo. It is the result of combining USGS science and NASA Earth observations, software engineering and high- performance computing expertise. "The ISFS combines NASA satellite data with tens of thousands of field sampling measurements, which...

Start all over with the Trans Texas Corridor. And let the legislature oversee future highway planning. That was the gist of the testimony delivered by TFB State Director Albert Thompson on behalf of the Texas Farm Bureau during a recent Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security hearing on the massive transportation project. "...it appears to us that the legislature has given the Texas Department of Transportation what amounts to a blank check worth approximately $180 billion," Thompson said on Feb. 9. "We would feel more comfortable if citizens had the opportunity to voice opinions with elected officials who should...

Perhaps you recall the line from "Dr. Strangelove," Stanley Kubrick's film - now 40 years old - about nuclear war and fluoridation. "As human beings," Gen. Jack D. Ripper says to Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake, "you and I need fresh pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids." Hard to imagine what General Ripper would have thought of the recent announcement by Britain's Environment Agency that it had found traces of the antidepressant drug Prozac in rivers and groundwater. The idea of someone dumping mood-altering pharmaceuticals into the water supply sounds suitably Strangelovian. But the source in this case is...

Water rights, a mammoth property rights battle Two-thousand and four is the centennial of the landmark legal case that established the rules by which Texans can pump subterranean water from under their land. The so-called "rule of capture" is based on English common law and holds that a Texas landowner may pump as much water as he wants from underneath his private property. As the court ruled in 1904, the movements of water underground are "secret, occult and concealed." Underground, water drains and recharges, moves and percolates. Anyone pumping water from underground will most likely affect the water under the...

Lawmakers want a say in pumping, selling of Texas groundwater AUSTIN - For the second time in a decade, lawmakers are preparing to tackle major issues concerning water in Texas. In the 1990s, lawmakers examined how much water the state would need for the next 50 years and how Texas would meet the demand. Now, lawmakers seem ready to deal with more controversial water issues: water marketing, conservation, the century-old rule of capture, and deciding how much water should flow in a stream to maintain aquatic life and a healthy environment. During the next 12 months, lawmakers will study water...

A PROBLEM WITH PRAIRIE DOGS Debate over rodents' removal has Lubbock leaders in a bind By EVAN MOORE Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle LUBBOCK -- The atmosphere was electric, charged with anticipation as Linda Watson knelt in the dirt and thrust a sunburned arm elbow-deep down a prairie dog hole. Sean Meyers / Special to the Chronicle Linda Watson, who runs a business specializing in trapping prairie dogs, and Daryl Hogue of Lubbock run water into a prairie dog hole to force the animals to the surface so they can be relocated. "Got him," breathed Watson. Then, with one deft movement...