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Sebring - Polar bears and their melting habitat sent a wake-up call to South Florida water managers Wednesday. The same day the federal government added the polar bear to the endangered species list because of global warming, South Florida water managers agreed to take a yearlong look at how melting ice could raise sea levels that could claim the southern part of the state. The South Florida Water Management District's long-term plans once anticipated the sea level rising about 1 foot by 2100, but more recent projections say the rise could be five times as much. That could move the...

LOS ANGELES — Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Department of Water and Power are expected to announce on May 15 a revised water use and management plan for this city that includes using recycled wastewater to recharge drinking water aquifers, according to a May 15 Los Angeles Times article. The new plan allocates about $1 billion for the proposed reclamation system, also known as “toilet-to-tap” or “sewer-to-spigot.” The city would recycle about 4.9 billion gallons of treated wastewater to drinking standards by 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported on May 15. Villaraigosa, who less than a decade ago opposed such...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq, May 12, 2008 – Six Kazakhstani soldiers completed a transfer of operations May 8 at Combat Outpost Murray that will provide U.S. soldiers of 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, with clean, drinkable water. The Kazakhstani Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit team’s equipment pumps water directly from the Tigris River and filters it in large bladders that desalinate and distill it, reducing the risk of waterborne diseases. Their equipment can produce 2,500 gallons of drinkable water per hour, enough to provide soldiers with clean water for laundry and shower facilities. The ROWPU team took over water...

Take a look a this amazing news report on the local Fox Channel 26 in Clearwater, Florida on local inventor, Denny Klein and his water powered citting /welding torches and HHO/gas hybrid car. Video on the technology: http://www.freeenergynews.com/Directory/BrownsGas/WaterFuel.wmv Amazing stuff at first glance. I'd love to hear some of our Freeper energy experts weigh in on the potential of this.

The classic definition of socialism is: government control of the sources of production. A bill now before Congress, H.R. 2421, will give the federal government absolute control over all sources of production. This bill, if enacted, will instantly convert the United States into a socialist nation. The debate, however, is not about the merits of socialism over capitalism and free markets; the debate is about water. The bill will give to the federal government control over all water in the United States, and control over all "… activities affecting these waters." Water is essential in the production of virtually everything....

OK!!! Lately, there seems to have been a torrent of info, ads, websites, radio shows, etc about "run your car on water". Including the C2C show last night, that featured Ari Cohen & Fred Gutierrez, promoters of a site called water4gas. So my question is: Are they shucksters? The basic idea is somewhat misstated. You obviously can't "burn water" Well, maybe you could if you lived on a planet with a Flourine atmosphere or something. But what these devices do is to take water, and using electricity from your battery/alternator, decompose it back into the hydrogen and oxygen it is...

Major Michael Blankenship, from Jonesborough, Tenn., 489th CA Bn., samples purified water from the windmill in al-Zatir, Iraq, May 5. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Justin Snyder. FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — U.S. troops visited windmills in al-Zatir and Hollandia, Iraq, on a quality analysis and control trip May 5. The Soldiers with 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, the 489th Civil Affairs Battalion, and 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, made the trip to check on progress made on windmills over the past eight months. Major Michael Blankenship, from Jonesborough, Tenn., 489th CA Bn., oversees the...

SACRAMENTO - All indications point to water cutbacks this summer and probably next year, based on reports from the governor's office, the state Department of Water Resources and Antelope Valley water agencies. The most recent assessment of California's water plight resulted from the final snow survey of 2008: Department of Water Resources officials announced last week that water content in the Northern Sierra Nevada snowpacks is at 67% of normal for the beginning of May. "Snow depth and water content declined since April," the Department of Water Resources said. Electronic sensors registered the water content in the snowpack at 82%...

Help for the survivors of Cyclone Nargis is on the way from Water Missions International (WMI). WMI is preparing 44 water purification systems for immediate deployment to aid survivors of last Saturday's deadly cyclone in Myanmar. The 44 Living Water(TM) Treatment Systems (LWTS(TM)) have been requested from other organizations around the United States who are working to get relief to the people of Myanmar. World Vision has requested 20 water systems, Operation Blessing has requested up to 12, and Samaritan's Purse has asked for 12 water systems to be ready for transport this Friday, May 9. According to a media...

Save water to avoid eating you neighbour By Chris Turney Last Updated: 1:01pm BST 02/05/2008 It's easy to get hung up on the tag 'global warming'. There's no doubt it's a useful catchphrase for describing the challenges we face, but there's always the risk that our predicament is just seen as warming. Temperature is of course an important facet of the climate, but it's not our only concern. Downpours in the future are likely to vary around the world and throughout the year. The combined effect of changing rainfall and increasing temperature will mean that some regions will get wetter,...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Approximately 120 men of the Chalabi tribe returned to their homes recently in the Sayafiyah region, about 25 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, more than a year after being driven out by al-Qaeda in Iraq extremists. Escorted by Sons of Iraq leader Jumah al-Kazarji and Soldiers of 1st Platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), a large convoy of cars and trucks ushered the Chalabi men back to their abandoned village. Their reclamation of homes signaled the hopeful beginning of a new era of peace and...

Two parched years - punctuated by the driest spring in at least 150 years - could force districts across California to ration water this summer as policymakers and scientists grow increasingly concerned that the state is on the verge of a long-term drought. State water officials reported Thursday that the Sierra Nevada snowpack, the source of a huge portion of California's water supply, was only 67 percent of normal, due in part to historically low rainfall in March and April. With many reservoirs at well-below-average levels from the previous winter and a federal ruling limiting water pumped from the Sacramento-San...

With water shortages looming, it's time to commit to building seawater desalting plants. Prompt action can bring new rivers of freshwater and avert disasters. Desalination is likely to become one of the world's biggest industries. Growing communities and new industries must have dependable water supplies in order to prosper. If droughts, exhaustion of groundwater sources, decline of lake or river levels, or a combination of such factors threaten an area's water supply, siteseeking firms may look elsewhere, giving waterrich areas a competitive advantage. Desalting systems have long proven effective in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Saudi...

While a growing number of countries have announced their civilian nuclear energy ambitions over the past twelve months, no other country is likely to have more of a psychological impact on the nuclear energy picture than Saudi Arabia. We believe the Kingdom’s natural gas and water problems will lead them to nuclear, sooner rather than later, probably as early as this year. After our interview with Kevin Bambrough, which resulted in the widely read article, ‘Explosion in Nuclear Energy Demand Coming,” we began more deeply researching Bambrough’s conclusion. He believes the overwhelming growth in nuclear energy will continue to drive...

I am posting this important and breaking news ahead of Sacramento TV stations and The Sacramento Bee. The California Resources Agency this evening in Clarksburg, California held a meeting in which they presented their plans to "save" the vital agricultural heartland of California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region. Option four of the presentation (which can be found here: http://baydeltaoffice.water.ca.gov/sdb/bdcp/bdcp_draft_scoping_meeting.pdf ) includes a PERIPHERAL CANAL starting south of Freeport in Scribner Bend and following the exact route of the proposed 1982 Peripheral Canal to the pumping stations of Clifton Court Forebay. But that's not all. Option four as presented this evening also...

"Water is precious and we've got to realise that water's not always there. You need to save it," says Sonia, a pupil at Wattle Park Primary School in Melbourne. That is the lesson children in Melbourne are learning every day. After 10 years of drought, water restrictions have always been part of their lives. When they wake up they use timers to take two minute showers, and collect the water in buckets so it can be re-used in the garden. At school they have "scarecrow monitors" whose job it is to oversee the filling of more buckets from under the...

Warning to residents of Hopewell, VA and surrounding area about the water.

DENILIQUIN, Australia: Lindsay Renwick, the mayor of this dusty southern Australian town, remembers the constant whir of the rice mill. "It was our little heartbeat out there, tickety-tick-tickety," he said, imitating the giant fans that dried the rice, "and now it has stopped." The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere, once processed enough grain to satisfy the daily needs of 20 million people. But six long years of drought have taken a toll, reducing Australia's rice crop by 98 percent and leading to the mothballing of the mill last December. Ten thousand miles separate the mill's...

AL KUT — Coalition forces conducted an assessment of the al Kut Water Company last week. Lt. Col. Mario E. Murcia, an engineer with El Salvador’s Cuscatlán Battalion’s Civil Military Cooperation team, visited the water company to assess its capacity and maintenance. The water company supplies 300,000 residents of the city with water, said Diaa Mohammed Obed, an engineer and supervisor of the water company. Using five pumps, water is carried from the Tigris River to the plant for treatment. Once treated, four additional pumps carry the water from the plant to residents in the city. The company also uses...

An Iraqi man drinks fresh water from an artesian well that was installed at the al-Hamza School in Bayjia, Iraq. The well was built using Commander’s Emergency Relief Program funds provided by the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. DoD photo. FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Before an artesian well opened for use April 10, residents of Zambraniya and Bayjia were forced to drink directly from the Tigris River or travel up to 10 kilometers for drinking water. The new well, located at the al-Hamza School in Bayjia, is capable of producing 6000 gallons of fresh water per day...

Is this the beginning of water wars? 18:00 11 April 2008 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic As Barcelona runs out of water, Spain has been forced to consider importing water from France by boat. It is the latest example of the growing struggle for water around the world – the "water wars". Barcelona and the surrounding region are suffering the worst drought in decades. There are several possible solutions, including diverting a river, and desalinating water. But the city looks like it will ship water from the French port of Marseilles. The water services authority in Marseille say that no...

Water Rate Increase Hitting Charlotte Residents HardUPDATED: 6:26 pm EDT April 8, 2008 CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Living in Mecklenburg County just got more expensive. People have been conserving so much; the utilities department now has a $20 million shortfall. City Council approved a 15 percent rate hike Monday night. That's not the only bill you have worry about. Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas are also asking for more money. As a single mother of three teenagers, Becky Kosinski is brought to tears over the news. "Oh, I just take it one day at a time, and just hope everything...

Imagine that your city bans you from watering you lawn, washing your car, and urgently asks you to conserve water. You do what you are told. You are a good little citizen who was doing your part to conserve water during a drought. Then your city council realizes that you did too good of a job conserving water, and now the government is going to lose millions of dollars in revenue. What's the solution ... raise the price on water! Well that's exactly what's happening in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Charlotte City Council approved a steep increase in water and...

They've been praying for rain in the thirsty American South. Will they prey upon the Great Lakes next? Whether diverting Lake Erie or other Great Lakes water to bail out our dried-up fellow states is preposterous or possible is a matter of dramatically different opinions. But when Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and some state lawmakers bowed their heads last November, they illustrated the continuing desperation as drought persists in parts of the United States. "That picture -- the governor of Georgia praying for rain on the Statehouse steps -- has been burned into my memory, that's for sure," said Sean...

A young boy cools off in a pool of clean water at the Mushada Water Treatment Plant March 26. U.S. Army photo by Capt. Allison Flannigan, 3rd BCT, 101st Abn. Div. (AASLT). CAMP STRIKER — A ribbon-cutting ceremony March 26 marked the opening of the Mushada Water Treatment Plant, north of Mahmudiyah, a facility that will benefit thousands of area residents.Col. Muhammad, commander of 3rd Battalion, 25th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, and Col. Dominic Caraccilo, commander of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), attended the ceremony and spoke to visitors about the event.Following the speeches, Muhammad...

Associated Press DENVER --High concentrations of chlorine being used to purge salmonella from a southern Colorado town's water system were expected to drop far enough Saturday that residents could use the water for showering. The disinfection process in Alamosa began Tuesday, five days after officials confirmed the presence of the bacteria in the water. The source is still unknown. Nearly 300 people have become ill, with 73 cases of salmonella confirmed. During the cleansing, the chlorine level in Alamosa's tap water is more than five times greater than what's needed to keep a swimming pool clean. Authorities say it could...

A resident of Arab Jabour helps Coalition forces refill a potable water tank south of Combat Outpost Murray, March 20. Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team refill 30 containers weekly to supplement water purification units and wells undergoing construction and repair so local residents have easier access to clean water. Photo by Sgt. Luis Delgadillo, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs. FOB KALSU — A new well-water purification station opened in Al Buaytha March 25, north of Combat Outpost Murray. Since arriving in Arab Jabour 10 months ago, Coalition forces have assessed challenges facing the area....

Desalination gets a serious look It isn’t cheap and it requires lots of energy, but fresh water from the ocean might be part of Southern Nevada’s future as other sources dry up By Phoebe Sweet Fri, Mar 21, 2008 As the West dries up, water managers, politicians and environmental groups alike are searching for an option — any option — to create water. Recently, desalination has been the popular answer. Even the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which has said the technology is no silver bullet, is considering desalting despite its many challenges. Last month, Gov. Jim Gibbons made waves when...

Pasadena CA (SPX) Mar 20, 2008 NASA's Cassini spacecraft has discovered evidence that points to the existence of an underground ocean of water and ammonia on Saturn's moon Titan. The findings made using radar measurements of Titan's rotation will appear in the March 21 issue of the journal Science. "With its organic dunes, lakes, channels and mountains, Titan has one of the most varied, active and Earth-like surfaces in the solar system," said Ralph Lorenz, lead author of the paper and Cassini radar scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., "Now we see changes in the...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, a restaurateur turned politician, called on his former colleagues in the restaurant business Thursday to stop selling bottled water to customers and start serving local tap water instead. The mayor made international headlines last year when he banned city government from spending tax dollars on bottled water for its employees, saying the containers clog landfills and pollute the environment. But his new request that restaurants make the switch is just that - a request. "Not every restaurant is going to be able to afford to do this," Newsom said, noting that restaurants make a significant...

3/14/2008 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- For Airmen stationed at Balad Air Base and Soldiers at the co-located Logistics Support Area Anaconda, staying hydrated is crucial in the desert heat of Iraq. In order to keep hydrated, servicemembers here need to have the confidence the water available to them is safe, so the water undergoes extensive testing by multiple sources to ensure its safety. "Not only is the water safe for personal use, but we even ensure that the bottled water and ice meet the same standard," said Master Sgt. Anthony Dudley, the Logistics Support Area Anaconda Mayor's...

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq, March 13, 2008 – As the desert weather heats up, Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers will need to keep drinking plenty of water to avoid dehydration. The Camp Liberty Oasis International Waters water treatment facility has been working 24 hours a day since the summer of 2005 to provide a continuous flow of purified bottled water to the thirsty troops. Bruce Everson, a native of Townsville, Queensland, Australia, general manager of Oasis International Waters water treatment facility at Camp Liberty, Iraq, holds a bottle of freshly purified water, March 12, 2008. Photo by Pfc. Samantha Schutz, USA  (Click...

Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says. A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq. The Defense Department's inspector general's report, which could be released as early as Monday, found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites...

A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows. To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe. But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences...

SPOKANE — The era of massive dam construction in the West — which tamed rivers, swallowed towns and created irrigated agriculture, cheap hydropower and persistent environmental problems — effectively ended in 1966 with the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona. But a booming population and growing fears about climate change have governments once again studying dams, this time to create huge reservoirs to capture more winter rain and spring snowmelt for use in dry summer months. New dams are being studied in Washington, California, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada and other states, even as dams are being torn down across...

A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows. To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe. But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences...

A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows. To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe. **snip** In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas — from Southern California to Northern...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, Iraq, March 7, 2008 – Soldiers from 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team delivered 240 cases of bottled water March 5 to a town east of Baghdad. Members of the Sons of Iraq citizen security group of Narhwan, Iraq, unload drinking water provided by 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, March 5, 2008. Photo by Spc. Ben Hutto, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The soldiers brought the water to the “Sons of Iraq” citizen security group’s headquarters in Narhwan for distribution. “Water is very important here,” said Army Sgt. Lucas Walrod, from Panama, N.Y., a...

FOB HAMMER — To assess the water production of two windmill-powered ground water pumps in Narhwan, leaders from 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team (HBCT) and Multi-National Corps – Iraq (MNC-I) visited two villages, March 1. The first stop for Col. Ryan Kuhn, deputy commanding officer for 3rd HBCT, and Maj. Chris Hempel, agricultural officer from MNC-I Civil-Military Operations Cell, was the village of al Zatia, where they met with the head contractor for both windmill projects. Analyzing the windmill-powered pumps’ capability to produce clean water led him to consider using the pumps for irrigation, Hempel, from Elizabeth, N.J., said. After...

Windmill With A Twist Can Provide Fresh Water From Seawater DirectlyThe first prototype has been built and is already working at a location near the A13 motorway near Delft. This prototype is to be dismantled and transported to Curaçao the first week of March. There the concept will be tested on seawater. (Credit: Image courtesy of Delft University of Technology) ScienceDaily (Mar. 3, 2008) — A traditional windmill which drives a pump: that is the simple concept behind the combination of windmill/reverse osmosis developed by the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in The Netherlands. In this case, it involves...

(BEIJING) — When 16,000 athletes and officials show up this summer, they will be able to turn the taps and get drinkable water — something few Beijing residents ever have enjoyed. But to keep those taps flowing for the Olympics, the city is draining surrounding regions, depriving poor farmers of water. Though the Chinese capital's filthy air makes headlines, water may be its most desperate environmental challenge. Explosive growth combined with a persistent drought mean the city of 17 million people is fast running out of water. Meanwhile, rainfall has been below average since 1999. The result: Water resources per...

FOB HAMMER — Soldiers of Company A, 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery visited the Tesah Nissan village Feb. 27, bringing with them 480 cases of clean drinking water. “We do this every week,” said Capt. Chas Cannon, from Moultrie, Ga., Company A commander. “This is about our 22nd time doing it.” Cannon gets the water from an Iraqi contractor, through a Commander’s Emergency Relief Program. Members of the local sheiks’ advisory council choose which village will receive the shipment of water each week, Cannon said. “We have a loud speaker and broadcast that we’re there,” he said. “They know what’s...

ATLANTA — Chattanooga city officials waded into the border war between Tennessee and Georgia Wednesday when they delivered about 2,000 bottles of water to lawmakers in the drought-parched Peach State. Dressed in a coonskin hat and 19th century frontiersman garb, Matt Lea, special assistant to Mayor Ron Littlefield, described the gesture as “a humorous political joke.” But Georgia Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, said lawmakers accepted the bottled water as “a small down payment on the billions of gallons of Georgia water that flows from our creeks and streams into the Tennessee River every year.” The trip was billed as a...

“Give Our Georgia Friends A Drink Day” Proclaimed The city of Chattanooga, facing a possible Georgia land grab as part of an effort to get access to the Tennessee River, is sending a truck load of bottled water to Atlanta. Mayor Ron Littlefield said the water will be delivered on Wednesday by his aide Matt Lea wearing a coonskin cap. The mayor has officially proclaimed Feb. 27, 2008, as “Give our Georgia Friends a Drink Day.” The proclamation comes as a result of the Georgia Legislature passing a joint resolution that seeks to pursue reestablishing the boundary between Georgia and...

PALM SPRINGS - The flamboyant mayor of Las Vegas may have opened up a multistate water war last week, when he said "no one is going to allow us to go dry" and vowed to go after Southern California's water, it was reported today. Mayor Oscar Goodman's comments come as officials from Wyoming to Mexico contemplate the prospect of a shriveling Colorado River, where global climate changes might dry up much of the vast water supply for people from Tucson to Tijuana, and Denver to Los Angeles. Goodman reportedly said last week that farmers in California "will have their fields...

Years ago a Georgia planner joked, half seriously, that the Peach State should just “stick a straw” in the Tennessee River to bring water to thirsty Atlanta. The analogy may turn out to be easier than anyone thought. Regional cavers are suggesting on their blogs that Georgia take advantage of Tennessee River water backed up years ago by TVA dams into Nickajack Cave and some connected caverns. They say water captured from the Tennessee River flows underground into Georgia and Alabama. If engineers could drill in, then courts might have to decide if the water is groundwater or impounded Tennessee...

Colorado health officials estimate that it will cost $5 million to launch an emergency water-pumping program next week to avert a potential catastrophic blowout at an old mine tunnel here. Such an event could send a toxic brew laced with heavy metals into the Arkansas River and harm hundreds of people in this historic mountain community. Jim Martin, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, told townspeople Friday the state will do everything it can to jump-start a response plan that includes pumping water out of the tunnel to relieve pressure and to treat the water...

NASHVILLE — Tennessee officials are denouncing a resolution passed by the Georgia Legislature that urges a reconsideration of the boundary between the two states. Georgia lawmakers, led by Republican state Sen. David Shafer, argue that the border was wrongly drawn in the 19th century, depriving drought-stricken Georgians of their rightful access to the plentiful water supply of the Tennessee River. Tennessee Rep. Gerald McCormick, a Chattanooga Republican, called the resolution “silliest thing I’ve ever seen any group of Republicans do.” “I’m embarrassed that they would embarrass the party like that,” he said. “They’re idiots.” Congress in 1796 designated that Tennessee’s...

Mike Adamson remembers when water wasn't such a problem. As a kid growing up on his family's cattle feedlot along the Colorado-Kansas border, "you could dig a post hole and see water runnin' in the bottom," he recalls. Today, Adamson is 48 and in charge of the family business, Adamson Brothers and Sons Feedlot, a holding ranch for cattle as they go to market. And the water, he says, is disappearing. "The lakes are gone. The wetlands are gone." In fact, Adamson adds, entire stretches of the nearby Republican River are gone. In the arid regions of the American West,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sudden, tremendous gushes of water from underground most likely carved out unusual fan-shaped geological formations with steps like a staircase long ago on the surface of Mars, scientists said on Wednesday. The Martian surface boasts perhaps 200 large basins that have formations resembling fans. About 10 of them are terraced, with what looks like steps into the basin. Since they were first seen three years ago, scientists have debated how these formations, some of them 9 miles wide, were created. Dutch and U.S. researchers simulated on Earth on a vastly smaller scale the conditions that might have...