Water Resources

Even as the researchers have been trying to unravel the tangled effects of pesticides and other chemicals on children’s development, they’ve been devising practical ways to help the study’s participants reduce their risk of exposure—a rare example of community engagement by academic scientists. In a place that’s often sharply polarized between those who own the fields and those who work in them, CHAMACOS researchers have insisted on involving all sides.

A revolutionary University of Colorado Boulder toilet fueled by the sun that is being developed to help some of the 2.5 billion people around the world lacking safe and sustainable sanitation will be unveiled in India this month.

Editor's Note: This article originially appeared on the UC Davis Center for Environmental Policy and Behavior's blog.

Switzer Fellows Evan Hansen and Mike Wilson testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works about how we might prevent chemical threats and improve safety at facilities across the country.

An hour south of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania’s Washington County, millions of gallons of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing wells are stored in large impoundment ponds and so-called "closed container" tanks. The wastewater is then piped to treatment plants, where it is cleaned up and discharged into streams; trucked to Ohio and pumped deep down injection wells; or reused in other fracking operations.

Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) announced the completion of its first project in Mexico in alignment with its technical-scientific agreement signed in December 2012 with Mexico's federal environmental agency, the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change (INECC). The three-week survey of beach contaminants for the State of Guerrero, an area that encompasses several major resorts including Acapulco, found strong evidence of environmental pollutants including plastics, mercury, and petroleum pollution along the coastline.

In 2012, through a Switzer Leadership Grant, I had the opportunity to join the Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy to help advance work in freshwater conservation and climate change adaptation in the bi-national Lake Champlain Basin.

In addition to multiple concerns related to the CDC’s safety standards, methodology, and transparency, Hansen said he feels much of the blame falls on the state and the long history of lax oversight this incident exposed.