WASHINGTON, March 11, 2026 – The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a $52 million credit for the Nepal Clean Air and Prosperity Project to reduce air pollution and strengthen air quality management. The project will help reduce fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions, particularly from industrial and commercial boilers and furnaces, while strengthening national systems for air quality management. It will focus on the Kathmandu Valley, the Terai, and surrounding foothill regions where air pollution poses severe risks. “Air pollution is not only a public health crisis but also a significant economic burden in Nepal, costing the country more than six percent of GDP each year through health costs and lost labor productivity,” said David Sislen, Division Director for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. “This project aims to protect millions of people from harmful pollution by helping Nepali enterprises adopt cleaner and more efficient technologies that at the same time also lower operating costs, improve competitiveness, and support sustainable industrial growth.” Industrial emissions are projected to become the largest source of air pollution in the coming years as the country continues to industrialize, underscoring the urgency of cleaner production technologies. Through a combination of clean technology financing, incentives, and technical assistance, the project will support around 400 industrial and commercial enterprises to adopt electric boilers/furnaces, modern biomass boilers/furnaces, or advanced emission control technologies, leading to substantial air quality improvements. “The adoption of clean technology is limited in Nepal due to a combination of high upfront investment costs, constrained access to long-term financing, and low technical capacity among enterprises,” said Martin Heger, World Bank Senior Environmental Economist, South Asia Region. “This project addresses these barriers by pairing long tenor financing and targeted capital incentives with hands-on technical assistance, helping industries to transition to cleaner production.” The project will be implemented by the Department of Industry under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies and the Department of Environment under the Ministry of Forests and Environment. Rastriya Banijya Bank will serve as the handling bank for the clean technology financing facility. The project financing from the World Bank is complemented by a $5 million grant from the World Bank’s Resilient Asia Program—funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The project is part of the World Bank’s Regional Air Quality Management Program in the Indo-Gangetic Plains and Himalayan Foothills (IGP-HF), a global air pollution hotspot. ###

DE SOTO, Iowa (AP) — Standing alongside his son’s Ford pickup truck at a central Iowa gas station off Interstate 80, Francisco Castillo was not happy. He had voted for President Donald Trump in the last election. He believed Trump had strengthened the economy in his first term, and he wanted more of that. “I thought that he was going to bring some of those things back,” said Castillo, a 43-year-old factory worker. And now? “He said he was going to bring gas down, but the war in Iran is now making everything worse.” It seems a country divided on so many fronts is finding common ground in pain at the pump, where the cost of the Iran war is hitting Americans squarely in the wallet and aggravating people across the political spectrum. Marcus Hopkins, a street performer, does a backflip in front of advertised gas prices Monday, March 9, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) Read More Marcus Hopkins, a street performer, does a backflip in front of advertised gas prices Monday, March 9, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Francisco Castillo stands next to his son’s Ford F-150 after filling up, Monday, March 9, 2026, at a gas station in De Soto, Iowa. (AP Photo/Hannah Fingerhut) Read More Francisco Castillo stands next to his son’s Ford F-150 after filling up, Monday, March 9, 2026, at a gas station in De Soto, Iowa. (AP Photo/Hannah Fingerhut) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More For Castillo and many others filling their tanks on Monday at gas stations in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina and Iowa, it was a reminder that politicians’ promises aren’t going to pay the bills. “They do what benefits them,” Castillo said. “I have to go to work every day no matter what.” Some are optimistic that the sticker shock will be short-lived. Others blame corporate interests rather than the president. Electric vehicle owners are especially grateful about their decision as they cruise past gas stations with escalating prices. Related Stories Gasoline and diesel prices spike overnight as anxious drivers fill up tanks State of the Union offers Trump a chance to make the case for his foreign policy approach Senate Republicans vote down legislation to halt Iran war in Congress’ first vote on the conflict The national average gas price was $3.48 a gallon on Monday, up from $2.90 a month ago, before the war, according to tracking by AAA. The higher prices are a reminder of how Trump has veered from his campaign promises. Not only were Americans embroiled in a new war overseas, they were paying for it every time they filled up their tanks. The Republican president insisted the conflict was worth it. “We’re putting an end to all of this threat once and for all, and the result will be lower oil prices, oil and gas prices for American families,” he said at a news conference Monday. The war, he said, is “just an excursion into something that had to be done.” Robert Coon from Omaha, Nebraska, filled up on his way to Ames, Iowa. Though not a Trump voter, he believed the strikes in Iran needed to happen. Even so, he fears U.S. involvement is not going to go the way he wants, which is “in, out, over.” A Quinnipiac poll conducted over the weekend found about half of registered voters oppose the U.S. military action against Iran while about 4 in 10 support it. The vast majority of Democrats were against it (89%), the vast majority of Republicans for it (85%) and independents against it (60%). Overall, three-quarters were concerned about the war raising gas and oil prices. Recent polling also suggests that the vast majority of voters expect the U.S. action against Iran to last months or longer, and many worry it is making the U.S. less safe. Gas prices are displayed, Monday, March 9, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) Gas prices are displayed, Monday, March 9, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More In Florida, a gas guzzler keeps rolling For now, surging prices aren’t keeping Ray Albrecht from hauling his 32-foot (11 meter) camper on his Silverado pickup truck around the country as he attended motorcycle festivals like Bike Week in Florida’s Daytona Beach. However, he said he would stop traveling if the price reached $5 a gallon since he only gets 8 miles per gallon with his truck and camper. He stopped at a Speedway gas station off Interstate 4 in Winter Park, Florida, paying $3.59 per gallon for half a tank to keep him rolling toward his home in Wisconsin. “I’ve been pretty grateful that the gas prices have been really reasonable” at least until the last week, said Albrecht, 67, who identified as an independent voter. At the same gas station, Republican-leaning Tyler Nepple, 23, said the price of gas for his Toyota Tacoma may shape his vote in the midterm elections this fall but won’t change his driving habits. “You’ve just got to fill it up and bite the bullet and hope that the prices go back down — that’s all I can really do,” said Nepple, who runs a startup in the Orlando, Florida, area. “I still have to get from point A to point B, and I need gas to do that.” A retiree cuts back in Pennsylvania Kathryn Price Engelhard, 70, gassed up her Subaru Forester at a Wawa in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, in the Philadelphia suburbs. A retired nonprofit executive director and “strong Democrat,” she said she had to stop at over a half a tank because she’s on a fixed income. Last week, she paid only $30 to top herself off. Similarly, she cut her order for home heating oil by half because that cost is up, too. “I look at the prices of oil in the past and the stupid war, how did we — how did anybody — think that that was not going to impact oil?” she asked. “Of course it’s impacting oil.” In Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, Vivian Knight, 53, is hoping her fill-up last week will last her a month. She is a former exterminator out on disability. “If I had to go to work or something like that, gas prices would be ridiculous,” she said. Speaking of Trump, she said “he kind of starts some problems that really don’t need to be started,” and she puts the Iran war in that category. The saga will have no effect on how Joey Perillo, 74, will vote in November. “The gas price could have gone down to two cents a gallon and I’d vote against him,” said the volunteer firefighter, retired actor and political independent from Yardley, Pennsylvania. An American flag flies outside a gas station as gasoline prices are displayed on Sunday, March 8, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane) Read More An American flag flies outside a gas station as gasoline prices are displayed on Sunday, March 8, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More In Michigan, gratitude for electric cars In the Detroit suburb of Livonia, Anthony Gooden, 57, sized up the plight of gas-powered vehicle owners while waiting for his Chevy Equinox EV to charge at a station. “Whoa, they’re going through it right now,” said Gooden, 57, from nearby Redford Township. “And it’s only getting worse.” Gooden ditched his internal combustion engine vehicle over a year ago and said days like these reinforce that decision. “You’re happier now,” he said. “No comparison.” In Ann Arbor, Michigan, Elvana Hammoud, 55, a diversity strategist, drives a Mach-E electric SUV as well as a Ford Raptor truck that costs $100 to fill up when gas is over $3. It’s an easy choice which to use more now. “I mostly drive the EV, especially to work because I have a long commute,” she said. The Raptor is for snowy days, short errands or when moving something big. ”I used it more frequently just for fun when gas prices were lower.” Trump has put up a number of roadblocks to rapid expansion of electric vehicles in favor of policies promoting gasoline-powered ones. Among them, his tax and spending bill passed by Congress last year eliminated federal tax credits that saved buyers up to $7,500 off new and used EV purchases. Gas prices are visible on a marquee outside of a Kroger grocery store Monday, March 9, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) Read More Gas prices are visible on a marquee outside of a Kroger grocery store Monday, March 9, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More In North Carolina, worries about gouging Kevin Kertesz, 65, filled his pickup at a Shell station in Graham, North Carolina, where unleaded started at $3.34 per gallon, up from $2.59 in the area last week. The Republican retiree asserted that “everyone who is selling fuel for these elevated prices is price gouging, and there’s nothing we can do about it because we all have to have gasoline to keep driving.” Ken Shuttlesworth, a 70-year-old IT manager from Graham who described himself as an independent Democrat, said he can absorb higher gas costs but worries about his children and grandchildren and others who live closer to the financial margins. Trump, he said, should have consulted Congress and had a more public discussion before taking the country to war. “We have somebody who doesn’t follow the policy,” he said. “He follows his instincts.” ___ Householder reported from Michigan, Schneider from Florida, Catalini from Pennsylvania and Barrow from Georgia. Associated Press writers Calvin Woodward and Linley Sanders contributed.

DEATH VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — Death Valley, known as the driest place in North America, is teeming with life with a once-in-a-decade blossoming of wildflowers known as a superbloom, transforming a normally brown desert landscape into carpets of gold. Wildflowers bloom across parts of southern California and Nevada at different degrees usually every year. In some years, superblooms are so vibrant they can be seen from space. But it’s rare for Death Valley National Park, the hottest place on Earth, to burst with color. “This landscape that sometimes people think of as desolate or devoid of life is coming alive right now with this really beautiful palette of colors,” said park ranger Matthew Lamar. This year’s bloom is the best the park has seen since 2016 thanks to steady rainfall and warm temperatures in the last six months, Lamar said. A person walks in a field of wildflowers during a superbloom, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher) Read More A person walks in a field of wildflowers during a superbloom, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Death Valley received nearly a year’s worth of rain since October and experienced the wettest November on record, according to the National Park Service, with 1.76 inches (4.47 centimeters) of rain, allowing long-dormant seeds buried in the soil to burst through the surface. Related Stories A California photographer is on a quest to photograph hundreds of native bees 8 backcountry skiers found dead and 1 still missing after California avalanche Death Valley landmark Scotty’s Castle is reopening for limited tours after years of flood repairs Thriving in adversity Known as the “desert sunflower,” the desert gold flower blankets areas of the valley, with purple phacelia, brown-eyed primrose and the pink desert five-spot sprinkled throughout. Just north of the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, Las Vegas resident Jackie Gilbert appreciated the contrast between the field of gold flowers with the mountains behind it and the blue sky above. She said the flowers’ resilience is amazing. “It’s a good reminder that even in the face of all this adversity, that they can still thrive,” said Gilbert, who visited specifically to see the superbloom. Ecologists say the superbloom disproves a misconception about deserts: that there’s no life. Even in years without vibrant blooms, a lot of life happens in Death Valley, said Loralee Larios, plant ecologist at the University of California, Riverside. “The plants and the animals have developed really amazing strategies to be able to persist, and especially in a system like Death Valley that’s really sort of characterized by extremes,” Larios said. Tiffany Pereira, ecologist and associate research scientist at the Desert Research Institute, said desert plants have adapted to go decades without water, waiting for the perfect conditions for its seeds to germinate and spring to life. A person stands in a field of wildflowers during a superbloom Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher) Read More A person stands in a field of wildflowers during a superbloom Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Short-lived opportunity Time is of the essence to see these ephemeral, or short-lived, wildflowers. The fields of flowers on the park’s lower elevations are expected to remain until mid-to-late March, depending on the weather. Higher elevations will blossom with color April through June, according to the National Park Service. Visitors can check a poster outside of the visitor center for the best spots to view the flowers. In early March, fields of wildflowers are blooming just north of the visitor center, as well as south along Badwater Road. Ashford Mill, an hour’s drive from the visitor center, is also bursting with color, according to Lamar. A person looks closely in a field of wildflowers during a superbloom, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher) A person looks closely in a field of wildflowers during a superbloom, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More A person takes pictures of wildflowers during a superbloom, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher) A person takes pictures of wildflowers during a superbloom, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Ecologists and the park rangers caution visitors to stick to designated trails and avoid trampling on the flowers. Picking the flowers is prohibited, and touching the purple phacelia could cause skin irritation. Any flower plucked from the ground means fewer seeds planted for future generations to enjoy, Pereira said. Visitors should also watch their step for the sphinx moth caterpillars, which are scattered across the desert floor in search of the brown-eyed primrose to eat before it buries itself into the soil and transforms into a moth. “I think it’s a great time to come to Death Valley and have that unique experience because who knows when the next one will happen?” Lamar said. A person takes pictures of wildflowers during a superbloom, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher) Read More A person takes pictures of wildflowers during a superbloom, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. 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Commuters, residents and tourists who take to social media during warm months to complain about sweltering subway systems in New York, Boston and London should feel vindicated — new research says they aren’t alone. As temperatures rise aboveground, the number of subway riders reporting uncomfortable heat belowground increases, according to a new study in the journal Nature Cities on Tuesday. This could worsen as climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, makes for a hotter planet. Northwestern University researchers analyzed more than 85,000 crowdsourced social posts on the social platform X and Google Maps reviews from 2008 to 2024 in those three major cities’ subway systems. They searched for keywords related to being too hot — or what they called “thermal discomfort” — in those metropolises, which are some of the world’s oldest and busiest. The experts looked for terms such as “hot” and “warm” while filtering out results that did not seem to relate to temperature, such as “hot dog.” The study’s authors said subway riders may expect temperatures to be naturally cooler underground. They found that a 1-degree Fahrenheit (0.56-degree Celsius) increase in outdoor temperature led to a 10% increase in complaints in Boston, 12% in New York and 27% in London. Earth’s average temperature warmed 1 degree F (0.56 degrees C) from 2008 to 2024, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Related Stories What to know about EPA decision to revoke a scientific finding that helped fight climate change Scientists change how El Nino is labeled to keep up with spike in temperature Scientific studies calculate climate change as health danger, while Trump calls it a 'scam' The researchers analyzed posts across seasons, time of day and day of week. “Interestingly, over the weekend, people complained less,” said Giorgia Chinazzo, assistant professor in Northwestern’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, who co-authored the study with associate professor Alessandro Rotta Loria. Chinazzo speculated that one reason may be that people were dressing differently than on workdays. Some limitations Flavio Lehner, an assistant professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell University who was not involved in the work, said the research “follows the template of previous studies that link environmental conditions to human behavior using social media data.” He has also studied how warm conditions trigger a stronger online reaction. Lehner said limitations of the research include only monitoring three city transit systems, and it being difficult to control for other factors influencing social media behavior. A railway worker hands out bottles of water to passengers at King’s Cross railway station where there are train cancellations during a heat wave in London, July 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File) Read More A railway worker hands out bottles of water to passengers at King’s Cross railway station where there are train cancellations during a heat wave in London, July 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More University of Washington public health and climate professor Kris Ebi, who was also not involved in the study, said the actual impact of subway heat is likely to be greater than researchers found because vulnerable groups are underrepresented on social media. Ebi said the size of the study “provides compelling evidence that cities should be planning for measures to keep people safe during hot weather.” The potential for energy savings Work such as this could certainly play a role in influencing how policymakers and subway operators adjust to heat extremes. “We’re all experiencing rising temperatures. So those above will be reflected underground, and this will be reflected in people complaining more and more,” Chinazzo said. “Mitigation and adaptation strategies are things that will be much more implemented in the future.” Bottles of water are piled up to give to passengers at King’s Cross railway station where trains are cancelled due to the heat in London, July 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File) Read More Bottles of water are piled up to give to passengers at King’s Cross railway station where trains are cancelled due to the heat in London, July 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More This could mean installing fans or operating cooling at more specific times of day. It could also mean offering drinking water at certain times. “We need new technologies and tools, new methodologies that people can use to face these changes in temperatures that everyone is aware of and experiencing nowadays,” she added. “And it will be worse in the future.” ___ Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org. ___ Read more of AP’s climate coverage. ___ The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

It’s midmorning in late February, and Bruce Smith is regaling two ice fishing buddies when a tug on his line interrupts the story. “There we go!” he shouts as a shimmering 23-inch whitefish appears through a hole in the ice. “That’ll make a nice filet.” No sooner has Smith tossed it into a cooler than his buddy Terry Gross reels in another one. Five minutes later came another bite, then another, until by 10:30 a.m. the trio had hauled in 15 fish — halfway to their daily limit, even after putting several back. Welcome to southern Green Bay. Or as Smith likes to call it, “Whitefish Town, USA.” Once written off as too polluted to support many whitefish, the shallow, narrow bay in northwest Lake Michigan has produced an unlikely population boom in recent years, even as the iconic species vanishes from most of the lower Great Lakes. The collapse has dealt a blow to Michigan’s environment, culture, economy and dinner plates. Oddly enough, nutrient pollution from farms and factories may help bolster the bay’s whitefish population, spawning a world-class recreational fishing scene while helping a handful of commercial fisheries in Michigan and Wisconsin stay afloat despite the collapse in the wider lake. Related Stories Maine's catch of lobster declines again as high costs and climate change impact industry Stop! Thief! Sharks Are Taking A Larger Bite Of Hawaiʻi Fishermen’s Catch Groups running out of time to raise millions to save unique Michigan prairie “This is a paradise,” Smith said. “The best fishing I can ever remember, for the species I want to catch.” As scientists work to understand what makes Green Bay unique, their findings could aid whitefish recovery efforts throughout the Great Lakes. Michigan biologists, for example, have drawn inspiration from Green Bay’s sheltered, nutrient-rich waters as they attempt to transplant the state’s whitefish into areas with similar characteristics. “Having places they (whitefish) are doing well … gives us context for the places that they aren’t doing well,” said Matt Herbert, a senior conservation scientist with the Nature Conservancy in Michigan. “It helps us to figure out, how can we intervene?” But lately, sophisticated population models have shown fewer baby fish making their way into the Green Bay population, prompting worries that Lake Michigan’s last whitefish stronghold may be weakening. A Great Lakes miracle Before the Clean Water Act of 1972 and subsequent cleanup efforts, paper mills along the lower Fox River — the bay’s largest tributary — dumped toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the water without restraint while silty, fertilizer-soaked runoff poured off upstream farms. Southern Green Bay was no place for “a self-respecting whitefish,” said Scott Hansen, senior fisheries biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Lake Michigan’s much larger main basin, meanwhile, was full of them. Commercial fisherman Todd Stuth’s business got 80% of its catch from the open waters of Lake Michigan before the turn of the millenium. Now, 90% comes from Green Bay. How did things change so dramatically? First, invasive filter-feeding zebra and quagga mussels arrived in the Great Lakes from Eastern Europe and multiplied over decades, eventually monopolizing the nutrients and plankton that fish need to survive. Whitefish populations in lakes Michigan and Huron have tanked as a result. Fortunately for Wisconsin and a sliver of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Hansen said, “Southern Green Bay kept building.” In the late 1990s, scientists began spotting the fish in Green Bay area rivers where they hadn’t been seen in a century. Soon the species started showing up during surveys of lower Green Bay. By the early 2010s, models show the bay was teeming with tens of millions of them. It’s not entirely clear what caused the whitefish revival, but most see cleaner water as part of the equation. A decades-long restoration project has cleared away more than 6 million yards of sediment laced with PBCs and nutrient-laced farm runoff from the Fox River and lower Green Bay. Phosphorus concentrations near the rivermouth have declined by a third over 40 years — though they’re still considered too high. “Pelicans are back, and the bird population seems to be thriving,” said Sarah Bartlett, a water resources specialist with the Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage District, which monitors the bay’s water quality. “And now we have this world-class fishery.” Hansen’s theory is that back when whitefish were still abundant in Lake Michigan, some wanderers strayed into the newly hospitable bay and decided to stay. Or maybe they were here all along, waiting for the right conditions to multiply. Either way, the bay has become a lifeline for whitefish and the humans that eat them. “I feel very fortunate that the bay is doing as well as it is,” said Stuth, who chairs the state commercial fishing board. As commercial harvests in the Wisconsin waters of Lake Michigan plummeted from more than 1.6 million pounds in 2000 to less than 200,000 pounds in 2024, harvests in Green Bay skyrocketed from less than 100,000 pounds to more than 800,000. The bay has also become more important to fishers in Michigan, which has jurisdiction over a portion of its waters. While the state’s total commercial harvests from Lake Michigan have plummeted 70% since 2009 to just 1.2 million pounds annually, the decline would be steeper were it not for stable stocks in the bay. Once accounting for just a sliver of the catch, the bay now makes up more than half. A recreational ice fishing scene has sprung up too, with thousands of anglers taking to the ice each winter, contributing tens of millions to the local economy. Ironically, the bay’s lingering nutrient pollution may be helping to some extent – a dynamic also seen in Michigan’s Saginaw Bay. Nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen are the building blocks of life, fueling the growth of aquatic plants and algae at the base of the food web. Plankton eat the algae, small fish eat the plankton, and big fish eat the small fish. Unlike the main basins, where mussels have hogged nutrients and starved out whitefish, polluted runoff leaves the shallow bays with more than enough for the mussels and everything else. Some have even suggested Michigan and its neighbors should start fertilizing the big lakes in hopes of giving whitefish a boost, Herbert said, but “there’s the question of feasibility.” First, because the lakes are far deeper and wider than the bays, it would take vast quantities to make an impact. And while excess nutrients may help feed fish, they could also cause oxygen-deprived dead zones, harmful algae blooms and other serious problems. Green Bay is already offering other lessons for Michigan, though. Inspired by whitefish’s return to the bay’s rivers, biologists including Herbert are trying to coax Michigan whitefish to spawn in rivers that connect to nutrient-rich rivermouths like Lake Charlevoix. The hope is that if hatchlings can spend a few months fattening up before migrating into the mussel-infested big lake, they’ll stand a better chance of surviving. Scientists in Green Bay are also tracking whitefish movements, hoping to figure out where they spawn and what makes those habitats special. That kind of information could prove useful to recovery efforts throughout the Great Lakes, said Dan Isermann, a fish biologist with the US Geological Survey. Living in ‘the good old days’ “We’re really lucky to have what we have here,” said JJ Malvitz, a commercial fishing guide who owes his career to Green Bay’s whitefish resurgence. But he lives with fear that “the good old days are now.” Stocks have shrunk by half since the mid-2010s, according to population models fed with data from DNR surveys and commercial and recreational harvests. The adult whitefish seem to be fat and healthy. But for reasons unknown, fewer of their offspring have been making it to adulthood. It’s possible the bay’s population is just leveling off after a period of strong recruitment, Hansen said, “but we want to be vigilant.” A recent string of lackluster winters adds to the concern. Whitefish lay their eggs on ice-covered reefs. When that protective layer fails to form or melts off early, the eggs can be battered by waves or enticed to hatch early, out of sync with the spring plankton bloom that serves as their main food source. While this winter was icier than most, climate change is making low-ice winters more frequent. “Whitefish are a cold-water species, and we know that’s not where the trends are going,” Hansen said. Time to cut back? So far, Wisconsin officials haven’t lowered Green Bay’s annual whitefish quota of 2.28 million pounds, evenly split between the commercial and sport fisheries. Commercial boats are limited to fish bigger than 17 inches, while recreational anglers are limited to 10 fish a day of any size. But during a recent presentation to the state’s Natural Resources Board, Hansen said it’s time to start keeping closer tabs on the population. “If these trends continue,” he said, “We need to have some more serious discussions amongst ourselves about lowering the exploitation rates.” Malvitz, the guide, believes it’s time for commercial and recreational anglers to collectively agree to harvest fewer fish. He would be satisfied with a five-fish limit for recreational anglers along with smaller quotas for the commercial fishery, which harvests far more fish. The bay’s whitefish reappeared quickly and unexpectedly, he said. Who’s to say they couldn’t disappear just as fast? “I don’t want to be standing on the shore in five years saying ‘remember when,’” he said. Stuth, the commercial fishing board chair, isn’t ready to accept tighter quotas in the bay, but said population models should be closely watched. If the declines continue, he said, cuts may be on the table. “A very conservative approach is going to be necessary,” he said. “Because it’s our last stronghold. If that goes away, what do we have?” ___ This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

In recent years, local small-boat fishers who pursue prized bottomfish such as ehu, onaga and the red opakapaka that’s popular on table spreads across Hawaiʻi each New Year’s have seen a troubling spike in sharks that swoop in and tear their catch off the hook. “They’re basically losing money because they can’t bring in the fish,” said Phil Fernandez, president of the advocacy group Hawaiʻi Fishermen’s Alliance for Conservation and Tradition. “The fish markets won’t buy a fish that has a bite on it.” The growing incidents, known as shark depredation, have grown so common in Hawaiʻi’s coastal waters and other parts of the Pacific, he said, that many of those bottomfishers, trollers and others who rely on the catch for their livelihood are on the verge of giving up the trade. Some fishers call such depredation “paying the tax man,” and the tax is growing. Reports indicate sharks now bite off catch in at least 1 of every 4 licensed fishing trips out on Hawaiian waters. The rates are currently at their highest on record in the 20 or so years the state has been collecting that data, aquatic biologist Bryan Ishida said. Various shark repellents that exploit the animals’ aversion to certain chemicals, electric charges and magnetic fields are already for sale and used by ocean swimmers and fishers in other regions, such as Florida, where recreational fishing is a big draw. Related Stories Michigan lags US in outdoor economy growth, report says Military’s Haleakala telescope project draws deep opposition on Maui Injured mother manatee and calf are rescued in Florida and taken to SeaWorld However, researchers and fishers in the Pacific have only just started testing those repellents to see which types and designs might work best locally. So far, the results have been mixed. “Personally, I didn’t really know anything about the Western Pacific, and so I would love to get out there and test,” said Eric Stroud, a managing partner with the research and development company SharkDefense, which makes chemical repellents. He’s interested in getting to Guam in particular because incidents there are especially high. He wants to study how people there fish and see how his company could supply them with repellents. Shark depredation was among the most pressing issues that fishers around the Pacific raised during a series of listening sessions that the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council held last year. The group held a follow-up workshop in February on efforts to further address the problem and plans to report on the findings at Wespac’s next Scientific and Statistical Committee meeting March 17. Meanwhile, scientists with the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa’s Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology are training local fishers to use forensic DNA kits on torn and bitten fish to trace which shark species nabbed their catch. They’re also tracking shark movements over time to see how often they visit key fishing grounds, institute officials said, to ultimately try and reduce those encounters with small-boat fishers. “We are building the first truly comprehensive effort,” institute research professor Carl Meyer said in an emailed summary, “to understand and mitigate shark depredation in these fisheries.” Magnetic Fields And Stinky Repellants Fernandez, who’s been troll-fishing off the Kona Coast since the late 1980s, said shark depredation wasn’t an issue on Hawaiʻi island when he started fishing there. The incidents only started to emerge in the past 20 years, he said, and then grew into a serious concern for small-boat fishers in the past several years. It’s still not clear what’s causing the uptick in plundering, Stroud and others said. Some suspect it’s related to warming waters due to climate change driving the fish that sharks prey on to different areas. “There’s a lot of speculation,” Fernandez said. Many fishermen think the local reef, Galapagos and tiger sharks as well as pelagic oceanic whitetips that visit the area have learned to associate small fishing boats with an easy way to grab a meal. Small boats that frequent the Penguin Banks fishing grounds — which are off of Molokaʻi — now constantly move around to avoid sharks spotted nearby. Some fishers turn off their engines the moment they catch a fish, Fernandez added, because they’re worried sharks connect the sound of the propeller to an easy meal. “Sharks,” he said, “are very smart.” They also have a unique sensitivity to magnetic fields that the ahi and other fish species sought by fishers don’t have. Developers have made products that use magnets and metal alloys to create magnetic fields in the water as a result to repel the sharks when they get within a few feet. The magnetic fields can be very effective, Stroud said — akin to flashing a bright light in their eyes. What’s needed to succeed, he said, is to design the repellents so they’re affordable and work seamlessly with the fishing gear used across various regions. Some of those tests have started off the Kona Coast, Fernandez said, but so far the electromagnetic repellents they’ve used aren’t very practical for fishing there. “They’re too long and they’re the wrong shape,” he said. “The hooks tend to wrap around these devices, and now the hooks are all tangled up. So it’s a work in progress.” Other repellents produce an electric charge in the water near the hook and bait, and Stroud said those devices tend to cost between $150 and $300 apiece. Stroud’s company produces a chemical repellant that smells like decaying sharks. Some of the chemicals are synthetic, he said, but much of it is harvested from sharks caught legally off the Florida coast. In Hawaiʻi, all shark fishing is prohibited. The SharkDefense chemicals are part of a butter-like material, Stroud said, that’s either mixed into fishing chum or placed in a cage by the hook to melt in the water. It costs about $1 per hook, he said. It might make sense, Stroud added, to use multiple types of repellants because sharks can sometimes “turn off” a sense temporarily when they get too stimulated or overwhelmed. If the shark turns off its electromagnetic sense, he said, the chemical repellent could work as a backup. Mark Fitchett, a pelagic fisheries scientist, said local small-boat fishers hold a range of views on the sharks and their growing depredation. Many of them are fed up and believe the sharks benefit from too many environmental protections, Fitchett said, but other fishers see the changes as the cost of having a relatively healthy ecosystem. “A lot of them also recognize that it’s part of their island culture that these animals are sort of … the gardeners of the water,” he said. “So there’s that respect for the animal.” Now, Fitchett said, the question is how much depredation they can accept and still keep going. Wespac will further discuss the issue at its next quarterly meeting, March 24-26, at the Ala Moana Hotel. Fitchett said the council plans to release a more detailed report on the situation several weeks after the meeting. ___ Civil Beat’s coverage of climate change and the environment is supported by The Healy Foundation, the Marisla Fund of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation. ___ This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

Glance over the stellar lineup of teams in the Champions League’s round of 16 this week and you’ll find many of the super-rich aristocrats of European soccer: Real Madrid, Liverpool, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City… And then there’s Bodø/Glimt. This homely and humble club from a fishing town of around 55,000 people in northern Norway shouldn’t really be mixing with Europe’s powerhouse clubs. Well, they are — and not just that, they’re beating them all. Check out this four-win streak that has gotten Bodø/Glimt to the knockout stage of Europe’s top club competition: 3-1 at home to Man City, 2-1 away to Atletico Madrid, and then home-and-away victories over Inter Milan — last season’s runner-up — in the playoffs that took place during Norwegian soccer’s offseason. Next up is Portuguese champion Sporting Lisbon in the first leg of the last 16 on Wednesday. Here’s what to know about the tiny club delivering the feelgood story of this or any Champions League campaign: Bodø is a long way north Bodø is located above the Arctic Circle, more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) north of the Norwegian capital, Oslo. Nestled along the western coastline off the Norwegian Sea, it is farther north than soccer’s top club competition has ever previously been. The town — which has its own airport — has less than an hour of sunlight during its shortest days, meaning players take supplements to combat a lack of sun. It can be bitterly cold and windy in the long winters but the locals are through the latest one. The forecast temperature for kickoff against Sporting is 3 Celsius (37 Fahrenheit). Away from soccer, Bodø gained some repute in 2024 when it was named the European Capital of Culture. Related Stories Tiny Bodø/Glimt wins again in Champions League to set up potential playoff with Real Madrid Bodø/Glimt gets Sporting in Champions League round of 16. Real Madrid and Man City paired yet again Champions League playoffs: Bodø/Glimt pulls off stunning upset against Inter Milan A tiny stadium and its plastic pitch Bodø/Glimt’s Aspmyra stadium has a capacity of around 8,000 spectators, hardly built for hosting big matches in Europe’s top club competition. A new stadium — the 10,000-seat Arctic Arena — is being built on the edge of town but isn’t much bigger. Adding to the quirky feel of the Aspmyra is the fact it has an artificial field, which is criticized by some in soccer for the way the ball rolls and bounces in comparison to grass. UEFA allows approved artificial pitches to be used up to and including the semifinals of its competitions. Fighter pilot brings belated success to Bodø/Glimt Founded in 1916, Bodø/Glimt had to wait more than a century before being crowned Norwegian champion for the first time — and the change in fortune had much to do with hiring a former fighter pilot. The team had just been relegated to Norway’s second tier — underling its status as an “elevator club,” as it’s called in Norway, for going back and forth between the top two divisions — when Bjørn Mannsverk was asked in early 2017 to join the backroom staff as a mental coach. Mannsverk had developed techniques for his squadron before bombing missions in Libya and he brought a philosophy and culture at Bodø/Glimt that made players talk openly about their feelings, change their attitudes and routines about things like preparation and nutrition, and remove the stigma around mental training. The players and coach Kjetil Knutsen fully bought into Mannsverk’s ways — like, for example, having a rotating cast of captains to share leadership duties and gathering in a circle after conceding a goal to discuss what happened and maintain solidarity — and it has helped the team grow. Bodø/Glimt won its first Norwegian league title in 2020 and captured three of the next five, finishing runner-up last year. The team’s success transferred to continental competition as it reached the Europa League semifinals last season — losing to Tottenham over two legs — and then qualified for the Champions League for the first time. This is not a team full of superstars Bodø/Glimt isn’t funded by a Middle Eastern sheikh or American private investment so its inexpensively assembled squad is filled with largely unheralded players from Norway and Denmark. In Norway’s most recent squad selection, there were only two Bodø/Glimt players called up. Its star striker is Kasper Høgh, a 25-year-old Dane who has never played for his country. Its other leading attacker is Jens Petter Hauge, who returned to Bodø/Glimt in 2024 — four years after leaving for AC Milan but failing to establish himself. Under Knutsen, who joined in 2018 and has masterminded the team’s rise, Bodø/Glimt isn’t just a plucky underdog that sits back and defends. It is a free-flowing, high-intensity, attacking team which, for example, outplayed Man City when Pep Guardiola’s team visited Aspmyra stadium. Revenue is soaring but is still small compared to Europe’s giants In 2017, Bodø/Glimt had around 40 employees and a 4.2 million-euro ($5 million) budget. Last year, the club’s revenue was 80 million euros ($93 million), boosted by making more than 26 million euros ($30 million) in the Europa League and then earnings from the Champions League. Compare that to Real Madrid, whose 2025 revenue was more than 1 billion euros, according to Deloitte. It is budgeting for 50 million euros ($58 million) in 2026, though that figure will increase the deeper the team gets in the Champions League. Who would Bodø/Glimt get next? If Bodø/Glimt was to create more history and get past Sporting, it would face either Premier League leader Arsenal or Bayer Leverkusen, the German champion from the 2023-24 season, in the quarterfinals. ___ AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

HONOLULU (AP) — The latest lava fountaining episode of an erupting Hawaii volcano reached 1,000 feet (300 meters) high Tuesday, prompting temporary closures at a national park and part of an important highway because of falling glassy volcanic fragments, including ash. Kilauea, on Hawaii’s Big Island, has been dazzling residents and visitors for more than year with an on-and-off eruption that periodically sends fountains of lava soaring into the sky. The fountaining that began Tuesday morning marked the eruption’s 43rd episode since it began in December 2024. A livestream showed two fountains of bright-red lava and smoke. It’s unclear how long the fountaining will last. Some episodes have lasted a few days and others a few hours. Like other times, the molten rock was confined within Kilauea’s summit crater inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and hasn’t threatened homes or buildings. But the lava fountains were creating trouble for neighboring communities and a highway where the volcanic fragments and ash, known as tephra, was falling. The tephra prompted temporary closures at the national park around the summit and a partial closure of Highway 11, an important route around the island, on either side of the park. Related Stories Expulsión de lava del volcán Kilauea en Hawai obliga al cierre del parque y parte de una autopista Hawaii residents sick of early crowing and aggressive pecking could be allowed to kill wild chickens Climate funding under new Hawaii tax could be cut by millions Hawaii County officials also opened a shelter at a district gymnasium for residents and tourists impacted by the road closure or falling tephra. There were no people using the shelter soon after it opened, said Tom Callis, a county spokesperson. The National Weather Service issued an ashfall warning. Volcanic tephra can irritate eyes, skin and the respiratory system, according to county officials. Tephra also can clog and cause other problems with water catchment collection systems, which are common in some parts of the Big Island, officials said. Ash fell so heavily during a previous fountaining episode that some communities needed help from county civil defense workers to clean up ash that coated their homes, Callis said. Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes.

NEW CASTLE, Del. (AP) — A massive fire broke out Tuesday morning on a barge carrying huge piles of scrap metal on the Delaware Bay and was still burning by the evening. The U.S. Coast Guard responded after 8 a.m. to reports of the fire and dispatched a helicopter and two boats, Petty Officer First Class Matthew West said. Local fire departments, including those from Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware, also responded. A tugboat was moving the unmanned barge at the time of the fire, West said, adding there were no injuries. The Delaware Bay is an estuary of the Delaware River between Delaware and New Jersey. The Coast Guard said the barge was being towed about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) off Maurice River Cove in New Jersey, in order to remove the threat from the main ship channel. Ship traffic also was not impacted by the fire that was still burning several hours later, he said. The barge appeared to be standing still as boats on both sides of it fired water cannons into the piles of burning metal. Smoke billowed from several fires aboard the boat for most of the day. West said the cause of the fire remained under investigation. Related Stories Huge snowstorm in the Northeast forces millions to stay home, disrupts flights and closes schools Blizzard warnings cascade across East Coast as winter storm hits Delaware man married in the 1970s to former first lady Jill Biden pleads not guilty in wife's death In a statement, the Delaware Emergency Management Agency said the barge was being moved to shallower water and that the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control was monitoring air quality. But the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control later said it was not doing any air monitoring. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection also said it was working closely with the Coast Guard and the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management in responding to the fire. It said that it was monitoring “for potential impacts to air quality as well as water quality and ecological resources of the Delaware Bay.” It had no further details. ___ This story corrects that the Delaware Emergency Management Agency, not the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, put out a statement on the barge fire. It also corrects that the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control was conducting air monitoring. It is not.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The January collapse of a pipe as wide as a car dumped so much sewage into the Potomac River that officials tracked a spike of gut-wrenching bacteria drifting slowly past Washington for weeks, prompting an emergency declaration and federal assistance. It was a disaster of historic scale — 244 million gallons (924 million liters) spilled — spotlighting the severe consequences of old, failing infrastructure. But smaller sewer overflows that draw far less notice are common. Tens of thousands occur every year across the U.S., contaminating rivers, flooding streets and sometimes causing backups into homes that threaten human health. “It’s really one of those out of sight, out of mind problems that doesn’t rise to the top until it becomes a crisis,” said Alice Volpitta, the Baltimore Harbor waterkeeper with the nonprofit Blue Water Baltimore. At least 18.7 million people are served by one of roughly 1,000 utilities that are in serious violation of pollution limits. At least 2.7 million live with a system that violated federal clean water rules continually over the last three years, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data. Related Stories Trump and Maryland governor Wes Moore battle over Potomac River sewage spill response Trump approves disaster assistance to DC to help with sewage spill into Potomac River DC mayor declares emergency, asks President Trump for help on sewage spill on the Potomac In Maryland it is Baltimore, not the nation’s capital nearby, that has seen hundreds of sewer overflows in recent years often caused by broken pipes, tree roots or severe storms. Cities like Houston, Memphis and Cahokia Heights, Illinois, have reached court agreements to address their problems. And in places where sewage and rain flow through the same pipes, heavy rains made worse by climate change can make overflows to waterways more frequent and severe. President Donald Trump called state and local leaders “incompetent” over the spill, but some experts say his administration’s funding cuts are adding to the national problem. Many utilities can’t afford upgrades — the Environmental Protection Agency says hundreds of billions are needed over the next two decades. “We’re going to see probably more incidents like we saw with the Potomac sewage spill,” said Becky Hammer, a senior attorney with the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council. Baltimore’s tattered network of pipes In this image provided by John Craig Senatore, sewage backup is visible in his bathroom on Jan. 27, 2026, in Baltimore. (John Craig Senatore via AP) Read More In this image provided by John Craig Senatore, sewage backup is visible in his bathroom on Jan. 27, 2026, in Baltimore. (John Craig Senatore via AP) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More A neighbor’s message alerted Teddy Bloomquist to a potential flooding problem. Downstairs in his Baltimore row house, cloudy brown water with chunks of human waste was coming up from the shower drain. It was the third sewage backup that winter, each potentially leaving behind harmful bacteria. “We’re taking buckets and it turns out every time someone’s flushing their toilet, it’s coming up,” Bloomquist said. “It’s just coming so fast.” Teddy Bloomquist, who suffered a sewage backup earlier this year, poses at his home in Baltimore on March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Phillis) Read More Teddy Bloomquist, who suffered a sewage backup earlier this year, poses at his home in Baltimore on March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Phillis) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Baltimore’s sewer system is more than a century old, with some parts of its tangled web of pipes mapped only in recent decades. Many cracked and leaked from decades of decay, letting rain in and worsening backups that surge through maintenance hole covers, drain into city rivers and flow into basements. “A spill that happens in a community, in somebody’s house, or right next to their house — that will be a memory for them forever,” said Sri Vedachalam, a water and climate expert at the consulting firm Corvias Infrastructure Solutions. Since the start of last year, roughly 15 million gallons (57 million liters) of sewage spilled in Baltimore. A map shows the spill sites scattered like measles across the city. One neighbor was left with bits of toilet paper frozen into the snow in his backyard and spent the day heaving sewage out of his tub and toilet. Repairs cost thousands, including replacing his bathroom floor. Another neighbor said she used her wet vac to suck up roughly 120 gallons (454 liters) of sewage. The city has spent nearly $2 billion over more than two decades under a consent decree with federal and state regulators. They’ve installed new water mains, closed off outlets where sewage easily overflowed and stopped sewage bottlenecks from occasionally forming in pipes that feed a treatment plant. Baltimore’s efforts are reducing sewer overflows but take time and must be balanced with cost, according to city’s Department of Public Works. They’ve made considerable progress --- sewer overflows are sharply below a rainy 2018 when their volume equaled about as much as the Potomac spill — but the city has proposed extending a deadline to complete necessary work to 2046. Workers build a cofferdam to stop the flow of raw sewage into the Potomac River after a massive sewage pipe rupture in Glen Echo, Md., Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) Read More Workers build a cofferdam to stop the flow of raw sewage into the Potomac River after a massive sewage pipe rupture in Glen Echo, Md., Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Officials offer up to $5,000 to residents cleaning up sewage backups after certain storms, though activists say more is needed. The city said the program is governed by specific eligibility criteria. Maryland’s progress is known because it’s among states that publicly report overflows. About half of states don’t, according to an Associated Press review of state reporting practices. For a majority of states, the EPA recently extended a federal electronic reporting deadline, from 2025 to 2028, to report overflows. The agency said extensions were needed to smooth the transition. Fighting for resources Flooding and water quality needs over the next two decades have ballooned to at least $630 billion, the EPA estimated in 2024. Local residents will pay most of that. The federal government has a smaller role that’s expanded in recent years, but may soon decline. The 2021 infrastructure law added billions for water needs, but this is the last year money will go out to states for loans to local projects. The Trump administration last year proposed deep cuts to that program and to grants that help states fund environmental oversight including monitoring and protecting water. Congress rejected those cuts, preserving access to funds for Baltimore and other communities, said Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat. But environmental justice efforts to help poor, often largely minority areas were cut as part of the Trump administration’s attack on what it scorned as radical ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ programs. Some small grants were canceled, like $14 million to install septic systems in majority-Black Alabama counties where residents live with sewage piped from their homes onto their property. So were regional assistance centers intended to help small communities plan complex projects and compete for a big pool of new money. Cones sit near an area of Baltimore that previously suffered a sewage backup on March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Phillis) Read More Cones sit near an area of Baltimore that previously suffered a sewage backup on March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Phillis) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More One such center that served six Midwest states was setting up to test drinking water and clean up mold in the East St. Louis, Illinois, region, said Bonnie Keeler, who led the center. That project was just one of dozens planned before the program was spiked. There still are major sources of financing. In November, the EPA announced $6.5 billion for wastewater and drinking water projects through a loan program, plus another $550 million that would be handed to states. The loan program for states has run for nearly 40 years and provided more than $180 billion for over 50,000 low-cost loans, the agency said. The agency offers some technical assistance as well. “EPA helps invest in our nation’s water infrastructure by identifying needs, funding infrastructure projects through multiple programs, and providing technical assistance to connect communities and tribes to federal funding,” the agency said. Bloomquist wants Baltimore to pay for damages and prevent it from happening again. He had to miss several days of work after the January backup and has to replace his basement floor. “It’s been a saga and now everyone’s on edge. You know, we’re on our group texts, people are like, ‘Oh no, it is raining,’” Bloomquist said. ___ Wildeman reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Associated Press writers Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, and Gabriela Auon Angueira in San Diego contributed. ___ The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.