Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • Water lilies in bloom.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763268.JPG
  • A father and sons react to the polluted orange/black water in their bathroom. It smells bad, has an oily residue and is mixed with coal soot. The man fears for his sons because his own health is effected. He suffers from rashes and red eyes when he showers and he tells the kids, “Don’t brush teeth in water. Don’t drink the water.”<br />
<br />
When he moved in his home, he thought the only problem was that the water was discolored by iron. At 38 years old, he has since developed gallstones, breathing problems, memory loss, and his hair is falling out. He has anxiety, nervousness, and his pancreas is at two percent function. All of this occurred after he moved to this trailer. Scared for his family, he asks, “What have I done to them?”<br />
A November 4, 2003 Associated Press article by Michelle Saxton of the Williamson Daily News entitled “Water in Mingo Communities Contains Manganese” stated that some security guards quit opening valves on Massey pumps when they realized they were poisoning the community. In a later court hearing it was shown that Massey Coal Company had, indeed, Illegally injected slurry from the Rawls Sales Processing Company (Massey Coal Company subsidiary) impoundment into abandoned underground mines for at least eight years.<br />
<br />
As of the fall of 2011, some 500 West Virginia residents are still in limbo over a suit brought against Massey energy over claims that it and Rawls Sales poisoned hundreds of drinking water wells with coal slurry.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_996271.jpg
  • Young people are doused with water as men engage in a water fight at China Folk Culture Villages in Shenzhen.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176301-2.jpg
  • A young woman is doused with water as men engage in a water fight at China Folk Culture Villages in Shenzhen.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176301.jpg
  • A woman with a dry well cooks with water from a five-gallon container. They haul water in five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck. They need about 100 gallons of water they truck home for cooking and bathing.<br />
<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481190.JPG
  • A woman pours water in the kitchen sink to wash dishes. The family who has a dry well hauls water in five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck. They need about 100 gallons of water they truck home for cooking and bathing.<br />
<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481186.JPG
  • Young people are doused with water as men engage in a water fight at China Folk Culture Villages in Shenzhen.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176301-1.jpg
  • Man fills a jug of drinking water from a spring pouring out on the side of the road. Many West Virginia residents mistrust the safety of tap water because of a common coal-industry practice: pumping chemical-laden wastewater directly into the ground. It can leech into the water table and turn what was drinkable well water into a poisonous cocktail of chemicals.<br />
He trusts this roadside stream more than the well beside his home.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023655.jpg
  • A young girl and her adopted wild horse stand by the water that flows from Cold Creek into a water hole.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_2737117.jpg
  • A family with a dry well hauls water in five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck. They need about 100 gallons of water they truck home for cooking and bathing.<br />
<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481184.JPG
  • A hose snakes through the front yard where a family with a dry well hauls water. They fill five-gallon buckets and jugs in the back of their pickup truck for their personal use.<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481195.TIF
  • Water flows off the tail of a diving humpback whale  (Megaptera novaeangliae). Studies show the humpback from Southeast Alaska travels mostly to Hawaii to breed and returns to the cold Alaskan waters.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075057.TIF
  • Polluted water seeps from a coal refuse dump that when tested, reveals a toxic witches brew of arsenic, mercury, and other heavy metals and chemicals. The orange appearance is from high iron in the water which can cause diabetes, hemochromatosis, stomach problems, and nausea. It can also damage the liver, pancreas, and heart.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_996237.jpg
  • Brown water drizzles from the faucet on a depleted cattle water tank on a farm in Texas.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481179.JPG
  • Billowing water vapor emits toxins into the air from a paper mill plant. The main gaseous pollutants hydrogen sulfides, sodium sulfide, methyl mercaptan, sulfur, and chlorine dioxide is reported for chronic, respiratory disorder and irritation to skin, eyes and cardiac problem along with nausea and headache.<br />
Pulp and paper generates the third largest amount of industrial air, water, and land emissions in Canada and the sixth largest in the United States.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_470849-1.JPG
  • A mother and her son hand over buckets and jugs of water into the house. The family has a dry well and hauls water in five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck for their personal use. Around 30 families are effected by heavy agricultural and industrial use of the shared Ogallala Aquifer.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481196.JPG
  • A woman with a dry well cooks with water from a container. The family hauls water in a pick up truck for personal use cooking and bathing. Wells run dry for about 30 nearby families from heavy agricultural use from the Ogallala Aquifer.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481192.JPG
  • Water Lilly in Cape Meares Lake near Cape Meares Oregon.
    RANDY OLSON_20200726_1388.tif
  • Dairy cows stand in water holes to drink in the Suwannee basin in Florida. Concentrated dairy cow operations contribute high nitrate into the aquifer that has karst soil and nearby clear water springs. Waste from a total of 44,000 head of cattle helped ruin a thriving oyster industry in the town of Suwannee, downstream situated on the Gulf of Mexico.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_470855.JPG
  • William McKinley Crews, 81, pumps water into a bucket at the farmhouse where he has lived all his life in Moccasin Swamp in northern Florida. He has no electricity or running water. His only company are four cows and 14 cats.
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  • A water taxi ferries people to and from the airport on an island.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114717.jpg
  • Wild horses follow the leader to a water hole to drink in order of hierarchy in the herd.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222857.jpg
  • Protected wild horses come to a water hole drinking in order of dominance in the herd. Ears perked forward, the curious mustang shows no fear.
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  • Water lily covered billabong.
    RANDY OLSON_RF4319_1114346.JPG
  • A family with a dry well hauls water in five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck. It requires a lot of time and work to bring home enough for 100 gallons a day for their personal use to cook and bath.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481193.JPG
  • El Molo fishermen at the water's edge in Komote in Kenya's Lake Turkana region.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8259_2327871.JPG
  • El Molo people at the water's edge in Komote in Kenya's Lake Turkana region.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8259_2327869.JPG
  • An El Molo woman drinks at the water's edge in Komote in Kenya's Lake Turkana region.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8259_2327868.JPG
  • El Molo boys at the water's edge in Komote in Kenya's Lake Turkana region.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8259_2327867.JPG
  • Turkana camel herders bring camels to water on Lake Turkana outside Elyse Springs.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8259_2327804.JPG
  • A pump channels water from the Omo River.
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  • A crocodile splashing through water.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763236.JPG
  • Mennonite farm child with horse in water hole, Ozark Mountains area.
    RANDY OLSON_06168_501208.JPG
  • Pearl diver is hosed off after cleaning oyster bed in mucky water.
    RANDY OLSON_04319_972071.JPG
  • Sand Wash Basin wild horses drink water on parched high desert public lands where they roam.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_2737062.jpg
  • Black bear shakes water off head and feeds on salmon in Anan Creek.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114639.jpg
  • Curious foals are drawn to a water hole making a reflective, pastoral scene as the herd grazes in early spring in South Dakota.
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  • Father and daugter kayak on still water near Moser Island which separates North and South Arms Hoonah Sound on Chichagof Island in Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075162.jpg
  • Droplets of rain water bead on tall grasses in an uplift meadow on Moser Island in Southeast Alaska.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075101.TIF
  • Jugs of water are bailed out from a skiff during games and competition at a logging show. The communities surrounding Thorne Bay come together for the summer event on Prince of Wales Island.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075018.jpg
  • Water cascading over rocks in a woodland setting.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7061_760127.jpg
  • A heron stalking prey in water near tall grasses.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7061_760118.jpg
  • Twilight view with mountains casting reflections into calm water.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7061_760099.jpg
  • Water rushing over a small fall on the Sol Duc River.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7061_759460.jpg
  • Water splashes over a waterfall the Loch, a ravine in Central Park's woods. Landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted mobilized workers to move boulders and earth to create natural looking spaces for city dwellers to be able to connect with nature.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_968651.jpg
  • Water splashes over a small waterfall in the north side of a Central Park woodlands known as The Loch which is a ravine offering a natural and untouched-looking setting. Frederick Law Olmsted who designed Central Park, created features such as this to provide respite from the stresses of urban life.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_956423.jpg
  • A horse trainer encourages a reluctant young mustang to come into the water.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_2737102.jpg
  • Wind and water sculpted desert in the Valle de la Luna. Shadows fall in the Valley of the Moon in the Atacama Desert, the driest place on earth where the elements have left an array of oddly shaped polychrome forms in the desolate, eroded desert landscape. The region sometimes goes without recorded precipitation for more than a century.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187507.jpg
  • Water fight at China Folk Culture Villages.
    RANDY OLSON_RF4319_1155857.JPG
  • Leaves floating on water.
    RANDY OLSON_RF4319_1114372.JPG
  • A crocodile in water.
    RANDY OLSON_RF4319_1114369.JPG
  • Boab trees reflected in water at Kakadu National Park.
    RANDY OLSON_RF4319_1114363.JPG
  • Mennonite farm children play at a water hole.
    RANDY OLSON_RF4319_1114304.JPG
  • A bottled water plant in Hollis, Maine, has reduced the plastic in its half-liter bottles by 62 percent since 1994.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8515_2703535.JPG
  • Boys swim in the algae filled water of Elyse Springs.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8259_2328043.JPG
  • A flow of water in the Una Ura Oasis.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8259_2328034.JPG
  • Boys collect water into buckets from Lake Turkana.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8259_2327945.JPG
  • Boys pour water into buckets from Lake Turkana.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8259_2327944.JPG
  • A girl scoops unfiltered water in Kenya's Lake Turkana region.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8259_2327923.JPG
  • Women collect water from a bore hole that a wind farm provided in Kenya's Lake Turkana region.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8259_2327888.JPG
  • Men sing as they transfer water from one to the other up the walls of a well.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8259_2327761.JPG
  • Men sing as they transfer water from one to the other up the walls of a well.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8259_2327760.JPG
  • Cattle water outside the Nyangatom village of Lokulan.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7661_1306548.JPG
  • Nyangatom women collect water.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7661_1306497.TIF
  • A young Kara boy bathes in water channeling into field plots.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7661_1306494.TIF
  • Kara tribespeople channeling water into their plots.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7661_1306493.TIF
  • Kara tribespeople channeling water into their plots.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7661_1306491.TIF
  • Maasai draw water from the same muddy pool their cattle use.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7314_985623.JPG
  • A Ladin man collects a pail of water from a cattle trough and traverses carefully across a sheet of ice. Life is hard in rural, isolated villages like LaVal in the Italian Alps.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7139_1024129.JPG
  • A waterfall with rushing white water.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_968671.JPG
  • Moonlight and trees reflected on still water at twilight.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_968670.JPG
  • A crocodile and its reflection right at the water's surface.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763235.JPG
  • Australian Aborigines butchering a fresh killed water buffalo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763221.JPG
  • A large flock of magpie geese settling onto a body of water.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763217.TIF
  • Lightning storm over water at twilight.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763214.TIF
  • Aborigine men skinning and butchering a fresh killed water buffalo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763193.JPG
  • A water buffalo running thru a swampy grassland.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763192.JPG
  • A family gulps water from an overflow tank during the monsoon.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_761684.TIF
  • A foggy sunrise over water.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6689_702531.JPG
  • A gold miner blasts soil into a sluice with a water hose.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6570_706636.JPG
  • Ghanaian standing in water as others relax in a canoe on shore.
    RANDY OLSON_04319_1203409.JPG
  • Lightning storm over water at twilight.
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  • Aerial view showing billowing water vapor from timber processing obscures a paper mill on the North River off the extreme southeastern boundry river, the St. Mary's, in Georgia.<br />
In 2020 there are around 100 pulp mills operating in the United States, and each year they emit roughly 23 million pounds of hazardous air pollutants, including benzene, mercury, and the potent carcinogen dioxin.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_470849.JPG
  • Coconut water, a popular refreshment in Little Havana.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MT5959_1729560.jpg
  • Water fight at China Folk Culture Villages.
    RANDY OLSON_RF4319_1155856.JPG
  • A bottled water plant in Hollis, Maine, has reduced the plastic in its half-liter bottles by 62 percent since 1994.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8515_2703534.JPG
  • Boys swim in the algae filled water of Elyse Springs.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8259_2328044.JPG
  • An El Molo child drinking water from a plastic bottle.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8259_2327863.JPG
  • Men transport containers of water in Kakuma Refugee Camp.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8259_2327794.JPG
  • Kara tribespeople channeling water into their plots.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7661_1306492.TIF
  • Wild stallions square off at a watering hole as other horses drink. Horses come to drink in a hierarchy, so these two mustangs are competing for dominance as water becomes more scarce for wildlife.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705725.jpg
  • A rustic, float house, characteristic in Southeast Alaska, is reflected in the waters at dusk. The structure is tied off in a protected cove and accessible only by boat or float plane. Swede and his dog stand on the dock and watch for the evening guests' arrival.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075128.TIF
  • Three Mennonite kids are the last to get off the bus in Lazbuddie, Texas.<br />
<br />
Superintendent Joanna also has to drive the school bus for Lazbuddie schools but primarily is trying to figure out how to keep the school and community alive as they run out of water. When she started they had about 100 students now they have over 200 primarily from luring other communities children by offering an excellent robotics program and offering daycare. She had 90 days of water left for 16 families (teachers are housed at the school complex). The well got down to 15 feet of standing water. She got federal funds for a $360K well but who knows how long that will last. There are 88,000 wells around her in the TX panhandle that are poorly regulated and the water mining is affecting neighboring communities.
    MM8429_20151027_22560.tif
  • A man with a shovels coal sludge after a mining accident occurred when the bottom of a coal slurry impoundment in Martin County, Kentucky broke into an abandoned underground mine in October 2000. An estimated 306 million gallons of oozing black waste containing arsenic and mercury killed everything in a creek and measured five feet deep covering nearby yards and surrounding some homes. Drinking water was contaminated for 27,000 residents as tributaries carried it to the Big Sandy and Ohio Rivers. It is considered one of the worst environmental disasters in the southeastern United States and although largely cleaned up, water quality issues exist and residents still find sludge and slurry in surface water.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023652.jpg
  • Streams are polluted with coal sludge from a mining accident that occurred when the bottom of a coal slurry impoundment in Martin County, Kentucky broke into an abandoned underground mine in October 2000. An estimated 306 million gallons of oozing black waste containing arsenic and mercury killed everything in a creek and measured five feet deep covering nearby yards and surrounding some homes. Drinking water was contaminated for 27,000 residents as tributaries carried it to the Big Sandy and Ohio Rivers. It is considered one of the worst environmental disasters in the southeastern United States and although largely cleaned up, water quality issues exist and residents still find sludge and slurry in surface water.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023642.jpg
  • This is part of a "trunk or treat" event in Muleshoe Texas. Rural children come to a parking lot in downtown Muleshoe to get candy that is given out of the backs of farmer's trucks. One farmer got inventive and cut a number of 50 gallon drums into "cattle cars" and pulled the children around this town that is semi-deserted because the water has been mined out below them for agriculture. There are six great aquifers in the world… ours in North America is the Ogallala aquifer and it provides 40 percent of our beef and 20 percent of our food in USA. The fear in the northern part of the aquifer is that the water will be taken away by thirsty southern states. The problem in the southern end of the aquifer is that Texas has 88,000 (basically unregulated) wells that are taking so much of the aquifer that it has become a tragedy of the commons that creates issues beyond Muleshoe. Subdivisions in New Mexico are tapped out of water from Texas agriculture because the aquifer doesn’t adhere to state boundaries.
    MM8429_20151029_24115.jpg
  • Fishermen brave the waters in small, colorful, pirogues or handmade wooden boats that are traditional in Senegal.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7393_1057902.JPG
  • Wild horses wade in a waterhole to drink and cool off on a summer evening in the Wild Horse Sanctuary.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222911.jpg
  • A black bear (Ursus americanus) shakes water from his head while feeding on salmon in Anan Creek and hour from Wrangell.  Bears fatten up during the heavy run of fish that spawn in the summer.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075026.TIF
  • Plastic bottles move down the conveyer belt at Poland Spring where between 345 and 425 employees working at the Hollis, Maine site oversee an array of computers and the water bottle production line. The 838,000 square-foot facility is the largest bottled water plant in the world, turning out about 80 million cases of water every year. Some of the machines fill 1,200 bottles per minute. The plant has reduced the plastic in its half-liter bottles by 62 percent since 1994.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8515_2692111.JPG
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