By: Laura Paddison, Jack Guy, and Fidel Gutierrez

Mexico CityCNN — 

Alejandro Gomez has been without proper running water for more than three months. Sometimes it comes on for an hour or two, but only a small trickle, barely enough to fill a couple of buckets. Then nothing for many days.

Gomez, who lives in Mexico City’s Tlalpan district, doesn’t have a big storage tank so can’t get water truck deliveries — there’s simply nowhere to store it. Instead, he and his family eke out what they can buy and store.

When they wash themselves, they capture the runoff to flush the toilet. It’s hard, he told CNN. “We need water, it’s essential for everything.”

Water shortages are not uncommon in this neighborhood, but this time feels different, Gomez said. “Right now, we are getting this hot weather. It’s even worse, things are more complicated.”

Mexico City, a sprawling metropolis of nearly 22 million people and one of the world’s biggest cities, is facing a severe water crisis as a tangle of problems — including geography, chaotic urban development and leaky infrastructure — are compounded by the impacts of climate change.

Years of abnormally low rainfall, longer dry periods and high temperatures have added stress to a water system already straining to cope with increased demand. Authorities have been forced to introduce significant restrictions on the water pumped from reservoirs.

“Several neighborhoods have suffered from a lack of water for weeks, and there are still four months left for the rains to start,” said Christian Domínguez Sarmiento, an atmospheric scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

Politicians are downplaying any sense of crisis, but some experts say the situation has now reached such critical levels that Mexico City could be barreling towards “day zero” in a matter of months — where the taps run dry for huge swaths of the city.

Historic lows

Densely populated Mexico City stretches out across a high-altitude lake bed, around 7,300 feet above sea level. It was built on clay-rich soil — into which it is now sinking — and is prone to earthquakes and highly vulnerable to climate change. It’s perhaps one of the last places anyone would choose to build a megacity today.

The Aztecs chose this spot to build their city of Tenochtitlan in 1325, when it was a series of lakes. They built on an island, expanding the city outwards, constructing networks of canals and bridges to work with the water.

But when the Spanish arrived in the early 16th century, they tore down much of the city, drained the lakebed, filled in canals and ripped out forests. They saw “water as an enemy to overcome for the city to thrive,” said Jose Alfredo Ramirez, an architect and co-director of Groundlab, a design and policy research organization.

Their decision paved the way for many of Mexico City’s modern problems. Wetlands and rivers have been replaced with concrete and asphalt. In the rainy season, it floods. In the dry season, it’s parched.

Around 60% of Mexico City’s water comes from its underground aquifer, but this has been so over-extracted that the city is sinking at a frightening rate — around 20 inches a year, according to recent research. And the aquifer is not being replenished anywhere near fast enough. The rainwater rolls off the city’s hard, impermeable surfaces, rather than sinking into the ground.

The rest of the city’s water is pumped vast distances uphill from sources outside the city, in an incredibly inefficient process, during which around 40% of the water is lost through leaks.

The Cutzamala water system, a network of reservoirs, pumping stations, canals and tunnels, supplies about 25% of the water used by the Valley of Mexico, which includes Mexico City. But severe drought has taken its toll. Currently, at around 39% of capacity, it’s been languishing at a historic low.

“It’s almost half of the amount of water that we should have,” said Fabiola Sosa-Rodríguez, head of economic growth and environment at the Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City.

In October, Conagua, the country’s national water commission, announced it would restrict water from Cutzamala by 8% “to ensure the supply of drinking water to the population given the severe drought.”

Just a few weeks later, officials significantly tightened restrictions, reducing the water supplied by the system by nearly 25%, blaming extreme weather conditions.

“Measures will have to be taken to be able to distribute the water that Cutzamala has over time, to ensure that it does not run out,” Germán Arturo Martínez Santoyo, the director general of Conagua, said in a statement at the time.

Around 60% of Mexico is experiencing moderate to exceptional drought, according to a February report. Nearly 90% of Mexico City is in severe drought — and it’s set to get worse with the start of the rainy season still months away.

“We are around the middle of the dry season with sustained temperature increases expected until April or May,” said June Garcia-Becerra, an assistant professor in engineering at the University of Northern British Columbia.

Natural climate variability heavily affects this part of Mexico. Three years of La Niña brought drought to the region, and then the arrival of El Niño last year helped deliver a painfully short rainy season that failed to replenish the reservoirs.

But the long-term trend of human-caused global warming hums in the background, fueling longer droughts and fiercer heat waves, as well as heavier rains when they do arrive.

“Climate change has made droughts increasingly severe due to the lack of water,” said UNAM’s Sarmiento. Added to this, high temperatures “have caused the water that is available in the Cutzamala system to evaporate,” she said.

Last summer saw brutal heat waves roil large parts of the country, which claimed at least 200 lives. These heat waves would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, according to an analysis by scientists.

The climate impacts have collided with the growing pains of a fast-expanding city. As the population booms, experts say the centralized water system has not kept pace.

‘Day zero?’

The crisis has set up a fierce debate about whether the city will reach a “day zero,” where the Cutzamala system falls to such low levels that it will be unable to provide any water to the city’s residents.

Local media widely reported in early February that an official from a branch of Conagua said that without significant rain, “day zero” could arrive as early as June 26.

But authorities have since sought to assure residents there will be no day zero. In a press conference on February 14, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that work was underway to address the water problems. Mexico City’s mayor, Martí Batres Guadarrama, said in a recent press conference that reports of day zero were “fake news” spread by political opponents.

Conagua declined CNN’s interview requests and did not answer specific questions on the prospect of a day zero.

But many experts warn of a spiraling crisis. Mexico City could run out of water before the rainy season arrives if it carries on using it in the same way, Sosa-Rodríguez said. “It’s probable that we will face a day zero,” she added.

This doesn’t mean a complete collapse of the water system, she said, because the city isn’t dependent on just one source. It won’t be the same as when Cape Town in South Africa came perilously close to running totally dry in 2018 following a severe multi-year drought. “Some groups will still have water,” she said, “but most of the people won’t.”

Raúl Rodríguez Márquez, president of the non-profit Water Advisory Council, said he doesn’t believe the city will reach a day zero this year — but, he warned, it will if changes are not made.

“We are in a critical situation, and we could reach an extreme situation in the next few months,” he told CNN.

‘I don’t think anyone is prepared’

For nearly a decade, Sosa-Rodríguez said she has been warning officials of the danger of a day zero for Mexico City.

She said the solutions are clear: Better wastewater treatment would both increase water availability and decrease pollution, while rainwater harvesting systems could capture and treat the rain, and allow residents to reduce their reliance on the water network or water trucks by 30%.

Fixing leaks would make the system much more efficient and reduce the volume of water that has to be extracted from the aquifer. And nature-based solutions, such as restoring rivers and wetlands, would help provide and purify water, she said, with the added advantage of greening and cooling the city.

In a statement on its website, Conagua said it is undertaking a 3-year project to install, develop and improve water infrastructure to help the city cope with decreases in the Cutzamala system, including adding new wells and commissioning water treatment plants.

But in the meantime, tensions are rising as some residents are forced to cope with shortages, while others — often in the wealthier enclaves — remain mostly unaffected.

“There is a clear unequal access to water in the city and this is related to people’s income,” Sosa-Rodríguez said. While day zero might not be here yet for the whole of Mexico City, some neighborhoods have been grappling with it for years, she added.

Amanda Martínez, another resident of the city’s Tlalpan district, said for people here, water shortages are nothing new. She and her family often have to pay more than $100 for a tank of water from one of the city’s water trucks. But it’s getting worse. Sometimes more than two weeks can go by without water and she fears what may be coming, she told CNN.

“I don’t think anyone is prepared.”

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE: https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/25/climate/mexico-city-water-crisis-climate-intl/index.html

By: Mike Baker and Lisa L. Schell

When a firestorm consumed the Hawaii town of Lahaina last year, killing 100 people, it left behind a toxic wasteland of melted batteries, charred propane tanks, and miles of debris tainted by arsenic and lead.

Crews have already removed some of the most hazardous items, shipping them out for disposal on the mainland. Now begins the even more formidable task of collecting hundreds of thousands of tons of additional debris and soil — enough to cover five football fields about five stories high. Even as excavators began filling dump trucks this month, the question of where it should all ultimately go remained unanswered.

For now, the county has chosen a “temporary” dump site in Olowalu, a few miles south of Lahaina on the West Maui coastline. There, just up the hill from a vital coral reef and an important ecosystem for manta rays, residents worry that dumping dangerous waste into the area could create a fresh disaster.

“It hurts,” said Foster Ampong, 65, who has family members who lost homes in Lahaina and spends much of his time in Olowalu helping other relatives farm taro. “I’m very much worried about the future of Olowalu.”

On an island known for its natural beauty and pristine waters, few good options have emerged for managing a debris field as vast as Lahaina’s. Officials considered shipping all of the waste off the island but concluded that would be far too costly. They have promised that all the material at the Olowalu dump site will later be dug up and relocated to a permanent tomb, but no final destination has been selected. Olowalu residents fear that the search for a permanent site will lose steam once the material gets its initial burial.

The fire that swept through Lahaina burned through more than 2,000 buildings, leaving little more than cinder blocks, car husks and piles of ash behind. To prepare for rebuilding, crews have started clearing plots of land, with excavators digging down six inches to remove contaminated soil.

County leaders want the task done with urgency. In the midst of the rainy season, storms already have sent runoff into the ocean, turning the water along the coastline cloudy. Meanwhile, thousands of people who lived in Lahaina remain without permanent residences and are eager to get rebuilding underway. Many have left the island in search of stability.

Richard Bissen Jr., the mayor of Maui County, said that he agrees that the Olowalu site should not be permanent. But for the sake of the Lahaina survivors, he said, he does not want to delay work at the temporary location as part of a rebuilding process that is expected to take years.

“While there is no easy path forward, I must navigate these contentious issues with the greater good as my foremost sense of kuleana,” Mr. Bissen said at a meeting this month, using a Hawaiian word to emphasize his sense of responsibility.

Dump trucks are now rumbling each day onto the dump site on the grass-covered slopes that rise up from the Olowalu coastline. It may ultimately take about 40,000 loads to complete the task, county officials say. During transport, the debris is wrapped in a liner to prevent it from blowing into the air, although residents have complained that the wraps have fallen away once the debris is discarded.

Dr. Cory Koger, a chemist and toxicologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said storm-water protection has been installed to prevent runoff from reaching the dump site. An overflow pond and pumping systems are in place to help handle any major downpours.

One of the chief concerns about the wildfire debris is the presence of heavy metals in the ash and soil. While perhaps not an acute health threat, prolonged exposure is a concern, said Peter Guria, who supervises hazardous debris issues at the federal Environmental Protection Agency in the region. To prevent clouds of toxic dust from swirling through the air, crews have sprayed a soil stabilizer across much of Lahaina.

While the remaining material contains dangerous elements, it is not toxic enough to be considered hazardous waste of the kind that can only be legally disposed of at specially certified sites, Mr. Guria said. After other wildfires in places like California, he said, much of the debris has gone into regular landfills.

The Olowalu site has more stringent protections than a standard landfill, Mr. Guria said, but it can be a challenge to fully reassure community members about both their health, and the environment.

“It’s just difficult to try to convey to them that the engineering that they are utilizing is safe and is going to be safe,” Mr. Guria said.

In Olowalu, residents say there could be long-term risks to ecosystems already in need of protection. Some said they were considering protests and legal action to halt the dump trucks.

At his farm in Olowalu where he grows taro, coconuts and papayas, Eddy Garcia has been analyzing schematics and drone footage of the dump site, and said he believes the site’s overall design is flawed. He is especially critical of the catchment reservoir, which collects rain runoff from the area, fearing that it could overflow, allowing contaminated water to leach into the water table through the area’s porous cinder rock.

“It’s unacceptable on every single level,” Mr. Garcia said.

The coast of Olowalu is popular with snorkelers and filled with abundant sea life. In 2017, the coral reef offshore became a focal point for protection by the nonprofit Mission Blue, which advocates to protect the ocean.

The organization said the reef acts as a sort of nursery to enhance reefs on other islands nearby. It also supports a large population of manta rays.

“It’s environmentally precious,” said Tom Gruber, an adviser to Mission Blue. “It’s like Yosemite. You wouldn’t put a toxic waste dump upstream of Yosemite.”

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Amid the growing concern about the Olowalu site, Mr. Ampong was invited by officials to tour the dump area. As he stood there, he said, he could not help but feel the weight of the wrongs that he and other Native Hawaiians have experienced over the past decades, including the desecration of family burial sites during the development of resort complexes in Lahaina.

There also may be historical Hawaiian cultural sites that need protection in the area of the dump, he said. But he is particularly alarmed that he and his family members were not consulted before the temporary site was on the way to becoming a reality.

“My fear is that’s going to continue throughout the course of this recovery and rebuild of Lahaina,” Mr. Ampong said. “Folks are already talking about how Lahaina will never be the same.”

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/25/us/lahaina-maui-fire-waste-landfill.html

By: Margaret Renkl

Drifting in the channels of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, it’s easy to imagine that you are in some deeply isolated wilderness, far from the motors of man. Even when the city of Mobile, Ala., is visible in the distance.

This teeming oasis of biodiversity — 300 square miles of rivers, bogs, forests, swamps, marshes and open water — is known in Alabama as America’s Amazon. It hums with birdsong and busy insects and gently lapping water. I was last out on this delta in 2018, and what I remember most is the peace of a world that feels untouched by human hands, unharmed by human commerce.

As with all the wild places we have left, however, this breathtaking delta is far from unspoiled. The nine rivers that feed it carry all the usual pollutants we carelessly pour into our rivers, whether directly or through rainwater runoff: silt, microplastics, pesticides, industrial and agricultural waste and more. Like all river deltas, the Mobile-Tensaw Delta acts as a kind of natural filter, but there are only so many contaminants a delta can absorb and still survive.

And as the environmental journalist and filmmaker Ben Raines writes in his magnificent book “Saving America’s Amazon: The Threat to Our Nation’s Most Biodiverse River System,” the state of Alabama “wreaks greater harm on our wild places than any other state.”

The greatest upriver threat to the Mobile-Tensaw Delta is the coal-fired James M. Barry Electric Generating Plant, some 25 miles north of Mobile. Since 1965, the Alabama Power Company has been storing coal ash there in storage ponds built in the crook of a switchback bend in the Mobile River.

Coal ash — known in the industry as coal combustion residuals — is the waste that results when coal is burned to produce energy. It contains arsenic, cadmium, mercury, selenium and other heavy metals that pose known health risks to wildlife and humans alike. When coal-ash ponds fail, the results are catastrophic. A 2008 spill in Kingston, Tenn., remains one of the worst environmental disasters in the United States.

As I wrote in 2022, Alabama Power has dumped nearly 22 million tons of coal ash into the storage ponds at the Barry plant. The ponds are open to the elements and are surrounded on three sides by water, separated from the river by only an earthen dam. As the extreme weather of climate change fuels ever stronger hurricanes, the ponds are increasingly vulnerable to storm surge and flooding. If the dam is breached, that toxic sludge will pour into the Mobile River. Already the ponds are leaking heavy metals into the groundwater.

There are at least 44 ash ponds in Alabama, according to the Alabama Rivers Alliance. But this environmental time bomb is not unique to the state. There are coal-ash containment pits and ponds all over the country, and a vast majority are leaking. At the 265 sites known to be leaching toxins into the groundwater, officials at only half of them agree that cleanup is necessary.

Other utilities, including some in the red-state South, are already in the process of removing hundreds of millions of tons of coal ash stored in proximity to waterways, either burying it in dry, lined landfills or recycling it into concrete. But Alabama Power’s plan for the Barry plant has long been to drain the water from the pond and cap the ash in place — effectively burying it on the banks of the Mobile River.

Last May, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a new rule that would hold utilities more accountable for coal ash pollution. In August the agency put Alabama Power on notice that its plan fails to meet minimal federal requirements for the safe storage of coal ash, but the agency still hasn’t issued a final denial of the plan.

Separately, in September 2022, the Southern Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit against Alabama Power on behalf of Mobile Baykeeper, an environmental nonprofit that works to protect the waters and wetlands of coastal Alabama. A year later, a magistrate judge allowed the suit to move forward.

But last month, a federal judge appointed by George W. Bush reversed the earlier court’s decision, dismissing the case because the cap on the Barry ponds won’t be completed until at least August 2030. Only at a later date “much sooner to closure project completion,” the judge said, would judicial review be warranted.

The ruling was a blow for Mobile Baykeeper. As Lee Hedgepeth reported for Inside Climate News, the nonprofit is weighing all options for further legal action against Alabama Power.

But embedded in the federal judge’s ruling was news that may hold a glimmer of hope for the Mobile-Tensaw Delta and the entire Alabama coast: Alabama Power was entering into settlement negotiations with the E.P.A.

On Jan. 25, Alabama Power announced a partnership with Eco Material Technologies to build a coal-ash recycling facility that will dig up “almost all” of the toxic slurry at the Barry ponds for use in making concrete. “We won’t know exactly until we get in there,” Eco Materials Technology’s chief executive, Grant Quasha, told AL.com, “but our goal would be to use over 90 percent of the material, and our technology allows us to do that.”

Mobile Baykeeper and the S.E.L.C. greeted the news with cautious optimism. “This is a major shift in the company’s position, and we should all be encouraged by the prospect of less coal ash threatening the delta,” Barry Brock, the director of the S.E.L.C.’s Alabama office, said in a statement. Mobile Baykeeper responded in kind: “This move could be a game changer in protecting the rich biodiversity of America’s Amazon and safeguarding the health of those living, working and playing downstream.”

Where the irreplaceable Mobile-Tensaw Delta is concerned, I’ll take any good news I can get, and I don’t mean that ironically. But the fact that this plan counts as extremely good news is one measure of how bad the coal-ash situation in Alabama really is and how important the stakes really are.

As both Mobile Baykeeper and the S.E.L.C. have noted, caution is warranted here. Alabama Power’s recycling plan leaves open the question of how much coal ash would remain in unlined, leaking, weather-vulnerable ponds only provisionally contained on the Mobile River. And pending a final decision by the E.P.A., the utility still intends to cap the Barry ponds in place. As Mr. Brock put it, “the extent of the cleanup remains to be seen.”

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/05/opinion/alabama-coal-ash-epa.html

By: AP News

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A fourth aquifer breach has been confirmed in northern Minnesota stemming from a Canadian oil company’s construction of an oil pipeline replacement in the region, state officials said.

Officials with Enbridge Energy and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources confirmed to the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the breach occurred near Moose Lake in Aitkin County. Officials said Enbridge is working to fix the rupture, in which the layer of earth above an aquifer is punctured, causing the water to leak to the surface and possibly introducing pollutants.

It’s the fourth confirmed breach along the Line 3 pipeline route, which started operating in the fall of 2021 and generated fierce opposition from environmental activists and Native American tribes. Last October, state regulators announced that Enbridge would pay more than $11 million for water quality violations and the three previous aquifer breaches.

An aquifer is a natural underground reserve of fresh water capable of being tapped by wells. Environmentalists say such groundwater reserves face a multitude of threats from human populations, including depletion from overuse, pollution from agriculture and septic systems and contamination from pipeline construction and spills.

Groundwater at the Moose Lake breach is flowing to the surface at about 10 to 15 gallons per minute, department officials said. That’s “considerably lower” than the rate at which groundwater initially flowed from the other three breaks, the agency said.

Enbridge will submit a plan to correct the Moose Lake area damage and will implement it when it’s approved, company spokeswoman Juli Kellner said in a statement. The aquifer breaches don’t involve the pipe itself, she said. It stems from sheet-metal piling driven into the ground used to reinforce the trenches that crews work in.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE: https://apnews.com/article/enbridge-oil-pipeline-breach-minnesota-3aec2792d9a6cae11be9c7ae8179cad2

By: Helena Horton

The government is facing a legal challenge over plans to permit housebuilders in England to allow sewage pollution “through the back door”.

The campaign group Wild Justice, along with the law firm Leigh Day, have submitted plans for a judicial review over what they term an “unlawful attempt to use guidance to introduce a change that was defeated in the House of Lords last year”.

Currently, in sensitive areas such as the Lake District and Norfolk Broads, housebuilders have to prevent extra sewage going into waterways, either by updating infrastructure or by buying biodiversity credits, which improve the local natural area and counteract the extra pollution. The regulations were first enacted by the EU in an attempt to prevent damaging buildups of algae and other plants that can choke off aquatic life.

Last year, the levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, proposed an amendment to the levelling up and regeneration bill, which would strike the directive from the statute book. This would have allowed developers to ignore the rules.

The bill was twice defeated in the House of Lords after Labour made it clear it would oppose the “reckless” plans.

While the bill finally passed, the amendment did not. Now, the government has been accused of trying to bring it back by stealth by publishing a new notice, which says that planning authorities have to presume that water companies have upgraded sewage infrastructure to improve pollution after 1 April 2030, even if they have not.

Although the notice places a requirement on water companies to put these improvements in place, Wild Justice and Leigh Day argue there is no mechanism for this to be checked, so housebuilders can continue to overload water bodies with pollution after the cut-off date.

Ricardo Gama, a solicitor with Leigh Day, said: “After a huge outcry from environmental groups and a defeat in the House of Lords last year our client thought that the government had quite sensibly given up seeking to remove legal protections for internationally important habitats. The latest notice appears to try to achieve the same thing through the back door.”

The previous amendment similarly said planning authorities would have to assume there would be no sewage pollution implications from new developments, in an attempt to circumvent the EU rules.

The shadow environment secretary, Steve Reed MP, said: “The Conservative government created the housing crisis, then made it worse by scrapping housebuilding targets. To cover up that failure, they are cooking up plans that risk irreparable damage to rivers already awash with toxic sewage.

“Labour is committed to building the homes Britain so desperately needs, while protecting our natural environment. We will speed up the planning process to get spades in the ground and build 1.5m homes over the next parliament while protecting our rivers from pollution.”

A government spokesperson said: “What the changes made in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act do is enable the designation of areas in which water companies will be required to upgrade wastewater treatment works to reduce nutrient pollution on our waterways by April 2030.

“These upgrades will reduce pollution at source, delivering environmental benefits, while also helping to unlock the homes communities need by reducing the mitigation burden on development. Any water company failing to deliver upgrades on time will be liable to provide remediation.”

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/13/legal-challenge-over-plans-to-relax-sewage-laws-for-housebuilders-in-england

By: Eliza Spencer

An hour-and-a-half from the Australian capital, drinking water has become currency.

Residents in the small town of Boorowa, north-west of Canberra, have been on a boil water notice for almost a month. Most have been buying drinking water. And, as one local discovered, it is also accepted as barter.

James Blackwell, an academic researcher, paid for second-hand goods on Facebook Marketplace with some of his water supplies.

“I joked with [the seller] and I said, ‘I can pay cash or I can pay in bottled water’,” he says. “She said she hadn’t been to the shops yet, so she took the bottled water.”

Blackwell has started bringing his own bottles to his workplace in Canberra and filling them from the free filtered water stations in the office.

“I was there with a giant Ikea-type bag with bottles of water and people were wondering what I was doing,” he says. “I’m on week three of bottled water.”

The town of 2,000 people was placed on a boil water notice on 22 January after heavy rains “compromised” filtration systems at the local water treatment plant.

But the Hilltops mayor, Margaret Roles, says water quality has been a concern in Boorowa for more than 50 years.

“It’s always been hard water and, although it meets the minimum standard for potable water, people’s expectations are rising all the time,” she says.

The council was faced with a choice of either increasing the size of the weir near Boorowa, which Roles says would leave residents at the mercy of the “vagaries of the river”, or lobbying for a pipeline from the Murrumbidgee River, the intake point for which is more than 50km away at Jugiong.

They chose the pipeline. It already services nearby Harden. The estimated cost of extending the line another 10km, Roles says, is $60m. The New South Wales government this month announced a $825,000 grant, jointly funded by council, for a geotechnical study.

Roles says the town’s growing population, thanks to its popularity with tree-changers who left cities during the pandemic, has strengthened the business case. A new housing development is set to bring in another 120 families.

“Because Hilltops is now 20,000 people and a growing area, we have a much better case to plan for the future,” she says.

‘No one serves tap water’

At Jeremy Clarke’s wine bar, bottled water is on the menu for ice, cocktails, dishwashing and cleaning. As he hauls a four-litre jug of water on top of the bar, Clarke jokes that his biggest revenue stream is now from recycling plastic water bottles.

“The thing in bars, you’re always rinsing,” he says. “It’s a massive hassle with the salad greens, rinsing your implements before they go in the dishwasher … no hospitality place around here serves tap water.”

The town water supply comes from the Boorowa River, which flows through farmland. It doesn’t have the tell-tale discoloration or smell of unsafe water, but Sam Jansen says the taste is unforgettable.

“I remember the day we moved into Boorowa, I ran to the kitchen sink and filled it up with a glass of water. I had a sip and said, ‘Oh mum, the water’s no good,’” she says. “Mum had a try and she said, ‘Oh my God no, you can’t drink that.’ That was 20 years ago.”

The new mother has twice developed an infection twice since having a child by cesaerian section in January. Guidance issued by Hilltops council and a factsheet from NSW Health stated that that town water was safe for showering but Jansen disagrees.

“I’ve never had an infection with any of my births but I’ve never had such a horrendous healing process before,” she says. “I 100% attribute that to the water. It’s not because of my lack of trying, it’s because of the water.”

The state MP for Cootamundra, Steph Cooke, says the lack of safe water is “unacceptable and unfair”

“We have the right to safe and secure drinking water and we have the right to thrive and grow,” she says. “Not only are we unable to service current residents, we have even less hope under the current circumstances of supplying [water] to new residents. It’s holding back the growth and development of Boorowa.”

The federal member for Hume, Angus Taylor, says water quality in the town is a “longstanding issue” and that the current situation is “unacceptable”.

“It’s imperative these water quality issues are resolved as quickly as possible,” he says.

The NSW water minister, Rose Jackson, says there is “no quick fix” to the town’s complex water issues. But she says technical experts from her department will “work closely” with the local council until the current problem is resolved.

“Delivery of clean and reliable water to the community is a key responsibility of the local water utility but we most certainly all have a role to play and we’re doing everything we can to help them,” Jackson says.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/17/boorowa-the-small-town-near-australias-capital-that-has-been-without-drinking-water-for-26-days

By: Matt Sczesny

BELLE GLADE, Fla. — In western Palm Beach County towns like Belle Glade, the water levels at Lake Okeechobee are a big topic of conversation.

Allie Woodwell at Slim’s Fish Camp, a shop that’s been on Torry Island for more than 90 years, said people talk about it every day.

“They say the water is too high,” Woodwell said.

According to the Army Corps of Engineers, Lake Okeechobee is now over 16 feet, a number that many said is not typical for the dry season.

They are also aware of the Corps’ plan to start releasing water from the lake, which has alarmed many about possible algae contamination making its way toward the Treasure Coast.

“We see it from both ends of the coast where the water flows out, and we see those complaints,” Woodwell said. “We understand that, but it affects us too. It affects us horribly when it’s this high.”

Many said the high water is affecting livelihoods here, making navigation difficult and impacting fishing.

Concerns over flooding are also felt in the Torry Island Campground, which has about 400 spots for campers and recreational vehicles.

“When that wind blows out of the north 20 mph, then it’ll almost have a two-foot rise here,” Mike Swartz, who lives on the campgrounds, said.

As for the releases, many here say it will help, while they know elsewhere in Florida others may not like it.

“It certainly couldn’t hurt things. It would be a good thing,” Swartz said. “I hope they do it gradually.”

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE: https://www.wptv.com/news/protecting-paradise/high-water-on-lake-okeechobee-affects-us-horribly-belle-glade-resident-says

By: Emily DeLetter

Amid a historic water shortage, Lake Mead’s water levels rose this week to the highest point in nearly three years.

According to measurements taken at the end of January by the Bureau of Reclamation, Lake Mead’s water levels were reported to be 1,072.67 feet, the highest levels since May 2021, when they were measured at 1,073.50 feet.

California experienced heavy rain, winds and snow last week from an atmospheric river, also known as a “Pineapple Express,” although experts told Newsweek that it would depend on the previous storm and future storms to fill the reservoirs in Lake Mead and Lake Powell in Utah and Arizona.

Where is Lake Mead?

Lake Mead is reservoir in Nevada and Arizona formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, and is the largest reservoir in the U.S. in terms of water capacity.

It was first flooded in 1935 when the Hoover Dam was created, and provides water to Arizona, California, Nevada and some of Mexico.

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Lake MeadAdd Topic

Lake Mead’s water levels measure highest since 2021 after ‘Pineapple Express’ slams California

Emily DeLetter

USA TODAY

Amid a historic water shortage, Lake Mead’s water levels rose this week to the highest point in nearly three years.

According to measurements taken at the end of January by the Bureau of Reclamation, Lake Mead’s water levels were reported to be 1,072.67 feet, the highest levels since May 2021, when they were measured at 1,073.50 feet.

California experienced heavy rain, winds and snow last week from an atmospheric river, also known as a “Pineapple Express,” although experts told Newsweek that it would depend on the previous storm and future storms to fill the reservoirs in Lake Mead and Lake Powell in Utah and Arizona.

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Where is Lake Mead?

Lake Mead is reservoir in Nevada and Arizona formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, and is the largest reservoir in the U.S. in terms of water capacity.

It was first flooded in 1935 when the Hoover Dam was created, and provides water to Arizona, California, Nevada and some of Mexico.

What were Lake Mead’s water levels in 2023?

Lake Mead’s water levels rose slowly throughout 2023, although the measurements were lower than in the previous two years. Water level measurements began at 1,046.97 feet in January and ended at 1,068.18 feet in December.

The lake has experienced record lows in water levels in recent years, with the first water shortage announced in 2021 after years of chronic overuse and drought.

Despite the recent higher water levels, Lake Mead’s launch ramp remains closed due to the 20-year ongoing drought that have “reshaped the park’s shorelines,” according to the National Park Service, which operates a recreation area on the lake.

Is the Southwest still in drought?

Some areas of the Southwest are still in drought, although almost all of California is no longer under that classification following the recent storms.

Much of Arizona and New Mexico are classified as D0 (abnormally dry), D1 (moderate drought) and D2 (severe drought), according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Some areas of New Mexico are reporting D3 (extreme drought) and D4 (exceptional drought) levels.

Lake Mead, which spans across Nevada and Arizona, is currently reporting abnormally dry to moderate drought levels, according to the Drought Monitor.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/02/15/lake-mead-water-levels-rising/72611426007/

By: Stephen Burgen

After more than 1,000 days of drought, the Catalan government has formally announced a state of emergency, extending water restrictions to Barcelona and the surrounding region.

Announcing the measures on Thursday, Pere Aragonès, the Catalan president, said that in some areas it had not rained at all for three years, describing the situation as the worst drought in modern history.

It is estimated that 500mm of rain needs to fall in Catalonia to make up the deficit. Water reserves have fallen below 16%, a level low enough to trigger the emergency declaration.

Measures already in place in the north of the region, including a 20% reduction in agricultural irrigation and a ban on watering public parks, will be extended to Barcelona.

Public and private swimming pools will close, with exemptions for those in sports centres, although some pools are adapting to use sea water. Parks will no longer be watered but groundwater will be used to save the city’s 35,000 trees from dying.

There will be no showers on the beach nor ornamental fountains. Water parks and ice rinks will close and car washing is to be limited to commercial use. The restrictions will remain in force for at least the next 15 months.

Plans to reduce water pressure have been shelved, partly because Barcelonans are keeping within a daily consumption limit of 200 litres and also because nearly everyone lives in blocks of flats and a pressure drop would discriminate against those living on upper floors.

The situation in Barcelona would be far worse were it not home to Europe’s largest desalination plant, built after the last serious drought in 2008, which supplies the city with 33% of its drinking water. A further 25% comes from recycled wastewater.

However, it costs three times as much to produce a litre of desalinated water through reverse osmosis as it does to take water from rivers and reservoirs.

It also consumes a lot of energy, not all of which as yet comes from renewable sources and therefore exacerbates the root problem by adding to global emissions.

As the Barcelona restrictions extend into summer, they are likely to fuel simmering resentment towards tourists, who are perceived as overwhelming public services, such as some bus routes, to the exclusion of local people.

Tourists consume much more water than residents. Research carried out by the hoteliers’ association showed that in 2016 a guest in a five-star hotel used 545 litres of water a day, compared with residents’ consumption of 163 litres. The association claims tourist consumption has since been reduced to 242 litres.

The drought is not confined to the north-east of Spain. In Andalucía, in southern Spain, two successive hot, dry summers have devastated the olive harvest, reducing production by 50% and doubling the price of olive oil. The grape harvest has also been poor in much of the country as even vines struggle to survive.

Tourist industry bosses say that while it’s easy to point the finger at golf courses and swimming pools, 80% of Spain’s water is consumed by agriculture.

Long before the climate crisis entered the equation, Spain was living beyond its means in terms of water, damming and diverting its few major rivers to irrigate the market gardens in the southern desert regions of Almería and Murcia.

While agriculture accounts for only about 2.3% of GDP and employs only 4% of the workforce, it punches above its weight in politics, as became clear when the government tried to restrict water use on the vast strawberry farms in the south-west.

Spain has always had periods of drought but climatologists largely agree that the droughts are getting longer while rainfall diminishes and temperatures continue to rise.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/01/catalonia-declares-drought-emergency-extending-water-limits-to-barcelona

By: Ajit Niranjan

Beauty companies will have to pay more to clean up micropollutants after EU negotiators struck a new deal to treat sewage.

Under draft rules that follow the “polluter pays principle”, companies that sell medicines and cosmetics will have to cover at least 80% of the extra costs needed to get rid of tiny pollutants that are dirtying urban wastewater. Governments will pay the rest, members of the bloc said, in an effort to prevent vital products from becoming too expensive or scarce.

Virginijus Sinkevičius, the bloc’s environment commissioner, said the steps would safeguard citizens from harmful discharges of pharmaceuticals and cosmetics that end up in water bodies. “This will make our water cleaner and protect our health.”

The rules, which have been agreed by the European parliament and council of the EU but not yet formally adopted, bulk up requirements to remove nutrients from water and set new standards for micropollutants. They also broaden the areas covered by the law.

By 2035 EU member states will have to remove organic matter from urban wastewater before releasing it into the environment in all communities with more than 1,000 people. By 2045 they will have to remove nitrogen and phosphorus in all treatment plants covering more than 10,000 people, if there is a risk to the environment or health. They will also have to add an extra step to remove a “broad spectrum” of micropollutants, according to the European parliament.

Governments will also have to monitor sewage for microplastics, “forever chemical” per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and key health indicators like antimicrobial resistance.

But member states have been slow to enforce existing rules to treat sewage. Last month, the European Commission referred Spain to the European court of justice for failing to comply with existing wastewater rules in 225 communities.

Nils Torvalds, a Finnish MEP with the liberal Renew grouping who was in charge of the proposal, said: “The deal we reached today is a breakthrough for significantly improved water management and wastewater treatment standards in Europe, especially with new rules on removing micropollutants coming from medicines and personal care products. We have ensured that the impact of this legislation on the affordability of medicines will not be disproportionate.”

The agreement is set to increase the divide between environmental protection in the EU and UK since Brexit. Earlier this month, the Guardian revealed that the UK is falling behind the EU on almost every area of environmental regulation and that its water industry has delayed plans to tackle the country’s sewage pollution crisis.

This article was amended on 1 February 2024. The headline and first line were changed to refer to micropollutants rather than to “microplastic pollution”. It is the council of the EU that has been involved in agreeing the rules, not the council of Europe. And EU member states will have to remove nitrogen and phosphorus in all treatment plants covering more than 10,000 people by 2045, only if there is a risk to the environment or health; this has been clarified.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/29/eu-will-force-cosmetic-companies-to-pay-to-reduce-microplastic-pollution