Tag: environment

Is it ‘Zero Day’ for California Water?

Long before talk of climate change, California planned a system of canals and reservoirs to carry water to its dry areas. It’s no longer enough.

By The Conversation

U.S. News & World Report

Is it ‘Zero Day’ for California Water?

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FRESNO, CA - JULY 8: A portion (looking south) of the 152-mile Friant-Kern Canal, an aqueduct to convey water to augment agriculture irrigation on the east side of the San Joaquin Valley, is viewed on July 8, 2021, thirty minutes east of Fresno, California. Due to a lack of rain and snow in the Sierra Nevada during the past two years, California is experiencing one of the driest and hottest periods of weather in recorded history, forcing municipalities and farmers in the Central Valley to rethink their uses of water. As of this date, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a water "State of Emergency" for most state counties and has asked residents to reduce their use of water by 15%. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)

George Rose|Getty Images

A portion (looking south) of the 152-mile Friant-Kern Canal, an aqueduct to convey water to augment agriculture irrigation on the east side of the San Joaquin Valley, is viewed on July 8, 2021, thirty minutes east of Fresno, Calif.

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By Lara B. Fowler

On Dec. 1, 2021, California triggered headlines heard around the world when officials announced how much water suppliers would be getting from the State Water Project. “California water districts to get 0% of requested supplies in an unprecedented decision,” one headline proclaimed. “No state water for California farms,” read another.

MORE: Solar Panels Over California’s Canals and Climate Payoff

The headlines suggested a comparison with the “Zero Day” announcement in Cape Town, South Africa, during a drought in 2018. That was the projected date when water would no longer be available at household taps without significant conservation. Cape Town avoided a water shutoff, barely.

While California’s announcement represents uncharted territory and is meant to promote water conservation in what is already a dry water year, there is more to the story.

California’s drought solution

California is a semi-arid state, so a dry year isn’t a surprise. But a recent state report observed that California is now in a dry pattern “interspersed with an occasional wet year.” The state suffered a three-year drought from 2007 to 2009, a five-year drought from 2012 to 2016, and now two dry years in a row; 2020 was the fifth-driest year on record, and 2021 was the second-driest.

Coming into the 2022 water year – which began Oct. 1 – the ground is dry, reservoirs are low and the prediction is for another dry year.

Over a century ago, well before climate change became evident, officials began planning ways to keep California’s growing cities and farms supplied with water. They developed a complex system of reservoirs and canals that funnel water from where it’s plentiful to where it’s needed.

Part of that system is the State Water Project.

First envisioned in 1919, the State Water Project delivers water from the relatively wetter and, at the time, less populated areas of Northern California to more populated and drier areas, mostly in Southern California. The State Water Project provides water for 27 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland, with about 70% for residential, municipal and industrial use and 30% for irrigation. There are 29 local water agencies – the state water contractors – that helped fund the State Water Project and in return receive water under a contract dating to the 1960s.

While the State Water Project is important to these local water agencies, it is usually not their only source of water. Nor is all water in California supplied through the State Water Project. Most water agencies have a portfolio of water supplies, which can include pumping groundwater.

What does 0% mean?

Originally, the State Water Project planned to deliver 4.2 million acre-feet of water each year. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, or enough water to cover a football field in water 1 foot deep. An average California household uses around one-half to 1 acre-foot of water per year for both indoor and outdoor use. However, contractors that distribute water from the State Water Project have historically received only part of their allocations; the long-term average is 60%, with recent years much lower.

Based on water conditions each year, the state Department of Water Resources makes an initial allocation by Dec. 1 to help these state water contractors plan. As the year progresses, the state can adjust the allocation based on additional rain or snow and the amount of water in storage reservoirs. In 2010, for example, the allocation started at 5% and was raised to 50% by June. In 2014, the allocation started at 5%, dropped to 0% and then finished at 5%.

This year is the lowest initial allocation on record. According to the state Department of Water Resources, “unprecedented drought conditions” and “reservoirs at or near historic lows” led to this year’s headline-producing 0% allocation.

READ: California Water Supply Looks Promising in 2020, State Officials Say

That’s 0% of each state water contractor’s allocation; however, the department committed to meet “unmet minimum health and safety needs.” In other words, if the contractors cannot find water from other sources, they could request up to 55 gallons per capita per day of water to “meet domestic supply, fire protection and sanitation needs.” That’s about two-thirds of what the average American uses.

The department is also prioritizing water for salinity control in the Sacramento Bay Delta area, water for endangered species, water to reserve in storage and water for additional supply allocations if the weather conditions improve.

Under the current plan, there will be no water from the State Water Project for roughly 10% of California’s irrigated land. As a result, both municipal and agricultural suppliers will be seeking to conserve water, looking elsewhere for water supplies, or not delivering water. None are easy solutions.

The problem with pumping groundwater

To weather previous droughts, many water suppliers relied on groundwater, which led to increased costs for wells, declines in groundwater levels, land subsidence and degraded water quality. California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act was enacted in 2014 to help address overpumping of groundwater, but it hasn’t turned these conditions around.

Those who can afford to dig deeper wells have done so, while others have no water as their wells have gone dry. During the 2012-2016 drought, the Public Policy Institute of California found that a majority of affected households that lost water access from their wells were in “small rural communities reliant on shallow wells – many of them communities of color.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom called on residents to voluntarily conserve 15% of their water during summer 2021. Statewide reductions were only 1.8% in July but jumped to 13.2% in October. This year’s snowpack, which acts as a natural reservoir, is far below normal.

Irrigators who depend on the federal Central Valley Project are facing similar drought conditions. Imports from the Colorado River system are also limited, as this basin is also facing its first-ever shortage declaration due to drought.

MORE: Western States Maintain Best Air Quality Levels

What’s next?

As someone who has worked in California and the Western U.S. on complex water issues, I am familiar with both drought and floods and the challenges they create. However, the widespread nature of this year’s drought – in California and beyond – makes the challenge even harder.

This “zero allocation” for California’s State Water Contractors is an unprecedented early warning, and likely a sign of what’s ahead.

A recent study warned that the snowpack in Western states like California may decline by up to 45% by 2050, with low- and no-snow years becoming increasingly common. Thirty-seven cities in California have already issued moratoriums on development because of water supply concerns.

If voluntary conservation does not work, enacting mandatory conservation measures like San Jose’s tough new drought rules may be needed. The state is now weighing emergency regulations on water use, and everyone is hoping for more precipitation.

Lara B. Fowler, Senior Lecturer in Law and Assistant Director for Outreach and Engagement, Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment, Penn State

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2021-12-10/california-faces-unprecedented-water-restrictions

Ocean heatwaves are breaking Earth’s hidden climate engine

Marine heatwaves are clogging the ocean’s carbon pump, threatening its power to fight climate change.

Source:Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Summary:Marine heatwaves can jam the ocean’s natural carbon conveyor belt, preventing carbon from reaching the deep sea. Researchers studying two major heatwaves in the Gulf of Alaska found that plankton shifts caused carbon to build up near the surface instead of sinking. This disrupted the ocean’s ability to store carbon for millennia and intensified climate feedbacks. The study highlights the urgent need for continuous, collaborative ocean observation.Share:

    

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Ocean Heatwaves Break Earth’s Climate Engine
Robotic floats can continuously collect detailed data about ocean conditions. A new study led by MBARI researchers from the Global Ocean Biogeochemistry Array project—with an interdisciplinary team of collaborators—has analyzed data from floats deployed in the Gulf of Alaska and records from ship-based plankton surveys and revealed that marine heatwaves reshape ocean food webs and affect the ocean’s ability to store carbon. Credit: © 2022 MBARI

New research shows that marine heatwaves can reshape ocean food webs, which in turn can slow the transport of carbon to the deep sea and hamper the ocean’s ability to buffer against climate change. The study, published in the scientific journal Nature Communications on October 6, was conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers from MBARI, the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, the Hakai Institute, Xiamen University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Southern Denmark, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

To explore the impacts of marine heatwaves on ocean food webs and carbon flows, the research team combined multiple datasets that tracked biological conditions in the water column in the Gulf of Alaska for more than a decade. This region experienced two successive marine heatwaves during this time, one from 2013 to 2015 known as “The Blob,” and another from 2019 to 2020.

“The ocean has a biological carbon pump, which normally acts like a conveyor belt carrying carbon from the surface to the deep ocean. This process is powered by the microscopic organisms that form the base of the ocean food web, including bacteria and plankton,” said the lead author, Mariana Bif, previously a research specialist at MBARI and now an assistant professor in the Department of Ocean Sciences at the Rosenstiel School. “For this study, we wanted to track how marine heatwaves affected those microscopic organisms to see if those impacts were connected to the amount of carbon being produced and exported to the deep ocean.”

The research team used information collected by the Global Ocean Biogeochemical (GO-BGC) Array, a collaborative initiative funded by the US National Science Foundation and led by MBARI that uses robotic floats to monitor ocean health. The GO-BGC project has deployed hundreds of autonomous biogeochemical Argo (BGC-Argo) floats, which measure ocean conditions such as temperature, salinity, nitrate, oxygen, chlorophyll, and particulate organic carbon (POC) up and down the water column every five to 10 days. The team also looked at seasonal data from ship-based surveys that tracked plankton community composition, including pigment chemistry and sequencing of the environmental DNA (eDNA) from seawater samples collected during the Line P program carried out by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

The study found that marine heatwaves did impact the base of the ocean food web, and those impacts were connected to changes in the ways that carbon was cycled in the water column. However, the changes that occurred in the food web were not consistent across the two heatwaves.

Under typical conditions, plant-like phytoplankton convert carbon dioxide to organic material. These microorganisms are the foundation of the ocean food web. When they are eaten by larger animals and excreted as waste, they transform into organic carbon particles that sink from the surface through the ocean’s mesopelagic, or twilight, zone (200 to 1,000 meters, approximately 660 to 3,300 feet) and down to the deep sea. This process locks atmospheric carbon away in the ocean for thousands of years.

During the 2013-2015 heatwave, surface carbon production by photosynthetic plankton was high in the second year, but rather than sinking rapidly to the deep sea, small carbon particles piled up approximately 200 meters (roughly 660 feet) underwater.

During the 2019-2020 heatwave, there was record-high accumulation of carbon particles at the surface in the first year that could not be attributed to carbon production by phytoplankton alone. Instead, this accumulation was likely due to the recycling of carbon by marine life and the buildup of detritus waste. This pulse of carbon then sank to the twilight zone, but lingered at depths of 200 to 400 meters (roughly 660 to 1,320 feet) instead of sinking to the deep sea.

The team attributed these differences in carbon transport between the two heatwaves to changes in phytoplankton populations. These changes cascaded through the food web, leading to a rise in small grazers who do not produce fast-sinking waste particles, so carbon was retained and recycled at the surface and in the upper twilight zone rather than sinking to deeper depths.

“Our research found that these two major marine heatwaves altered plankton communities and disrupted the ocean’s biological carbon pump. The conveyor belt carrying carbon from the surface to the deep sea jammed, increasing the risk that carbon can return to the atmosphere instead of being locked away deep in the ocean,” said Bif.

This research demonstrated that not all marine heatwaves are the same. Different plankton lineages rise and fall during these warming events, underscoring the need for long-term, coordinated monitoring of the ocean’s biological and chemical conditions to accurately model the diverse, and expansive, ecological impacts of marine heatwaves.

“This research marks an exciting new chapter in ocean monitoring. To really understand how a heatwave impacts marine ecosystems and ocean processes, we need observation data from before, during, and after the event. This research included robotic floats, pigment chemistry, and genetic sequencing, all working together to tell the entire story. It’s a great example of how collaboration can help us answer key questions about the health of the ocean,” said MBARI Senior Scientist Ken Johnson, the lead principal investigator for the GO-BGC project and a coauthor of the study.

Ocean observations and models suggest that marine heatwaves have been expanding in size and intensifying over the past few decades. The ocean absorbs a quarter of the carbon dioxide emitted each year, thanks to the steady stream of carbon particles sinking from the surface to the deep sea. A warmer ocean can mean less carbon locked away, which in turn can accelerate climate change. Beyond the changes to carbon transport, the shifts in plankton at the foundation of the ocean food web have cascading impacts on marine life and human industry too.

“Climate change is contributing to more frequent and intense marine heatwaves, which underscores the need for sustained, long-term ocean monitoring to understand and predict how future marine heatwaves will impact ecosystems, fisheries, and climate,” said Bif.

This work was funded by the US National Science Foundation’s GO-BGC project (NSF Award 1946578 with operational support from NSF Award 2110258), with additional support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, China National Science Foundation (grant number: 42406099), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant number: 20720240105), Danish Center for Hadal Research (Grant No. DNRF145), and Fisheries and Oceans Line P program.

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/10/251007081819.htm

Japan’s hot springs hold clues to the origins of life on Earth

These findings show how life adapted before photosynthesis reshaped the planet and may also guide the search for life on alien worlds.

Source:Institute of Science Tokyo

Summary:Billions of years ago, Earth’s atmosphere was hostile, with barely any oxygen and toxic conditions for life. Researchers from the Earth-Life Science Institute studied Japan’s iron-rich hot springs, which mimic the ancient oceans, to uncover how early microbes survived. They discovered communities of bacteria that thrived on iron and tiny amounts of oxygen, forming ecosystems that recycled elements like carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur.Share:

    

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Hot Springs Hold Clues to the Origins of Life
Ancient microbes survived by harnessing iron and low oxygen levels in ecosystems resembling modern hot springs in Japan. These discoveries illuminate how life adapted during Earth’s Great Oxygenation Event and hint at possible life strategies on other planets. Credit: Shutterstock

Earth was not always the blue-green world we know today: the early Earth’s oxygen levels were about a million times lower than we now experience. There were no forests and no animals. For ancient organisms, oxygen was toxic. What did life look like at that time then? A recent study led by Fatima Li-Hau (graduate student at ELSI at the time of the research) along with the supervisor Associate Professor Shawn McGlynn (at the time of research) of the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan, explores this question by examining iron-rich hot springs that mimic the chemistry of Earth’s ancient oceans around the time of one of Earth’s most dramatic changes: the oxygenation of the atmosphere. Their findings suggest that early microbial communities used iron along with oxygen released by photosynthetic microbes, for energy, revealing a transitional ecosystem where life turned a waste product of one organism into a new energy source before photosynthesis became dominant.

The Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) occurred around 2.3 billion years ago and marked the rise of atmospheric oxygen, likely triggered by green Cyanobacteria that used sunlight to split water, subsequently converting carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthesis. The result is that the current atmosphere is around 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen, with only traces of other gases such as methane and carbon dioxide, which might have played a greater role before the rise of oxygen. The GOE fundamentally changed the course of life on Earth. This high amount of oxygen allows us animals to breathe, but it also complicates life for ancient life forms, which were almost unaware of the O2 molecule. Understanding how these ancient microbes adapted to the presence of oxygen remains a major question.

To answer this, the team studied five hot springs in Japan, which are rich in varied water chemistries. Those five springs (one in Tokyo, two each in Akita and Aomori prefectures) are naturally rich in ferrous iron (Fe2+). They are rare in today’s oxygen-rich world because ferrous iron quickly reacts with oxygen and turns into an insoluble ferric iron form (Fe3+). But in these springs, the water still contains high levels of ferrous iron, low levels of oxygen, and a near-neutral pH, conditions thought to resemble parts of the early Earth’s oceans.

“These iron-rich hot springs provide a unique natural laboratory to study microbial metabolism under early Earth-like conditions during the late Archean to early Proterozoic transition, marked by the Great Oxidation Event. They help us understand how primitive microbial ecosystems may have been structured before the rise of plants, animals, or significant atmospheric oxygen,” says Shawn McGlynn, who supervised Li-Hau during her dissertation work.

In four of the five hot springs, the team found microaerophilic iron-oxidising bacteria to be the dominant microbes. These organisms thrive in low-oxygen conditions and use ferrous iron as an energy source, converting it into ferric iron. Cyanobacteria, known for producing oxygen through photosynthesis, were also present but in relatively small numbers. The only exception was one of the Akita hot springs, where non-iron-based metabolisms were surprisingly dominant.

Using metagenomic analysis, the team assembled over 200 high-quality microbial genomes and used them to analyse in detail the functions of microbes in the community. The same microbes that coupled iron and oxygen metabolism converted a toxic compound into an energy source and helped maintain conditions that allowed oxygen-sensitive anaerobes to persist. These communities carried out essential biological processes such as carbon and nitrogen cycling, and the researchers also found evidence of a partial sulfur cycle, identifying genes involved in sulfide oxidation and sulfate assimilation. Given that hot springs contained very little sulfur compounds, this was a surprising discovery. The researchers propose that this may indicate a “cryptic” sulfur cycle, where microbes recycle sulfur in complex ways that are not yet fully understood.

“Despite differences in geochemistry and microbial composition across sites, our results show that in the presence of ferrous iron and limited oxygen, communities of microaerophilic iron oxidisers, oxygenic phototrophs, and anaerobes consistently coexist and sustain remarkably similar and complete biogeochemical cycles,” says Li-Hau.

The research suggests a shift in our understanding of early ecosystems, showing that microbes may have harnessed energy from iron oxidation and oxygen produced by early phototrophs. The study proposes that, similar to these hot springs, early Earth hosted ecosystems were composed of diverse microbes, including iron-oxidising bacteria, anaerobes, and Cyanobacteria living alongside one another and modulating oxygen concentrations.

“This paper expands our understanding of microbial ecosystem function during a crucial period in Earth’s history, the transition from an anoxic, iron-rich ocean to an oxygenated biosphere at the onset of the GOE. By understanding modern analogue environments, we provide a detailed view of metabolic potentials and community composition relevant to early Earth’s conditions,” says Li-Hau.

Together, these insights deepen our understanding of life’s early evolution on Earth and have implications for the search for life on other planets with geochemical conditions similar to those of early Earth.

More information

Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) is one of Japan’s ambitious World Premiere International research centers, whose aim is to achieve progress in broadly inter-disciplinary scientific areas by inspiring the world’s greatest minds to come to Japan and collaborate on the most challenging scientific problems. ELSI’s primary aim is to address the origin and co-evolution of the Earth and life.

Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo) was established on October 1, 2024, following the merger between Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) and Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), with the mission of “Advancing science and human wellbeing to create value for and with society.”

World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI) was launched in 2007 by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to foster globally visible research centers boasting the highest standards and outstanding research environments. Numbering more than a dozen and operating at institutions throughout the country, these centers are given a high degree of autonomy, allowing them to engage in innovative modes of management and research. The program is administered by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/10/251002074009.htm

Local News

Water restored in Novi area after transmission line break, many still under boil water advisory

By Paula Wethington,

 Nick Lentz

Water service was restored by Friday morning to the communities affected by a massive water main break Thursday morning in and near Novi, Michigan, the Great Lakes Water Authority says. 

But disruptions to daily routines, including boil water advisories, school closures and the road closing along 14 Mile Road continue for thousands of people who live, work or go to school in Commerce, Walled Lake and parts of Novi. The Great Lakes Water Authority has sent water trucks into the affected neighborhoods to help provide residents and businesses with water, and in some cases, businesses arranged for water bottles and portable toilets as a temporary step.

Repairs continue 

Great Lakes Water Authority, which is the regional water system in charge of the 42-inch transmission line that broke on 14 Mile Road, said utility crews worked all day Thursday and into the night to pressurize a 24-inch line and get water service restored. 

Service was returned to all affected communities by Friday morning, GLWA said, although utility crews will remain on site until repairs are complete on the 42-inch transmission line.

The City of Novi said its residents should be noticing improved water pressure, although it may not yet be at full strength. “The system is stable, but it’s a good idea to fill your bathtub or other containers with water as a backup supply in case service is interrupted again,” the city of Novi said Friday morning. 

City officials say it will take several weeks for repairs to be finished. Crews completed isolating the broken water main on Friday afternoon and are now flushing the system before water quality testing can start. 

Once flushing is complete, Great Lakes Water Authority crews will begin collecting water samples. Per state regulations, two consecutive clean samples must be taken 24 hours apart before a boil water advisory can be lifted. Novi officials said the first sample could be collected on Sunday “if all goes as planned.” 

Officials said on Saturday that it’s hopeful the advisory can be lifted on Tuesday, but asked residents to be prepared for it to remain in place until Wednesday in case more testing is needed. 

Currently, 14 Mile Road between Welch Road and M-5 will remain closed to through traffic. 

Boil water advisories 

The Great Lakes Water Authority lifted a boil water alert that was issued as a precaution for the City of Wixom late Thursday. 

boil-water-map-0926.jpg
The city of Novi, Michigan, posted this map of a boil water advisory region on Sept. 26, 2025, the day after a massive water main break on 14 Mile Road.City of Novi, Michigan

But the boil water advisories for Walled Lake and the Novi neighborhoods that lost water remain in effect until further notice. The city of Novi said Friday morning that it expects the boil water advisory for its residents to remain in effect until Sunday.

Outdoor water use 

An outdoor water use restriction was posted for Novi and for nearby West Bloomfield, with residents asked to turn off irrigation systems to help ease water demand in the region.

GLWA didn’t specifically mention outdoor water use in its Friday morning report, but the water authority is asking all residents in the affected communities “to conserve water resources over the weekend to limit any additional stress on the system.”

School closures

Several schools in the affected communities were closed Thursday. The announcements for Friday include:

  • Novi Christian Academy announced it will be closed Friday. 
  • Detroit Catholic Central High School will be in session, but students are asked to bring their own water bottles.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/water-main-break-novi-michigan-day-2/?intcid=CNM-00-10abd1h

Local News

Northfield, Minnesota warns residents of unsafe drinking water for infants

By Jason Rantala

In 2019, city officials in Northfield, Minnesota said the town’s water supply tested for high levels of manganese.

In high doses, the metal can cause memory, attention and motor skills problems for adults, and particularly impacts infants, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.

Earlier this year, the city scrapped plans to build a new water treatment facility because costs became too high, rising from $60 million to $83 million.

“Certainly we’re all committed to safe and healthy drinking water here in Northfield,” said Ben Martig, Northfield’s city administrator.

City officials are now advising families with infants under 1 to have them drink bottled water or to treat the water themselves, like with a reverse osmosis system.

Officials said they have been warning residents about the water quality issues for years through multiple press releases.

“We’ve talked with local providers, letting them know to notify pregnant mothers and newborn families that they should be looking at different options for their water and making sure that it is further treated,” said Justin Wagner, the city’s utilities manager.

“It’s unsafe for children under 1 and people who are pregnant, and those are important and valuable people to our community, too,” said Ward 1 City Council Member Kathleen Holmes.

She said water treatment is a city need, and costs for the project will only increase as time passes.

“This is a situation for renters who can’t put in reverse osmosis or can’t afford it,” said Holmes.

Northfield resident Levi Prinzing is the parent of an infant, but said at this point he’s more worried about the financial impacts of a new treatment facility. Prinzing also filters his water.

“I don’t think we need a new treatment plant,” said Prinzing. “The treatment plant is a lot of money and we just raised our taxes a lot.”

“We have to find a way to work together as a council and find a solution that can help bridge that gap, that we can provide safe drinking water for all residents, and hopefully reduce the financial impact or financial burden that it is on residents,” said Holmes.

The City Council may reconsider the water treatment facility in June.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/northfield-minnesotas-warns-residents-of-unsafe-drinking-water-for-infants/?intcid=CNM-00-10abd1h

Local News

Florida’s springs face pollution, climate threats as iconic waters risk losing natural beauty

Seen from the air, a Florida freshwater spring is a bit of liquid heaven, luring humans and wildlife to enjoy its aquamarine cool. With at least 1,000 of them — more than any other state — the springs serve as beaches for large swaths of central and northwestern Florida far from the ocean, with teenagers backflipping from docks and snorkelers peering into the crystalline depths.

But these treasures are under threat from agricultural pollution, rapid development and climate change.

Florida’s fragile freshwater springs under growing strain

Some places, such as fast-growing Zephyrhills in west-central Florida, have paused some construction as it struggles to stay within limits on the drinking water it can withdraw from a vast underground aquifer. Zephyrhills is home to Crystal Springs, source of the bottled water named after the town and several other brands.

“We really had to do something,” said Steven Spina, a member of the town council. “A lot of residents thought it was a good thing. People were happy to see us take a breath.”

The Floridan Aquifer: lifeline for 90% of the state’s drinking water

Covering an estimated 100,000 square miles (250,000 square kilometers), the underground Floridan Aquifer is the source of 90% of Florida’s drinking water. Because of the porous nature of the state’s bedrock, millions of gallons of water find their way to the surface in the form of clear, clean springs that, in turn, feed into rivers.

The highest concentration of springs are in central and northern Florida, including most of the 30 “first magnitude” springs — those that discharge at least 65 million gallons of water every day. All but four of them are considered polluted.

“We just have too much pollution going into the ground and too much water coming out of the ground,” said Ryan Smart, executive director of the nonprofit Florida Springs Council. “And when you get that combination, you end up with springs that are no longer blue and vibrant and full of life.”

Runoff, farming and algae blooms choke spring ecosystems

In rural Florida, runoff from fertilizers and pesticides used in farm fields is a major part of the problem. Fertilizers containing phosphates and nitrogen promote algae blooms that can suffocate a spring. Livestock waste contributes, too.

“When that algae covers everything, then you lose all of the seagrasses. The seagrasses are the forests of the water,” Smart said. “Then you begin to lose the biodiversity. And it even puts our drinking water at risk.”

Development and tourism add pressure to Florida’s springs

Elsewhere in Florida, rampant development is the threat. With over 1,000 people moving to Florida every day, more housing subdivisions are sprouting, along with the roads, strip malls, restaurants, golf courses and everything else that comes with them.

That means more paved surfaces that keep rainwater from percolating down into the aquifer and more pollutant-laden runoff from lawn fertilizers, parking lots, ever-widening roads and sometimes septic tanks. It also means more and more people, many of whom enjoy tubing, paddleboarding, kayaking and swimming in the springs.

It gets so busy in summer at some springs located in state and local parks that entry is halted by late morning. At Ichetucknee Springs State Park north of Gainesville, the daily limit of 750 tubers on the upper river is often reached within an hour after the park opens.

Kaelin Gibbs, on vacation in June with his family from Georgia, was swimming in the Blue Hole Spring along the Ichetucknee River.

“This is simply incredible; the water is cool and clear,” said Gibbs. “We’ve been to Florida’s beaches and to Orlando. There is no comparison to how beautiful this spring is.”

But that’s in peril, said Dennis Jones, a Republican former legislator deeply involved in springs issues. He said the volume of permits being issued for water use isn’t sustainable.

“You cannot keep taking water out of the aquifer because it’s not an endless supply,” Jones said.

Mining, climate change and saltwater intrusion worsen threats

Phosphate mining has also taken a toll on springs. Their operations require a great deal of water, which reduces water pressure available for springs. Some have died almost completely from mining and other factors, including White Sulphur Springs in north Florida, which was a sacred place for Native Americans and later a tourist resort that attracted famous visitors such as Henry Ford and Theodore Roosevelt.

A more subtle threat to the health of springs involves Earth’s changing climate. It is altering rainfall patterns around the globe, threatening the balance that feeds Florida’s springs.

In addition, some springs along the coasts are facing an intrusion of salt water, according to the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Four major springs are becoming increasingly brackish because of sea level rise and declining rainfall.

“As a result, freshwater vegetation has a hard time surviving in this saltier environment and unwanted vegetation moves in,” the district said in a website post.

State funding, lawsuits and grassroots activism aim to save springs

Florida spends billions every year on water quality projects, including about $800 million this year for Everglades restoration work. State funding for springs runs about $50 million a year, according to state documents.

Two state efforts at improving springs’ quality, both around a decade old, remain bottled up in court and administrative challenges. One would strengthen rules for permits to draw water from the major springs. The other would enhance rules to reduce the amount of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphates that goes into springs that are considered impaired.

Jones, the former legislator, said lobbying by powerful agricultural interests and related political pressures have blocked progress on the nitrogen reduction plan that was expected to take about 20 years.

“We’ve burned up almost 10 years and they haven’t got on stage one. We got more nitrates now than when we started,” Jones said.

In Congress, U.S. Rep. Randy Fine recently filed a bill that would create a Florida Springs National Park across several counties, centered around the Ocala National Forest. Fine said in a statement the designation would protect the springs and increase funding. “Our Florida springs are something unique, not just to Florida but to the country,” Fine said.

It costs bottling companies just $115 for a permit allowing them to withdraw millions of gallons of water in perpetuity. But they do pay local taxes.

Blue Triton, the company that bottles Zephyrhills water, pays about $600,000 a year in taxes for things like schools, public safety and so forth, said Spina of the city council.

“They are one of our largest taxpayers,” he said.

Though they have challenges, Florida’s freshwater springs have energetic friends, too.

Michelle Jamesson loves the springs; she grew up swimming in one and is determined to help protect them for future generations. She volunteers for SpringsWatch Citizen Science Program, coordinating and working with other volunteers for monthly tests on the Wekiva River, north of Orlando.

They test water quality, take photos of underwater vegetation, count birds and more, seeking to spot any big changes that may require action. The Wekiva is fairly stable, she said, though it carries a lot of excess nutrients.

“The wildlife and the ecology, and all of it — it’s so full of life,” Jamesson said.

___

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.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/florida-springs-water-pollution-climate-change-report/?intcid=CNM-00-10abd1h

Chesapeake Bay pollution down, but water quality still short of goals, CBF says

By Christian Olaniran

Chesapeake Bay pollution down, but water quality still short of goals, CBF says

Pollution entering the Chesapeake Bay has dropped, but water quality remains below restoration targets, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

In 2023 nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment levels were significantly lower than the previous year, according to the CBF. Nitrogen fell 21.7%, phosphorus 26% and sediment 15.5%. These three pollutants are the leading contributors to the bay’s poor health.

The largest reductions came from the Pamunkey, Patuxent, Potomac and Susquehanna rivers. By contrast, nitrogen rose in the Appomattox, Mattaponi and Rappahannock rivers, where excess levels can trigger algae blooms that sap oxygen and threaten fish and crabs.

How pollution progress is measured

Researchers measure progress through the Bay TMDL Indicator, which uses modeled data to track how far pollution reductions move the bay toward a healthier ecosystem. To meet water quality goals, nitrogen must be cut by about 145 million pounds per year and phosphorus by about 9 million pounds.

Since 2009, projects such as tree planting, wastewater treatment upgrades and improved farming practices have reduced roughly 82 million pounds of nitrogen and 1.6 million pounds of phosphorus. 

Those efforts are expected to cut an additional 27 million pounds of nitrogen and 4 million pounds of phosphorus annually in the years ahead, according to the CBF. 

Despite these reductions, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science gave the bay a “C” in its 2024 annual report, down from a C+ the previous year. 

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources also reported last month that underwater grasses in the state’s portion of the bay declined slightly in 2024. Both measures are considered key indicators of water quality.

Restoration efforts underway

Maryland continues to invest in bay improvements. In December, nearly $400,000 in federal grants went to five Maryland-based projects focused on environmental, cultural and historical conservation in the watershed.

Oyster restoration is also progressing. Oysters filter up to 50 gallons of water per day and provide habitat for small fish, worms and other prey species.

The Chesapeake Bay Program said in July it is on track to meet its 2025 goal of restoring oyster reefs in 10 tributaries, as set by the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement.

Maryland’s restoration work includes Harris Creek, the Little Choptank, Tred Avon, Upper St. Mary’s and Manokin rivers. Virginia has completed restorations in its five tributaries and an additional site, while Maryland is finishing work in the Manokin.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/chesapeake-bay-pollution-water-quality-cbf-goals/?intcid=CNM-00-10abd1h

CBS Evening News

Why thousands of people in rural West Virginia lack reliable drinking water

By Tom Hanson

Rhodell, West Virginia — For as long as Roman Patsey of Raleigh County, West Virginia, remembers, the Appalachian Mountains have provided virtually everything he’s needed to survive, from his income as a coal miner, to his tap water.

“I don’t know if it’s safe or not to tell you the truth,” Patsey told CBS News of his tap water source. “But, you know, what are you going to do? You’ve got to drink water.” 

He took CBS News to his only source of drinking water for nearly 50 years: an abandoned coal mine near his home. Like so many here, he dug his own trenches and laid his own water lines hundreds of feet up a mountainside.

He says no part of him wondered why access to water should be this difficult.  

“No, I just accepted it,” Patsey said. “It was something you had to do. I worried about running out of water, really, for years.”

He said he has never conducted regular tests on the water for possible contaminants

About 250,000 West Virginia residents rely on untreated sources of water, like natural springs or aquifers from coal mines, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. 

The median income in this area is around $30,000 per year, according to U.S. Census data, a far cry from the prosperity that the coal industry once created.

Coal companies used to fund and operate many town water systems in rural West Virginia. But when the industry declined, so did the water infrastructure it used to maintain. Patsey wanted to see this firsthand. So he, with a CBS News crew in tow, went to a water treatment plant in nearby Kimball, a town of more than 300 people in McDowell County. The plant’s windows are boarded up, the roof is completely missing, and there is rusted metal. Yet, this facility is supposed to clean tap water for the entire community.

Just 20 minutes up the road in Rhodell, a community in Raleigh County, the water treatment plant is also crumbling, with rust covering the pipes and a ceiling that is caved in.

“It’s in pretty bad shape as you can see,” said Shane Bragg with the Raleigh County Public Service District. “The fear is what you can’t see underground and what’s in the mines. We have no way of accessing the pumps in the mines, so when they go, the town will lose water.”

Raleigh County is racing to replace water systems before that happens with help from the nonprofit DigDeep, which works to bring clean tap water to the more than 2.2 million Americans who it says are living without it.

“We’re dealing with a lot of systems that are very expensive to maintain,” said Travis Foreman, director of DigDeep’s Appalachia Water Project. “And the local public service districts, they don’t have the manpower to keep up.”

In Rhodell, DigDeep is bringing clean water to the community for the first time in 10 years. 

“It is a human right to have access to water,” Foreman said. “…Everyone deserves to have that access.”

For Patsey, it’s a source of hope straight from the tap.

“Not long ago at 4 o’clock in the morning, I turned this on like this, not a drop,” Patsey said while standing at his kitchen sink. “It’s such a peace knowing I’m going to have water here.”

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/thousands-of-people-rural-west-virginia-lack-reliable-drinking-water/

The shocking reason Arctic rivers are turning rusty orange

Ice doesn’t just freeze, it fuels hidden chemistry that could turn rivers rusty as the planet warms.

Source:Umea University

Summary:Researchers found that ice can trigger stronger chemical reactions than liquid water, dissolving iron minerals in extreme cold. Freeze-thaw cycles amplify the effect, releasing iron into rivers and soils. With climate change accelerating these cycles, Arctic waterways may face major transformations.

    

FULL STORY

Why Arctic Rivers Are Turning Rusty Orange
An aerial view of the rust-colored Kutuk River in Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska. Thawing permafrost is exposing minerals to weathering, increasing the acidity of the water, which releases metals like iron, zinc, and copper. Credit: Ken Hill / National Park Service

Ice can dissolve iron minerals more effectively than liquid water, according to a new study from Umeå University. The discovery could help explain why many Arctic rivers are now turning rusty orange as permafrost thaws in a warming climate.

The study, recently published in the scientific journal PNAS, shows that ice at minus ten degrees Celsius releases more iron from common minerals than liquid water at four degrees Celsius. This challenges the long-held belief that frozen environments slow down chemical reactions.

“It may sound counterintuitive, but ice is not a passive frozen block,” says Jean-François Boily, Professor at Umeå University and co-author of the study. “Freezing creates microscopic pockets of liquid water between ice crystals. These act like chemical reactors, where compounds become concentrated and extremely acidic. This means they can react with iron minerals even at temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius.”

To understand the process, the researchers studied goethite – a widespread iron oxide mineral – together with a naturally occurring organic acid, using advanced microscopy and experiments.

They discovered that repeated freeze-thaw cycles make iron dissolve more efficiently. As the ice freezes and thaws, organic compounds that were previously trapped in the ice are released, fuelling further chemical reactions. Salinity also plays a crucial role: fresh and brackish water increase dissolution, while seawater can suppress it.

The findings apply mainly to acidic environments, such as mine drainage sites, frozen dust in the atmosphere, acid sulfate soils along the Baltic Sea coast, or in any acidic frozen environment where iron minerals interact with organics. The next step is to find out if the same is true for all iron-bearing ice. This is what ongoing research in the Boily laboratory will soon reveal.

“As the climate warms, freeze-thaw cycles become more frequent,” says Angelo Pio Sebaaly, doctoral student and first author of the study. “Each cycle releases iron from soils and permafrost into the water. This can affect water quality and aquatic ecosystems across vast areas.”

The findings show that ice is not a passive storage medium, but an active player. As freezing and thawing increase in polar and mountain regions, for the impact on ecosystems. and the natural cycling of elements could be significant.

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/09/250922074938.htm

Number of people suffering extreme droughts will double

Source:Michigan State University

Summary:A global research effort offers the first worldwide view of how climate change could affect water availability and drought severity in the decades to come. By the late 21st century, global land area and population facing extreme droughts could more than double — increasing from 3% during 1976-2005 to 7%-8%, according to a professor of civil and environmental engineering.Share:

    

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Michigan State University is leading a global research effort to offer the first worldwide view of how climate change could affect water availability and drought severity in the decades to come.

By the late 21st century, global land area and population facing extreme droughts could more than double — increasing from 3% during 1976-2005 to 7%-8%, according to Yadu Pokhrel, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering in MSU’s College of Engineering, and lead author of the research published in Nature Climate Change.

“More and more people will suffer from extreme droughts if a medium-to-high level of global warming continues and water management is maintained at its present state,” Pokhrel said. “Areas of the Southern Hemisphere, where water scarcity is already a problem, will be disproportionately affected. We predict this increase in water scarcity will affect food security and escalate human migration and conflict.”

The research team, including MSU postdoctoral researcher Farshid Felfelani, and more than 20 contributing authors from Europe, China and Japan are projecting a large reduction in natural land water storage in two-thirds of the world, also caused by climate change.

Land water storage, technically known as terrestrial water storage, or TWS, is the accumulation of water in snow and ice, rivers, lakes and reservoirs, wetlands, soil and groundwater — all critical components of the world’s water and energy supply. TWS modulates the flow of water within the hydrological cycle and determines water availability as well as drought.

“Our findings are a concern,” Pokhrel said. “To date, no study has examined how climate change would impact land water storage globally. Our study presents the first, comprehensive picture of how global warming and socioeconomic changes will affect land water storage and what that will mean for droughts until the end of the century.”

Felfelani said the study has given the international team an important prediction opportunity.

“Recent advances in process-based hydrological modeling, combined with future projections from global climate models under wide-ranging scenarios of socioeconomic change, provided a unique foundation for comprehensive analysis of future water availability and droughts,” Felfelani said. “We have high confidence in our results because we use dozens of models and they agree on the projected changes.”

The research is based on a set of 27 global climate-hydrological model simulations spanning 125 years and was conducted under a global modeling project called the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project. Pokhrel is a working member of the project.

“Our findings highlight why we need climate change mitigation to avoid the adverse impacts on global water supplies and increased droughts we know about now,” Pokhrel said. “We need to commit to improved water resource management and adaptation to avoid potentially catastrophic socio-economic consequences of water shortages around the world.”

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210111125605.htm