Some people who reside in the southern portion of San Diego County, California, say it stinks to live there. Literally. For years, residents have complained that odors emanating from the polluted Tijuana River, which flows from Mexico into the U.S. toward the Pacific Ocean, are causing eye, nose and throat irritation, respiratory problems, fatigue, and headaches.
A new study shows that turbulence in polluted waters of the Tijuana River transfers contaminants to the air. In this photo, culverts at the Saturn Boulevard river crossing generate high turbulence, enhancing the transfer of toxic wastewater pollutants. The location was identified by members of the local community as a source of particularly strong odors. | Credit: Beatriz Klimeck / UC San Diego
Now, a new study from scientists at UC, San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography; UC, Riverside; San Diego State University; the National Science Foundation; and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) says the residents are not imagining things. The research found that the contaminated river is contaminating the air—releasing large quantities of the toxic gas hydrogen sulfide—commonly known as “sewer gas” because of its rotten egg smell.
In September 2024, the team had set up air quality monitors in San Diego’s Nestor community in the South Bay. One location was where water tumbles from a culvert, which as it falls, creates enough turbulence to send aerosolized particles of pollutants from the river into the air.
The scientists measured peak concentrations of hydrogen sulfide that were some 4,500 times what is typical for an urban area. In addition, they identified hundreds of other gases released into the air by the river and its ocean outflow, showing for the first time, a direct link between poor water quality and bad air quality—a connection lead investigator Kimberly Prather says had not been made before.
Untreated sewage and industrial waste have plagued the Tijuana River for decades, causing long-term closures of beaches. In July, the U.S. and Mexico signed a memorandum of understanding that requires both nations to expedite stormwater and sewage infrastructure projects on each side of the border.
Last week, EPA announced the completion of a ten-million-gallon-per-day expansion of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Diego, which could help mitigate the issue, but as inewsourcereports, it’s unclear as to when it will be operating at its new capacity.
Heat waves are becoming more frequent and intense across the U.S., so perhaps this summer you took a dip in a river to cool off. However, according to new research it might not have been as refreshing as it once was.
Credit: Dillon Groves/Unsplash
A new study from Penn State found that heat waves are happening in rivers too, and they’re accelerating faster than and lasting nearly twice as long as the heat waves in the air. It’s a surprising finding, given that many rivers are fed by snowmelt and underground streams, but the team found that periods of abnormally high temperatures in rivers are becoming more common, more intense, and longer-lasting than they were 40 years ago. Lead author Li Li (李黎) wrote in The Conversation that the increased heat puts stress on aquatic ecosystems and can also raise the cost of treating drinking water.
The team collected river data at nearly 1,500 sites in the contiguous United States between 1980 and 2022. They found that temperatures rose above 59 °F (15 °C)—a threshold that can stress many species—at 82 percent of study areas for an average of 11.6 days per year. The places where the waters warmed the fastest were in the Northeast, the Rocky Mountains, and Appalachia.
The authors say climate change is driving river heat waves, as rising air temperatures affect water conditions. Changing precipitation patterns with global warming are shrinking winter snowpacks, leaving less meltwater to support river health. Low, slow-moving water warms more easily and holds less oxygen, creating dangerous conditions for aquatic life and increasing the chances of large-scale die-offs. The study adds that human activities, such as dams and agriculture, play a secondary role in shaping how and where rivers are most vulnerable to these impacts.
In 1977, author John McPhee wrote his nonfiction classic “Coming into the Country.” It describes how he and a group of men canoed the Salmon River in the Brooks Range of Alaska to assess its potential for Wild and Scenic status—a designation that would provide long-term federal protection. On their trip, they found abundant Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus), chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta)—and as McPhee writes, “the clearest, purest water I have ever seen flowing over rocks,” which allowed them to “see down 15 feet in pools.”
In Alaska’s Brooks Range, rivers once clear enough to drink from now run orange and hazy with toxic metals. | Credit: Taylor Roades
Not anymore. These days, the Salmon River runs orange—contaminated with toxic metals. Not because of acid mine drainage—although the water has the same ocher color—but because of climate change. According to new research from the University of California, Riverside, permafrost—the frozen Arctic soil that has locked away minerals for thousands of years—is beginning to thaw with a warming planet. As it thaws, water and oxygen creep into the exposed soil, triggering the breakdown of sulfide-rich rocks and creating sulfuric acid that leaches naturally occurring metals like iron, cadmium, and aluminum from rocks into the river, which poisons fish and damages ecosystems.
According to a press release, the team’s analysis confirmed that thawing permafrost was unleashing geochemical reactions that oxidize sulfide-rich rocks like pyrite, generating acidity and mobilizing a wide suite of metals, including cadmium, which accumulates in fish organs and could affect animals like bears and birds that eat fish. The authors say that levels for several of the metals exceed EPA toxicity thresholds for aquatic life. Additionally, the cloudy water reduces the amount of light reaching the bottom of the river and smothers insect larvae that salmon and other fish eat.
According to the study, the Salmon River is not alone. A recent inventory in the same mountain range identified 75 streams that have recently turned orange and turbid. The authors say it’s likely happening across the Arctic. Wherever there’s the right kind of rock and thawing permafrost, the process can start. Unfortunately, co-author, Tim Lyons, said once it starts, it can’t be stopped, calling it “another irreversible shift driven by a warming planet.”
KAUST researchers find the Red Sea experienced a massive disruption 6.2 million years ago completely changing its marine life.
Source:King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST)
Summary:Researchers at KAUST have confirmed that the Red Sea once vanished entirely, turning into a barren salt desert before being suddenly flooded by waters from the Indian Ocean. The flood carved deep channels and restored marine life in less than 100,000 years. This finding redefines the Red Sea’s role as a key site for studying how oceans form and evolve through extreme geological events.Share:
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Around 6.2 million years ago, the Red Sea completely dried up before a monumental flood from the Indian Ocean refilled it in less than 100,000 years. Credit: Shutterstock
Scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have provided conclusive evidence that the Red Sea completely dried out about 6.2 million years ago, before being suddenly refilled by a catastrophic flood from the Indian Ocean. The findings put a definitive time on a dramatic event that changed the Red Sea.
Using seismic imaging, microfossil evidence, and geochemical dating techniques, the KAUST researchers showed that a massive change happened in about 100,000 years – a blink of an eye for a major geological event. The Red Sea went from connecting with the Mediterranean Sea to an empty, salt-filled basin. Then, a massive flood burst through volcanic barriers to open the Bab el-Mandab strait and reconnect the Red Sea with the world’s oceans.
“Our findings show that the Red Sea basin records one of the most extreme environmental events on Earth, when it dried out completely and was then suddenly reflooded about 6.2 million years ago,” said lead author Dr. Tihana Pensa of KAUST. “The flood transformed the basin, restored marine conditions, and established the Red Sea’s lasting connection to the Indian Ocean.”
How the Indian Ocean Flooded the Red Sea
The Red Sea was initially connected from the north to the Mediterranean through a shallow sill. This connection was severed, drying the Red Sea into a barren salt desert. In the south of the Red Sea, near the Hanish Islands, a volcanic ridge separated the sea from the Indian Ocean. But around 6.2 million years ago, seawater from the Indian Ocean surged across this barrier in a catastrophic flood. The torrent carved a 320-kilometer-long submarine canyon that is still visible today on the seafloor. The flood rapidly refilled the basin, drowning the salt flats and restoring normal marine conditions in less than 100,000 years. This event happened nearly a million years before the Mediterranean was refilled by the famous Zanclean flood, giving the Red Sea a unique story of rebirth.
Why the Red Sea Matters Geologically
The Red Sea formed by separation of the Arabian Plate from the African Plate beginning 30 million years ago. Initially, the sea was a narrow rift valley filled with lakes, then became a wider gulf when it was flooded from the Mediterranean 23 million years ago. Marine life thrived initially, as seen by the fossil reefs along the northern coast near Duba and Umlujj. However, evaporation and poor seawater circulation increased salinity, causing the extinction of marine life between 15 and 6 million years ago. Additionally, the basin was filled with layers of salt and gypsum. This culminated in complete desiccation of the Red Sea. The catastrophic flood from the Indian Ocean restored marine life in the Red, which persists in the coral reefs to the present.
All in all, the Red Sea is a natural laboratory for understanding how oceans are born, how salt giants accumulate, and how climate and tectonics interact over millions of years. The discovery highlights how closely the Red Sea’s history is linked with global ocean change. It also shows that the region has experienced environmental extremes before, only to return as a thriving marine ecosystem.
“This paper adds to our knowledge about the processes that form and expand oceans on Earth. It also maintains KAUST’s leading position in Red Sea research,” said co-author KAUST Professor Abdulkader Al Afifi.
Microscopic plankton that regulate Earth’s climate and sustain ocean ecosystems take center stage in a new awareness campaign.
Source:Ruđer Bošković Institute
Summary:Coccolithophores, tiny planktonic architects of Earth’s climate, capture carbon, produce oxygen, and leave behind geological records that chronicle our planet’s history. European scientists are uniting to honor them with International Coccolithophore Day on October 10. Their global collaboration highlights groundbreaking research into how these microscopic organisms link ocean chemistry, climate regulation, and carbon storage. The initiative aims to raise awareness that even the smallest ocean dwellers have planetary impact.Share:
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Microscopic view of a coccolithophore (Syracosphaera pulchra), a single-celled ocean alga whose intricate calcium plates (coccoliths) play a role in the global carbon cycle. Credit: Dr. Jelena Godrijan, Ruđer Bošković Institute
Smaller than a grain of dust and shaped like minute discs, coccolithophores are microscopic ocean dwellers with an outsized influence on the planet’s climate. These tiny algae remove carbon from seawater, release oxygen, and create delicate calcite plates that eventually sink to the ocean floor. Over time, these plates form chalk and limestone layers that record Earth’s climate history. Today, five European research institutions announced a new effort to establish October 10 as International Coccolithophore Day, drawing attention to the organisms’ vital contributions to carbon regulation, oxygen production, and the health of marine ecosystems that sustain life on Earth.
The initiative is being led by the Ruđer Bošković Institute (Zagreb, Croatia), the Lyell Centre at Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh, UK), NORCE Norwegian Research Centre (Bergen, Norway), Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE) at the University of Lisbon (Portugal), and the International Nannoplankton Association (INA).
A Delicate Balance Under Threat
Few people are aware of coccolithophores, yet without them, the planet’s oceans and climate would look drastically different. These single-celled algae, which contain chlorophyll, float in the sunlit layers of the sea and are coated with calcium carbonate plates known as coccoliths.
Though incredibly small, coccolithophores are among Earth’s most effective natural carbon regulators. Every year, they generate more than 1.5 billion tonnes of calcium carbonate, capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in deep-sea sediments. In addition to removing carbon, they produce oxygen, nourish marine food webs, and influence the planet’s greenhouse balance.
Coccolithophores often dominate vast stretches of the ocean, but climate change is altering the temperature, chemistry, and nutrient makeup of seawater. These shifts pose serious risks to their survival—and to the stability of the ecosystems that depend on them.
Why Coccolithophores?
What makes coccolithophores stand out from other plankton is both their role in the global carbon cycle and the unique record they leave behind. “Unlike other groups, they build intricate calcium carbonate plates that not only help draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but also transport it into deep ocean sediments, where it can be locked away for millennia. This biomineralization leaves behind an exceptional geological record, allowing us to study how they’ve responded to past climate shifts and better predict their future role. In short, their dual role as carbon pumps and climate archives makes them irreplaceable in understanding and tackling climate change,” says Professor Alex Poulton of the Lyell Centre.
“They are the ocean’s invisible architects, crafting the tiny plates that become vast archives of Earth’s climate,” says Dr. Jelena Godrijan, a leading coccolithophore researcher at the Ruđer Bošković Institute. “By studying their past and current responses to changes in the ocean, we can better understand how marine ecosystems function and explore how natural processes might help us tackle climate change.”
Cutting-Edge Science: From Plankton to Planetary Processes
The launch of International Coccolithophore Day spotlights the tiny ocean plankton that quietly help regulate atmospheric carbon dioxide.
At the Lyell Centre in Scotland, the OceanCANDY team, led by Prof. Alex Poulton, studies how these plankton pull CO2 from the air and store it in the sea, and tests how warmer, more acidic oceans could alter this process. Computer forecasts compare which species do this job best, today and tomorrow.
In Norway, scientists at NORCE Research, led by Dr. Kyle Mayers and his team, track coccolithophore life stories, how they grow, who eats them, and the viruses that infect and ultimately kill them, to show how carbon moves through the ocean. Ancient DNA in seafloor mud adds a long view of past climate shifts. “Coccolithophore interactions with viruses and grazers matter,” says Dr. Kyle Mayers of NORCE. “These links shape food webs and how the ocean stores carbon.”
In Croatia, the Cocco team at the Ruđer Bošković Institute study how they shape the ocean’s carbon cycle, from the decay of organic matter to bacterial interactions that influence seawater chemistry and CO2 uptake. “In understanding coccolithophores, we’re really uncovering the living engine of the ocean’s carbon balance,” says Dr. Jelena Godrijan “Their interactions with bacteria determine how carbon moves and transforms — processes that connect the microscopic scale of plankton to the stability of our planet’s climate.”
At MARE, University of Lisbon, Dr. Catarina V. Guerreiro leads studies to trace how aerosol-driven fertilization shapes the distribution of coccolithophores across the Atlantic into the Southern Ocean, and what that means for the ocean’s carbon pumps today and in recent times. Her approach consists of combining aerosol and seawater samples with sediment records, satellite data and lab microcosms to pin down cause and effect. “We’re connecting tiny chalky organisms to planetary carbon flows,” says Dr. Guerreiro.
At INA, scientists connect living coccolithophores to their fossil record, using their microscopic plates to date rocks and trace Earth’s climate history. By refining global biostratigraphic frameworks and calibrating species’ evolutionary timelines, INA researchers transform fossils of coccolithophores into precise tools for reconstructing ancient oceans, linking modern plankton ecology with the geological record of climate change.
Why Coccolithophore Day Matters?
Designating a day for Coccolithophores may seem like a small gesture, but its advocates argue it could have a big impact. “This could contribute to changing the way we see the ocean. “We most often talk about whales, coral reefs, and ice caps, but coccolithophores are a vital part of the planet’s climate system. They remind us that the smallest organisms can have the biggest impact, and that microscopic life plays a crucial role in shaping our planet’s future, ” says Dr. Sarah Cryer from the CHALKY project and OceanCANDY team.
The campaign to establish October 10 as International Coccolithophore Day is a call to action. By highlighting the profound, yet often overlooked, role of coccolithophores, scientists want to inspire a new wave of ocean literacy, policy focus, and public engagement.
Portable tests could detect “forever chemicals” in your home’s drinking water
By Tara Molina
We know how important clean water is, but tricky chemicals that get into our water can be hard to detect, posing dangers to our water systems and our health – until now.
Researchers with the University of Chicago have teamed up with Argonne National Labs in Lemont to detect the smallest chemicals in our water in an effort to make it safer and healthier for all.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are better known as “forever chemicals.” They’re man-made compounds that are found in places like fast food packaging, firefighters’ foams and other places. They’re long-lasting chemicals and do not naturally degrade, instead accumulating in the environment and our bodies over time, which is why the Environmental Protection Agency issued regulations on them last year.
Until recently, they were somewhat difficult to detect in drinking water, but labs like Argonne are making gains.
“It affects essentially all of us, and it is, in fact, dangerous,” Argonne’s Seth Darling said. “They’re really toxic to humans. They’ve been linked to cancer, they’ve been linked to reproductive issues, thyroid problems, all kinds of health issues.”
Darling is working alongside Junhong Chen, with UChicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. They’re building a first-of-its-kind sensor that can detect PFAS in water.
“The work we are doing here is really important, because now we have a way to be able to measure this PFAS,” Chen said. “Almost the only way to measure for PFAS is to take the water sample and send it to a high-end analytical laboratory for the analysis.”
Darling says that, because the chemicals are dangerous even at low concentrations, you need a technique that can test for extremely low levels. The sensor they’re behind can detect down to what would equate to one grain of sand in an Olympic-sized swimming pool, or 250 parts per quadrillion.
Typically, this level of inspection would require intensive and expensive lab testing. Their goal is to make these tests accessible for anyone to make sure their water is safe, directly from their home.
“What’s important here is developing new ways,” Darling said, “low-cost, fast ways to determine: Is there PFAS in your water and, if so, how much?”
In a first-of-its-kind report, the Environmental Protection Agency has released a comprehensive assessment on lead pipe infrastructure across the United States, revealing that an estimated total of 9.2 million lead pipes serviced American homes in 2021.
According to the report, lead service lines are estimated to make up over 9% of the entire national service line infrastructure, exposing much of America’s drinking water to lead contamination.
The EPA says there are no safe levels of lead in children’s blood, as lead exposure has been tied to an array of adverse health effects in children, including behavioral problems, lower IQ and slowed growth. In adults, lead exposure is linked with decreased cardiovascular health and kidney function, and lead exposure in pregnant women is linked to premature births.
The bulk of the nation’s lead pipe infrastructure is concentrated in a handful of states, including many of the Rust Belt states in the Great Lakes region. Florida has the most lead service lines in the country, with its 1.16 million lines accounting for 12.6% of the country’s total. Over 50% of the national service lines are concentrated in six states: Florida, Illinois (11.4%), Ohio (8.1%), Pennsylvania (7.5%), Texas (7.1%) and New York (5.4%).
Lead service lines are far less common west of the Mississippi River, with Texas as the lone exception. Notably, California’s service line infrastructure, which serves the largest state population over the third-largest area, has less than 13,500 lead service lines, or about 0.15% of the national total.
Federal law prohibits installing new lead plumbing because of its dangers to health. In 2021, the Biden Administration announced an aggressive plan to replace all lead service lines in the next decade as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and earlier this year the EPA announced that $1.2 billion had already been distributed to 23 states to address that goal. But the costs associated with such an effort are significant. Over the next two decades, the EPA report estimates that $625 billion is needed to address the challenges with drinking water infrastructure.
Lead exposure does not impact all American demographics evenly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study in 2021 indicating that non-Hispanic Black or African American children were at particular risk, as well as children living in areas with higher poverty rates.
Although the Safe Drinking Water Act, which was enacted 1974 and amended most recently in 1996, aims to ensure the public’s access to contaminant-free water, large-scale issues with drinking water distribution systems are still prevalent. Spikes in the rates of lead in children’s blood in 2015 sparked the start of a years-long water crisis in Flint, Michigan. The city of Jackson, Mississippi, which endured days with a full water outage last August and September, has ongoing projects to reduce elevated levels of lead in its water supply, and lead contamination has led to crises in Newark, New Jersey, Chicago and Washington, D.C., among other communities.
These are the states with the most lead pipes, according to the EPA:
A dispute over water could jeopardize ongoing construction of what will eventually be the world’s largest lithium mine.
Lithium Americas Corporation filed an emergency motion Monday seeking clarification about whether it needs to stop pumping water to its Thacker Pass lithium mining project in Northern Nevada.
Local rancher Edward Bartell has sued over the project, claiming the company’s water pumping will harm his cattle operation. Nevada’s state engineer had previously found that the company could move forward with its plans to pump water, but a judge partially reversed that finding. Then, last week, the state engineer issued a cease and desist letter to the Canada-based mining company.
In lieu of a legal clarification of the previous decision, Lithium Americas is asking for a limited stay — or temporary suspension — that would allow it to proceed with construction.
“The ruling never mentions … that pumping needs to be halted,” said Tim Crowley, vice president of government and external affairs at Lithium Americas. “We don’t think the judge intended that result.”
Thacker Pass is the largest known lithium resource and reserve in the world. The company needs about 200 acre-feet of water per year during construction, which will continue through 2027. An acre-foot of water is enough to cover roughly a football field with water 1 foot deep or to supply roughly two urban households with indoor and outdoor water needs for a year.
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Once in production, the company will require about 2,600 acre-feet of water per year.
If the emergency motion is denied, the company said in its filing that it will be “irreparably harmed,” as will the people who are, and plan to be, employed by the company. During construction, the company expects to employ close to 2,000 people.
“We need water to move forward with construction,” Crowley said, noting that construction has been at “full bore” on the $3 billion project since receiving its final investment decision in April, with plans to “go vertical with steel” as soon as August. Construction costs total more than $1 million per day.
The company is asking for the court to issue its decision by July 7, as that’s when the state engineer expects compliance with the cease and desist letter. The company is also working on ways to secure water temporarily, Crowley said, although he declined to provide details.
“We are confident we are not going to have to stop construction,” he said.
Bartell, the rancher who filed the suit that led to the order for the company to stop pumping, told The Nevada Independent in a brief call that “obviously we’re going to challenge (the company’s emergency motion).”
Timeline
Thacker Pass is in a mountainous area northwest of Winnemucca; extraction companies have eyed Thacker Pass since the 1970s, when lithium was found at the site. In 2007, the company that is now Lithium Americas renewed exploration at the site, and in 2020, the company submitted its environmental impact statement to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
That same year, Lithium Americas filed an application seeking to move permitted water rights it had previously obtained in the Quinn River Valley closer to the mine site, which sits to the west of the valley.
Bartell protested, claiming the change application would conflict with his existing water rights.
The BLM approved permits for Thacker Pass in 2021 during the final days of President Donald Trump’s first administration, allowing the mining project to move forward, and ultimately, the state engineer granted Lithium America’s request to relocate its water rights, as long as it kept them within the Quinn River Valley.
Lithium Americas adapted to that limitation by constructing an 8-mile-long pipeline to move the water uphill from the valley to the mine site.
In March 2023, Bartell filed a petition for judicial review; the matter didn’t receive an oral hearing until February of this year.
On April 10, the Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada issued an order reversing the state engineer’s decision on two of the five water rights claims brought forth in the matter, returning them to application status. In the ruling, the court pointed out that the state engineer’s determination that the company’s effects to Bartell’s water rights and cattle operation “is not rooted in scientific fact” because it had “assumed” — rather than scientifically determining — there was enough water in two of the five contested claims.
On April 28, the state engineer issued a letter to Lithium Americas alerting the company that permits for two wells had been returned to application status following the ruling. The state engineer asked the company for additional information that would help “develop a more thorough understanding of the water sources” related to the claims, including data such as flow measurements or pumping test data.
On June 4, staff from the Nevada Division of Water Resources (DWR) found during an investigation of Lithium America’s property that the company was still pumping water.
On June 17, DWR received a letter from Bartell containing photographs showing the company continued to pump water following the June 4 investigation. Meter readings on file with the division confirm that water was pumped from the well since the April ruling.
On June 20, DWR issued a letter to the company stating that “the State Engineer hereby directs LNC to immediately CEASE AND DESIST any further pumping from the Quinn #1 well. The State Engineer likewise hereby notifies LNC that it is prohibited from pumping water from any other well that is proposed as a point of diversion under the above-mentioned applications, including but not limited to the Quinn #2 well.”
Crowley confirmed to The Nevada Independent that the company continues to pump water from the wells while it comes up with an alternative.
“Our interpretation of the cease and desist order is we have 14 days to comply, and no one from the state has suggested that we’re wrong,” Crowley said.
Ongoing legal challenges
The cease and desist order is the latest in a line of legal challenges that has plagued the lithium project.
In 2021, a slew of environmental groups filed a joint lawsuit alleging the BLM violated various federal acts by approving the mine’s environmental impact statement and another suit filed by the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and other Indigenous people alleged the BLM violated the National Historic Preservation Act.
Bartell also sued, alleging the BLM violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to consider the mine’s effects on Lahontan cutthroat trout and other various environmental concerns.
The suit stood in apparent opposition to a suit he’d filed just two years earlier — not related to the mine — against a project aimed at preserving the trout. In that suit, he objected to the agency’s 2017 decision to allow the Nevada Department of Wildlife to apply rotenone, a type of fish poison, to eradicate non-native brook trout in a portion of Falls Canyon Creek in an effort to restore threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout.
The three suits were dismissed. In 2023, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and two other tribes filed a new suit alleging the BLM didn’t consult with them before the project and withheld historical information. That suit also was dismissed.
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This story was originally published by The Nevada Independent and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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
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:
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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