Circle of Blue WaterNews

Your "need to know" news of the world's water from Circle of Blue. This week: deadly protests in Iran, low water in Argentina's Parana River restricts farm exports, Saudi Arabia suspends selling a stake in the world's largest desalination plant, and Lake Powell hits a record low.

This is an excerpt from Circle of Blue's July 12, 2021 episode of What's Up With Water. The acceleration of disaster is repeating worldwide, in part because vulnerable people and developments are moving into terrain that is hazardous.  Landslides in the unstable Himalaya mountains in recent years have demolished newly built hydropower stations and killed hundreds. Over 200 were dead or missing this February from the Chamoli disaster there.  But the acceleration is also occurring because a supercharged climate is churning up more powerful hurricanes, more punishing droughts, more oppressive heat waves, and altogether more environmental and water-related risk. António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, emphasized that point last week at a special UN session on water and disasters. He said “Last year, cyclones lashed the shores of many countries that were already grappling with serious liquidity crises and debt burdens, made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic.” The scenario that Guterres described — cyclone plus debt plus pandemic — is an example of what researchers call “compounding” or “cascading” disasters. These are disasters that build upon one another, their effects rippling across society.

Your "need to know" news of the world's water from Circle of Blue. Stories this week: a controversial oil pipeline in Memphis area is cancelled, the Chinese vice premier calls for environmental protections in the Yellow River basin, and an exclusive CoB story on the strain of constant disasters.

This is an excerpt of the June 28, 2021 episode of What's Up With Water. This year, the intensely dry conditions gripping the American West and Upper Midwest are well past the brown hills stage. Nine western states have some form of drought in nearly 90 percent of their area. More than a quarter of the region is considered to be in exceptional drought, which is the worst category in the U.S. Drought Monitor. Signs of widespread dryness are everywhere. Lakes Mead and Powell, the major reservoirs on the Colorado River, are only 35 percent full with a two-year outlook that worsened each month this spring. California officials told vineyards along the Russian River in May that the system is too depleted for irrigation. In April, in Utah’s Great Salt Lake, sailboats were lifted out of receding waters that were too shallow to float them. In the Klamath River that flows between Oregon and California, few juvenile salmon are expected to survive this season. In Arizona, the Rafael Fire, burning in the Prescott National Forest near Flagstaff, grew to 36,000 acres since it was sparked on June 18 by lightning. When water stops flowing, painful days are at hand.

Your "need to know" news of the world's water from "Circle of Blue." This week: The killing of an Indigenous activist in Mexico and unsustainable groundwater use in Arkansas. Plus, an exclusive CoB feature on the widespread consequences of drought.

This is an excerpt of the June 21, 2021 edition of What's Up With Water. On Memorial Day, while many Californians were celebrating the unofficial start to summer, the residents of a house off of County Road 200 were contemplating a loss. That day, the homeowners in northern Glenn County submitted an anonymous report to a state database. It said that their drinking water well was on the verge of sputtering out. The well was shallow, only 75 feet deep, and the flow had slowed to a trickle. It pulled water from its site outside the town of Orland, an agricultural valley some 100 miles north of Sacramento, an area covered by almond, walnut, and olive orchards. The failing well was not an isolated case — and not a quick fix either, as the incident report went on to recount, saying: “Everyone around us and neighbors are having the same problems and with our water table being so low we will have to drill the well deeper but the wait list in Orland and Glenn County is months out and we cannot afford that cost.” In this blistering year in California, drinking water wells are going dry in increasing numbers. It’s rekindling memories of the historic drought of 2012 to 2016, when over 2,600 wells across the state stopped producing water. California is not yet to that level of emergency. But a state database for household water supply issues received 38 dry well reports in the first 12 days of June, the most for any month in nearly five years.

Your "need to know" news of the world's water from Circle of Blue. THis week: a controversial dam in the Nile basin, groundwater depletion in Iran, and drought impacting water supplies in Iowa. Plus, a CoB exclusive on dry wells in California.

This is an excerpt of the June 14, 2021 edition of What's Up With Water. Microscopic phytoplankton, which are the foundation of the marine food chain, are some of the world’s most abundant and ancient organisms. Though essential to ocean life, they produce plenty of drawbacks, too. When they cluster along the coast, certain species paint the nearshore waters in a palette of fiery reds and mossy greens. Other toxin-producing species cause beach closures, kill fish, and lead to restrictions on harvesting clams and oysters. Anecdotal evidence suggests that these marine harmful algal blooms are on the rise. But are they really increasing globally? According to a first-ever assessment, the answer is no.

Your "need to know" news of the world's water from Circle of Blue. This week: an investigation of the deadly Uttarakhand avalanche that happened in February, a Canadian town might get clean water for the first time in 20 years, and PFAS in rain samples in the Great Lakes. Plus, an exclusive CoB feature on a toxic threat to the world’s coastlines.

Circle of Blue reports on a shrinking Lake Mead.