Category Archives: Water

Deadly algal bloom in South Australia’s Coorong an environmental ‘eye opener’, ecologist says

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Among the dead in the internationally significant wetland are estuarine snails, shore crabs, baby flounder and ‘a thick stew of polychaete worms’

When South Australia’s algal bloom arrived in the Coorong, it stained the water like strong tea before turning it into a slurry of dead worms.

Many had hoped the storm in late May would break up the bloom of Karenia mikimotoi algae, which has killed more than 200 different marine species. Instead, high tides swept the algae into the Coorong, an internationally significant Ramsar wetland at the mouth of the Murray River.

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Drought declared in north-west England amid declining reservoir levels

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Hosepipe ban could follow, says Environment Agency, after England had driest February-April period on record

A drought has been declared in north-west England as reservoir levels dwindle.

Hosepipe bans could follow, the Environment Agency said, though this is a matter for water companies, which have been directed to follow their drought plans.

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Treasury threatens Defra with £4bn bill if Thames Water nationalised

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Exclusive: Treasury threat an example of ‘scare tactics’ to help force through private sector deal, sources suggest

Whitehall officials have been at loggerheads over the fate of Thames Water since the Treasury told the environment department that it would have to meet the cost of a multibillion pound temporary nationalisation.

Britain’s biggest water company recently came within days of running out of money. Thames is in a desperate race to find a buyer willing to inject cash, with the US private equity firm KKR in pole position.

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Company supplying critical EV metal ‘did not disclose’ Erin Brockovich pollutant in drinking water

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Leaked documents indicate Harita, owner of key nickel mine in Indonesia, did not reveal water contamination

One of Indonesia’s largest nickel-mining companies, which supplies a mineral critical to the global electric car industry, did not tell the public that local drinking water was polluted, according to documents seen by the Guardian.

Indonesia has become the world’s biggest producer of nickel, used in the production of wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicle batteries. But observers have voiced concerns that regulatory oversight in the country has failed to keep up with the rush to develop mines to satisfy booming global demand.

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Scottish Water staff to strike for two days as pay standoff continues

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Emergency repairs and quality checks for 5m people in Scotland will not be done on Tuesday and Wednesday, union says

Scottish Water staff will strike for two days from the early hours of Tuesday as a standoff over pay continues at the state-owned company.

The striking workers’ union warned that emergency repairs and quality checks to water supplied to 5 million people across Scotland would not be carried out during the action on Tuesday and Wednesday.

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The great Mississippi tops list of most endangered rivers amid fears over Trump rollbacks

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Cuts to disaster agency and deregulation of fossil fuels, plus rise of water-guzzling datacentres, highlighted in new report

The Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the federal climate disaster agency – and the full-throttle deregulation of fossil fuels and water-guzzling datacentres – could prove catastrophic for America’s endangered rivers, threatening the food, water and livelihoods of millions of people, according to a new report.

American Rivers’ annual most-endangered rivers list lays bare a myriad of human-made threats including floods, drought and other extreme weather events driven by the climate crisis, as well as industrial pollution and poor river management – all of which Trump’s regulatory rollbacks will almost inevitably make worse.

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Mexico to send water to Texas farmers as US treaty threat grows

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Mexico’s failure to keep up 81-year-old water-sharing treaty has sparked a diplomatic spat with the US

Mexico will make an immediate water delivery to Texas farmers to help make up its shortfall under a treaty that has strained US relations and prompted tariff threats by Donald Trump, said Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on Friday.

Mexico is looking for alternatives to comply with the 81-year-old water-sharing treaty with the US, Sheinbaum said in her regular news conference. A proposal had already been sent to US officials, she said.

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Campaigners find sewage pollution and E coli in Boat Race water

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Tests ahead of Sunday’s race revealed E coli levels three times above the threshold for poor bathing water

Water quality along the stretch of the River Thames which will host the iconic Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race has been classified as poor by clean water campaigners, as a result of E coli from sewage pollution.

Testing carried out along the four-mile route, which the university rowing teams will tackle on Sunday, has revealed E coli levels which are three times above the threshold for poor bathing water status.

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Environment watchdog confirms Sydney’s mystery beach balls likely came from sewage treatment plants

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NSW EPA investigation finds debris that washed up on Sydney beaches in 2024 ‘consistent with a land-based sewage source’

Authorities investigating mystery balls of debris that closed beaches in Sydney and the south coast in recent months have determined that they likely originated from Sydney Water’s land-based sewage treatment network, the NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) said on Friday.

“The development comes after a comprehensive scientific and technical investigation found similarities between the makeup of the debris balls and samples taken from several of Sydney Water’s major wastewater treatment plants, including those at Malabar and Bondi,” the EPA said in a statement.

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US rejects Mexico’s request for water as Trump opens new battle front

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State department turns down special request to supply city of Tijuana in drought-affected north for first time ever

The United States has refused a request by Mexico for water, alleging shortfalls in sharing by its southern neighbor, as Donald Trump ramps up a battle on another front.

The state department said on Thursday it was the first time that the United States had rejected a request by Mexico for special delivery of water, which would have gone to the border city of Tijuana.

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‘Cataclysmic’: environmentalists fear effects of Trump cuts on Great Lakes

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Advocates warn firings and funding freezes already risk poisoning drinking water and decimating fish population

Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk’s attacks on federal agencies and funding freezes will be “cataclysmic” for the environment of the sensitive Great Lakes region if not reversed, industry and environmental advocates in the region warn.

Initial actions taken since Trump returned to the White House in January – and put Musk in charge of slashing the federal government – already risk poisoning drinking water, decimating fish populations, and risking the jobs and health of tens of millions of people who rely on the lake system, they add.

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‘All the birds returned’: How a Chinese project led the way in water and soil conservation

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The Loess plateau was the most eroded place on Earth until China took action and reversed decades of damage from grazing and farming

It was one of China’s most ambitious environmental endeavours ever.

The Loess plateau, an area spanning more than 245,000 sq miles (640,000 sq km) across three provinces and parts of four others, supports about 100 million people. By the end of the 20th century, however, this land, once fertile and productive, was considered the most eroded place on Earth, according to a documentary by the ecologist John D Liu.

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Destruction of Ukraine dam caused ‘toxic timebomb’ of heavy metals, study finds

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Researchers say environmental impact from Kakhovka dam explosion comparable to Chornobyl nuclear disaster

The destruction of a large Ukrainian dam in 2023 triggered a “toxic timebomb” of environmental harm, a study has found.

Lakebed sediments holding 83,000 tonnes of heavy metals were exposed when the Kakhovka dam was blown up one year into Russia’s invasion, researchers found.

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US pauses water-sharing negotiations with Canada over Columbia River

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Break in negotiations comes as Trump escalates trade war with Canada and threatens its sovereignty

The United States has paused negotiations with Canada on a key water-sharing treaty as Donald Trump continues both his threats to annex his northern neighbour and to upend major agreements governing relations between the two counties.

British Columbia’s energy ministry said officials south of the border are “conducting a broad review” of the Columbia River Treaty, the 61-year-old pact that governs transnational flood control, power generation and water supply.

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Balance of power: why Loch Ness hydro storage schemes are stirring up trouble

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As Scottish energy firms race to meet challenges of storing power, critics fear plans will affect delicate hydrology of loch

Brian Shaw stood at the edge of Loch Ness and pointed to a band of glistening pebbles and damp sand skirting the shore. It seemed as if the tide had gone out.

Overnight, Foyers, a small pumped-storage power station, had recharged itself, drawing up millions of litres of water into a reservoir high up on a hill behind it, ready for release through its turbines to boost the UK’s electricity supply. That led to the surface of Loch Ness, the largest body of freshwater in the UK, falling by 14cm in a matter of hours.

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‘The sewage scandal ends now’: UK water company fines to be used to clean up rivers

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After fears £11m would be diverted to Treasury, money will be spent on restoring polluted areas where penalties issued

Millions of pounds of fines imposed on water firms will fund environmental schemes to protect the country’s waterways after fears the money would be diverted to the Treasury.

The water restoration fund was set up by the Conservative government to ensure that polluting water firms paid for the damage they caused. The fund received £11m in fines and penalties from April 2022 to October 2023.

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River campaigners to sue Ofwat over water bill rises

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Group claims regulator signed off on ‘broken system’ making customers pay for industry’s neglect

An environmental group is to take legal action against Ofwat, the water regulator, accusing it of unlawfully making customers pay for decades of neglect by the water industry.

River Action will file the legal claim this month, arguing that bill rises for customers that have been approved by the regulator could be used to fix infrastructure failures that should have been addressed years ago.

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DeSantis urged to declare emergency over toxic red tide algae off Florida coast

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Harmful algae bloom off south-west coast blamed for deaths of marine life and poses threat to beaches

Environmentalists in Florida are calling on the governor, Ron DeSantis, to declare an emergency as a worsening “red tide” algae bloom off the state’s south-west coast threatens popular tourist beaches and is being blamed for the deaths of wildlife including fish and dolphins.

Several counties have issued health alerts in response to the outbreak, which scientists say began in the Gulf of Mexico last year when Hurricanes Helene and Milton tore up nutrient-rich waters that feed the algae.

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Water companies in England ‘use greenwashing playbook to hide environmental harm’

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Researchers say companies have prolonged injustice and exaggerated cost of solving infrastructure problems

Water companies are adopting disinformation tactics similar to those used by the fossil fuel and tobacco industries with the widespread use of greenwashing to downplay the environmental harm they cause, a study says.

Environmental scientists analysed the communications of the nine main water and sewerage companies in England, and compared them with a framework of 28 greenwashing tactics employed, researchers say, by the tobacco, alcohol, fossil fuels and chemical industries.

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‘Drinking PFAS’: water providers call for broad ban on ‘forever chemicals’ amid proliferation fears

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Fifty-one sites in NSW have significant PFAS contamination requiring continued monitoring and remediation, EPA tells Senate inquiry

Experts and water providers have called for a broad ban on so-called “forever chemicals” at a Senate inquiry into PFAS, warning of environmental harm and increasingly costly removal.

The Water Services Association of Australia’s executive director, Adam Lovell, said a ban should be imposed on PFAS in non-essential consumer products. “We need to reduce now, as much as possible, how much PFAS is in the environment.

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