Category Archives: Water

Drought sparks drinking water concerns as saltwater creeps up Mississippi River

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Louisiana residents who rely on river for drinking water warned of potential health risks in next few weeks

The New Orleans mayor, LaToya Cantrell, signed an emergency declaration for the city on Friday amid concerns about saltwater from the the Gulf of Mexico that has been creeping up the drought-hit Mississippi River in Louisiana.

The declaration came amid concerns the saltwater, which is impacting the river because it is at such low levels, could impact the drinking water of thousands of residents in the next few weeks

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Five siblings jailed for illegally extracting water feeding Spanish nature reserve

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Farmers found guilty of crimes against environment for tapping aqueduct feeding Unesco-listed Donana national park

Five siblings have been jailed for more than three years for illegally extracting water from an aqueduct feeding a Unesco-listed Spanish nature reserve that is threatened by desertification, a court ruling showed.

The farmers – four men and a woman – were found guilty of crimes against the environment and causing damage through the “systematic and extensive extraction” of water supplying Donana national park, according to the ruling dated 18 September that was seen by Agence France-Presse on Friday.

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California orders bottled water firm to stop drawing from natural springs

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BlueTriton, the company that owns Arrowhead brand, has been taking water from San Bernardino springs for more than 100 years

California has ordered the company that owns Arrowhead bottled water to stop using some of the natural springs it has utilized for more than a century, following a years-long campaign by environmentalists to stop the operation.

Regulators on Tuesday voted to significantly reduce how much water BlueTriton – the owner of the Arrowhead brand – can take from public lands in the San Bernardino mountains. The ruling is a victory for community groups who have said for years that the bottled water firm has drained an important creek that serves as a habitat for wildlife and helps protect the area from wildfires.

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Thérèse Coffey ‘complacent’ in dealing with water companies, peers say

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Underinvestment in infrastructure will have serious consequences for environment and security of water supplies, committee says

Thérèse Coffey has been “complacent” in dealing with water companies, risking water shortages as well as extreme environmental consequences, a House of Lords committee has said.

In a letter to the environment secretary, the peers criticised her department’s “dismissive brevity and complacent tone” in response to their report published earlier this year, which found water companies had been too focused on maximising financial returns at the expense of the environment.

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Sunak branded ‘inaction man’ at PMQs as Starmer attacks record on schools, prisons and China – UK politics live

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Labour leader accuses government of failing to heed warnings which has led to series of crises this week

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question at PMQs.

Yesterday it emerged that ministers are mulling over a plan to tweak the triple lock for pensions so that what might be a bumper 8.5% increase in its value next year ends up being marginally less generous, at 7.8%.

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Utah officials sued over failure to save Great Salt Lake: ‘Trying to avert disaster’

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Environmental and community groups have filed lawsuit as the water body shrinks from overuse, hastening its demise

Environmental and community groups have sued Utah officials over failures to save its iconic Great Salt Lake from irreversible collapse.

The largest saltwater lake in the western hemisphere has been steadily shrinking, as more and more water has been diverted away from the lake to irrigate farmland, feed industry and water lawns. A megadrought across the US south-west, accelerated by global heating, has hastened the lake’s demise.

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Foreign ownership of Australia’s water rights on the rise

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Report reveals that foreign interests hold 11.3% of Australia’s water entitlements – about half of which are in the food and fibre producing Murray-Darling Basin

Foreign interests hold almost 12% of all water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin and the level of foreign ownership in water is increasing, a new report shows.

Foreigners own or have a significant share in 4,503GL of Australian water entitlements, which is 11.3% of all the entitlements across the country, the Australian Taxation Office’s report says.

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Scrapping housebuilder water pollution rules in England to cost taxpayer £140m

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Under Lords amendment, developers will no longer have to offset nutrient pollution from new homes’ sewage

Taxpayers will pick up the bill for pollution by housebuilders, government officials have admitted, as rules on chemical releases into waterways are scrapped.

If an amendment in the House of Lords tabled on Tuesday passes, developers will no longer have to offset the nutrient pollution caused by sewage from new homes. The government has said it will double Natural England’s wetland funding to £280m in order to show it is trying to meet the requirements of its legally binding Environment Act.

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Drinking water of millions of Americans contaminated with ‘forever chemicals’

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Water of about 26 million is contaminated as new data offers the most robust look into exactly which communities are polluted

Drinking water consumed by millions of Americans from hundreds of communities spread across the United States is contaminated with dangerous levels of toxic chemicals, according to testing data released on Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The data shows that drinking water systems serving small towns to large cities – from tiny Collegeville, Pennsylvania, to Fresno, California – contain measurable levels of so-called “forever chemicals”, a family of durable compounds long used in a variety of commercial products but that are now known to be harmful.

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United Utilities fined £800,000 for taking 22bn litres of water from aquifer

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Company breached three-year rolling limit on abstraction licence at Fylde aquifer in 2018

United Utilities has been fined £800,000 after illegally abstracting 22bn litres of water in Lancashire, causing damage to an important aquifer that will take years to recover.

The illegal removal of water from the Fylde aquifer, which happened during a period of dry weather in 2018, is likely to have negatively affected river flows.

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Long delays at Panama Canal after drought hits global shipping route

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Number of vessels able to pass through each day limited because lower availability of water

Commercial ships are facing long queues and delays to travel through the Panama Canal as a lengthy drought in the Central American country has led to a cut in the number of vessels able to pass through one of the world’s most important trading routes.

In a fresh demonstration of the impact of the climate crisis on global business and trade, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), which manages the waterway, introduced restrictions on the number of transiting vessels as a result of the drought.

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Southern Water owner Macquarie invests further £550m

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Australian investment bank funds troubled UK utility’s overhaul of pipes and sewage works

The Australian infrastructure investor Macquarie has confirmed it will inject a further £550m into the UK’s Southern Water in an attempt to turn around the troubled company.

The funds are intended to help Southern Water, which supplies Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, to overhaul its leaky pipes and faulty sewage works.

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Growing number of sewage monitors in England’s bathing waters ‘broken’

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New analysis of Environment Agency data by Lib Dems shows more than 100 systems are faulty

An increasing number of sewage monitors in England’s swimming spots are broken, new analysis has shown, meaning unknown quantities of raw sewage may be present in bathing waters.

New analysis of 2022 Environment Agency data by the Liberal Democrats has shown that more than 100 sewage monitors in bathing waters were faulty. This is an increase on 2021, when 88 of the monitors were broken.

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Tennessee residents unable to drink or use tap water following diesel fuel spill

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Many of the 40,000 people in the suburb of Germantown under order to avoid using water for everything except flushing toilets

A diesel fuel spill that contaminated the water supply system of Germantown, Tennessee, has left residents unable to drink their tap water as the city’s public works crew rush to flush out the contaminated water.

The city first told residents on 20 July that a spill at a treatment plant tainted the water supply system. The order came after residents reported a fuel smell in their water. Officials said that a generator at the plant spilled diesel fuel into a reservoir after the facility lost power during recent storms.

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Mexico steps up rain-making project amid intense heatwave and drought

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Government claims 98% success rate for cloud seeding but critics urge improving irrigation and water supply systems

Amid a historic heatwave and months of drought, Mexico’s government has launched the latest phase of a cloud seeding project it hopes will increase rainfall.

The project, which began in July, involves planes flying into clouds to release silver iodide particles which then, in theory, will attract additional water droplets and increase rain or snowfall.

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Inside Mykolaiv, the Ukrainian city where the Russians destroyed the water supply

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A key pipeline to the southern Ukrainian port city was hit by a missile early in the invasion, but for now people are managing to keep vital services running

  • Photographs by Kasia Strek for the Observer

Ludmyla Osadchuk put her foot to the pedal and the rickety red-and-white tram edged forward, exiting the depot with a crunching of wheels and a rattle of the old, loosely fitting doors. On board were three blue canisters, each holding 1,000 litres of water.

With a “Special route” sign attached to the front window, the tram trundled to the first of four stops in different parts of Mykolaiv. The only passenger was former tram driver Serhiy Vytstyna, who hopped out at the stop and connected a set of pumps to the canisters.

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Researchers find evidence of ‘forever chemicals’ in blood of pregnant women

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At least 97% of the blood samples contained a type of PFAS known as PFOS, associated with multiple serious health problems

California researchers have found new evidence that several chemicals used in plastic production and a wide array of other industrial applications are commonly present in the blood of pregnant women, creating increased health risks for mothers and their babies.

The researchers said their findings add to a growing body of evidence showing that many chemicals people are routinely exposed to are leading to subtle but harmful changes in health. The work should be a “wake-up call” to policymakers, they said.

This story is co-published with the New Lede, a journalism project of the Environmental Working Group

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Drought leaves millions in Uruguay without tap water fit for drinking

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After years of underinvestment, reservoir has had to be topped up from estuary, raising health concerns

More than half of Uruguay’s 3.5 million citizens are without access to tap water fit for drinking, and experts say the situation could continue for months.

Some had predicted the crisis years ago when pointing out the vulnerability of the single reservoir supplying water to the metropolitan area around the capital, Montevideo.

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‘It’s pillage’: thirsty Uruguayans decry Google’s plan to exploit water supply

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Country suffering its worst drought in 74 years, with government even mixing saltwater into drinking supply

A plan to build a Google data centre that will use millions of litres of water a day has sparked anger in Uruguay, which is suffering its worst drought in 74 years.

Water shortages are so severe in the country that a state of emergency has been declared in Montevideo and the authorities have added salty water to the public drinking water supplies, prompting widespread protests.

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