Hotspots H2o

Your "need to know" news of the world's water from Circle of Blue. This week: stories on a lead lawsuit, lake heatwaves, and the benefits of piped water for women and girls in Zambia. Plus a CoB feature story on water-bill debt in California.

On January 4th, the Army Corps of Engineers finalized a rule that further weakens federal protections for the nation’s smallest streams. The revisions are to nationwide permits, which regulate the filling and dredging of waterways. They are among a flurry of environmental deregulatory actions by federal agencies in the final days of the Trump administration, despite the potential for reversal under the Biden administration.

Your "need to know" news of the world's water from Circle of Blue. This week: Criminal charges in the Flint lead crisis, PFAS in drinking water in China, and the city of Victoria, British Columbia stops dumping raw sewage into an international waterway. Plus, a CoB feature on the Trump administration's last-minute rule changes for small streams.

India’s farmers are key to the country’s industrial future,

Your "need to know" news of the world's water, from Circle of Blue. Stories this week on data sharing in the Mekong River basin, a shrinking glacier in Bolivia, and global land subsidence. Plus CoB feature on irrigation in India.

Your "need to know" news of the world's water from Circle of Blue. We begin the new year with three stories of water progress in the USA: a settlement for victims of the Flint water crisis, cleaner water in New Jersey and federal approval of a water rights settlement for the Navajo Nation in Utah.

This is an excerpt of the December 21, 2020 episode of What's Up With Water. This week Circle of Blue reports on a new study revealing the water contamination risks of plastic pipes exposed to the heat of wildfires. In California, wildfires have been brutal in recent years. They have incinerated millions of acres of forest and blazed through developed areas with vicious force. Fifteen of the 20 most destructive fires in California history have occurred since 2015, obliterating thousands of homes and buildings statewide, from the Sierra Nevada foothills to the Coast Range. Because these fires are now burning where people live — or, people are living where the fires are — new hazards to health and infrastructure have emerged in the ashes. Among them is the contamination of drinking water, which occurred after catastrophic fires in Santa Rosa, in 2017, and in Paradise a year later.

Your "need to know" news of the world's water from Circle of Blue. This week: PFAS found in a pesticide used in Massachusetts and New Mexico regulators restricting freshwater use in oil and gas production. Plus, a CoB feature on plastic pipes and wildfire.

The tribes unveiled draft legislation to allow their water to be leased to users in Arizona off the reservation or stored underground.

Your "need to know news" of the world's water from Circle of Blue. This week: lead service line replacement in Flint, extension of a shutoff moratorium in Detroit and criticism of a government plan in Australia to fill coal mines with water. Plus, a COB story on the Colorado River basin, where legal maneuvers could boost flexibility for water use in a drying region.

Your "need to know" news of the world's water from Circle of Blue. This week: drinking water advisories in Canada's First Nations, climate as a security risk in Brazil, refugees fleeing damage from two hurricanes in Central America, and researchers identify a toxic compound that is killing coho salmon in the Puget Sound region.

What a Biden administration might mean for federal water policy. Guests: Heather Cooley, the director of research at the Pacific Institute, where she works on a variety of water and climate issues. Anne Castle, a senior fellow at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment at the University of Colorado Law School. From 2009 to 2014, Castle was the assistant secretary for water and science at the U.S. Department of the Interior. Eric Schaeffer, the executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project. Schaeffer also led the EPA Office of Civil Enforcement from 1997 to 2002.

This is an excerpt of the November 30, 2020 episode of What's Up With Water. So many who were at the cusp of a better life have been beset by an extraordinary reversal of fortune. Until this year, extreme poverty had been steadily falling across the globe over the recent decades. At the same time, hundreds of millions of people had gained access to proper water and sanitation services. The spread of the new coronavirus has twisted those trajectories.

Your "need to know" news of the world's water from Circle of Blue. Stories this week: Enbridge sues Michigan over Line 5 decision, Enbridge gains a federal permit to replace its Line 3 oil pipeline in Minnesota, the UN announces a sanitation and hygiene fund, and the UN food agency highlights water scarcity for farming regions. Plus a CoB feature on USAID's post-Covid strategy.

This is an excerpt of the November 16, 2020 episode of What's Up With Water. This week Circle of Blue reports on California’s efforts to better understand the pandemic’s impact on water utilities and their customers. Last week, California regulators sent a survey to 150 of the state’s largest water providers. It’s an effort to assess the financial fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. The virus has caused economic slowdowns, and the State Water Resources Control Board wants to know how this affects water services – from the financial health of utilities who provide the water, to the households who may be unable to pay for it.

Your "need to know" news of the world's water from Circle of Blue. This week: an application for oil and gas wastewater disposal in Wyoming; lawsuits in New Jersey over PFAS pollution; and Michigan's governor orders the shut down of a controversial oil pipeline in the Great Lakes. The CoB feature looks at California’s efforts to better understand the pandemic’s impact on water utilities and their customers.

Election Recap: U.S. Water Ballot Initiatives by Circle Of Blue

Your "need to know" news of the world's water from Circle of Blue. Three U.S. stories this week: on wildfire damage to a drinking water system in Oregon, groundwater regulations in Wisconsin, and dry wells in New Hampshire. Plus Circle of Blue reports on the outcome of water-related ballot initiatives in the November election.

This is an excerpt of the November 11, 2020 episode of What's Up With Water. With the U.S. Senate majority at stake in the 2020 election, nearly every race has become a battleground. That’s the case in Michigan, where incumbent Democrat Gary Peters is being challenged by Republican John James. Polls of likely voters show Peters up by six to nine percentage points. National super PACs on both sides have spent a total of more than $65 million. To defend their seat, the Democratic Senate Majority PAC has spent twice as much as the Republican Senate Leadership Fund. While Covid and the economy dominate debates, Michigan has another defining issue: water. The state is surrounded by the Great Lakes and grappling with aging infrastructure and the chemical contamination of its lakes, streams, and groundwater.

Your "need to know" news of the world's water from Circle of Blue. This week: negotiations resume for Nile dam dispute, record dryness in the western United States, and carbon-capture technology could worsen water scarcity. Plus, a CoB story on Senate race in Michigan.