Water News for July 2024
A large number of lawsuits in courts around the world are holding governments and corporations to account for their treatment of the seas and those who rely on them. There have been more than 2,500 lawsuits relating to the climate crisis around the world – and many relate to the ocean. The Guardian.
A new study ranks Lake Louise in Florida as the cleanest lake in the U.S. The prize for the dirtiest goes to Utah Lake, Utah’s largest freshwater lake. Find out who the other winners and losers are on the Gazette’s website.
The city council of Girard, OH passed an ordinance requiring fencing around Koi ponds, not to keep the fish in but to keep children out. The law was occasioned by the near drowning of a toddler in a Koi pond.
July 21 was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth. It broke the previous record established on July 20, one day earlier. Full article in The Guardian.
Inflation Reduction Act
On July 25, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced more than $325 million in funding for 21 selected applications to help disadvantaged communities tackle environmental and climate justice challenges through projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience and build community capacity. Much of this goes directly to projects that improve water quality. Made possible by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the Community Change Grants Program is the single largest investment in environmental and climate justice in history. The funding announcement today is the first tranche of nearly $2 billion from the program that was designed based on community input to award grants on a rolling basis.
Gazette’s Comment: In an age of political overstatement and exaggeration, it’s easy to overlook something really significant. The Inflation Reduction Act is a big deal. It will have a positive impact on the lives of Americans and on the health of our environment for decades to come. If you would like to read the EPA’s recent bulletin, it’s on the Gazette’s website.
PFAS and Pesticides
A peer-reviewed study published in late July in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives has found that per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, known as “forever chemicals,” are increasingly being added to U.S. pesticide products, contaminating waterways and posing potential threats to human health.
The study, “Forever Pesticides: A Growing Source of PFAS Contamination in the Environment,” is the first-ever comprehensive review of the many ways PFAS are introduced into U.S. pesticide products. Pesticides containing PFAS are used throughout the country on staple foods such as corn, wheat, kale, spinach, apples and strawberries. They are widely used in residences in flea treatments for pets and insect-killing sprays.
Researchers at the Center for Biological Diversity, or CBD, Environmental Working Group and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, compiled data on sources of PFAS in pesticide products. Those sources range from specific ingredients intentionally added to pesticides, to contamination via leaching from fluorinated storage containers. Full report from Water Online.
Water in the Seine. The Olympics.
Water quality in the Seine has been touch and go during the Olympics, largely because of above-average rainfall. The E. coli test required by European standards was passed on most days but not all. (Swimming in the Seine has been banned for over a century. Since 2015, Olympics organizers have invested $1.5 billion to prepare the Seine for the Olympics and to ensure Parisians have a cleaner river after the Games. The plan included constructing a giant underground water storage basin in central Paris, renovating sewer infrastructure and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.)
Greening the Desert Isn’t Always a Good Idea
Shortly after Egypt’s president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi came to power in a military coup in 2014, he announced an ambitious – and controversial – project to transform 6,487 sq miles of desert into farmland before 2027. But with a huge water deficit, critics doubt the project, which is rapidly depleting water from Egypt’s groundwater reserves, is viable. Water under the Western desert is being depleted twice as fast since Sisi took office in Egypt. More.
More Than Half of Contiguous U.S. River Water Comes from Ephemeral Streams
New research published in Science underlines the importance of regulating “ephemeral streams,” which supply half the water for our rivers. A very questionable 2023 Supreme Court decision favored polluters by taking away the EPA’s ability to regulate the part-time streams. Details in this excellent article from the Gazette’s website.
