Transcript

  • Shippers using the Panama Canal will soon feel the water cost of climate change. 
  • In Vietnam’s Mekong River delta, low water levels are contributing to worsening water quality.
  • In the Australian state of Queensland, regulators have granted a multinational company an unlimited license to extract groundwater for one of the largest coal developments in world.
  • This week, from Circle of Blue, technology is offering answers to the ageless question: Where is the water? A new mapping tool from the U.S. federal government’s top Earth sciences agency aims to visualize the nations’s water resources with greater frequency and detail
This is Eileen Wray-McCann for Circle of Blue. And this is What’s Up with Water, your “need-to-know news” of the world’s water, made possible by support from people like you.
Shippers using the Panama Canal will soon feel the water cost of climate change. 
The canal is a vital trade route, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and the price for using it is going up. Last week, the agency managing the canal introduced a surcharge of $10,000 a ship. The Panama Canal Authority also reduced the number of vessels that are allowed to move through the locks each day. The changes reflect historically dry weather conditions that have depleted Lake Gatun, which provides water to operate the canal. Last year was the fifth driest year in the last seven decades, a condition that might become more common in Central America. In a warming climate, rainfall is expected to be more variable and droughts more intense. At the same time, evaporation will increase and that will diminish water supplies. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Panama Canal Authority hopes to guard against these threats. It’s exploring two options to increase water flows into Lake [gah-TOON] Gatun. One option is a 100-mile pipeline from a distant lake. The second is a dam that would allow for more control over water levels. Each option is projected to cost more than a billion dollars. The authority’s $10,000 per vessel surcharge goes into effect on February 15.
In Vietnam’s Mekong River delta, low water levels are contributing to worsening water quality. Local news reports say that leaders of the coastal Vietnamese province of Ben Tre declared a state of emergency because of rising salt concentrations in its rivers. Saltwater damages the area’s large rice-growing industry, and it pollutes drinking water sources. Several factors have led to the emergency in the delta. The Mekong basin is in the midst of a severe drought, which has reduced river flows. At the same time, dams in the upper basin have constrained the rivers that feed the delta and keep the seawater from migrating upstream. The third factor is the mining of river sediment for use in the construction industry. This sand mining increases the depths of river channels and opens a path for saltwater to intrude inland. Temporary measures such as pumps and embankments are at work in Ben Tre to combat the salt. Tanker trucks with fresh water are supplying schools and hospitals.
In the Australian state of Queensland, regulators have granted a multinational company an unlimited license to extract groundwater for one of the largest coal developments in world.  The Carmichael coal mine is a project of the Adani Group, based in India. The Sydney Morning Herald said the mine in Queensland is expected to produce 8-10 million tons of coal a year. The mine has drawn criticism on several fronts. Environmental activists have labeled it a carbon bomb that will speed the decline of the Great Barrier Reef and worsen global warming. The coal from the Carmichael plant would be burned in India, but the Herald noted that “Australia is one of the world’s largest carbon emitters per capita because of its reliance on coal-fired power plants.” And Australia has found itself on the front lines of climate change. Queensland and other states have recently witnessed terrifying bush fires following the country’s hottest and driest year on record. Local ranchers worry that the mine’s groundwater extraction will dry up boreholes they use for watering cattle. The Queensland government said that, in granting the permit, a “broad range of information” was considered and that ranchers would have to work with the company if their wells are affected.
Groundwater extraction is also a flashpoint in the United States. In Arizona, in the past few years, some rural counties have seen significant declines and dry wells. Most of the groundwater in those areas goes to big farming operations, which are not required to report how much water they pump. Lawmakers, however, are starting to view the situation with concern. The Arizona Republic finds that both Democrats and Republicans support laws requiring annual reports on water use. The proposed bills would also give state regulators the authority to install meters on wells. John Kavanaugh, a Republican who introduced one of the bills, said that, with wells going dry, “we need to know what’s going on.”
This week, from Circle of Blue, technology is offering answers to the ageless question:
Where is the water?
A new mapping tool from the U.S. federal government’s top Earth sciences agency aims to visualize the nations’s water resources with greater frequency and detail.
The map displays a nearly complete picture of water storage in the Lower 48 states. It’s updated daily, and shows water currently held in snowpack, soils, and shallow groundwater as compared to the long-term average. It also incorporates moisture trapped in the tree canopy and wetlands, but it does not include rivers, reservoirs, and deep groundwater.
Analysts say that the data informing the tool will be helpful in a range of applications, from forecasting droughts and floods to notifying farmers when to fertilize crops so that the nutrients do not pollute rivers.
A recent glance at the map showed very high saturation in the upper Missouri and Mississippi river basins. Parts of the region just experienced the wettest 12-month period on record, with historic flooding that inundated towns and prevented farmers from planting corn and soybeans on nearly 16 million acres. If wet conditions remain in place, the region could be on alert for another round of flooding this spring.
Mindi Dalton is the coordinator for the USGS Water Availability and Use Science Program. She says that the tool is the first of three mapping products that the U.S. Geological Survey is rolling out in the next two years. It’s part of the agency’s mission to improve understanding of the nation’s water. Staff are now working on similar tools for daily water quality and use.
Water data analysts are excited by the prospect of more timely information. Peter Colohan is the executive director of the Internet of Water, a data project based at Duke University. He told Circle of Blue “This is a novel and hugely useful development. In our world, we’re thrilled with every new data set because there are so many questions and unanswered questions.”
The USGS tool answers the question of quantity. It ranks natural water storage from very high (exceeding 90 percent of past observations) to very low (in the bottom 10 percent of observations). But besides storage, there are other considerations. When she took her current coordinator job, in 2018, Dalton sought to integrate water assessments for quantity, quality, and use that had been operating somewhat independently. Each factor influences the other: for example, heavily polluted water has more limited value.
It’s this integration of data that excites Colohan, who previously worked at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. When researchers can combine and manipulate multiple data sets, it opens the door to new products and services. Colohan said that there are numerous potential applications for a daily water storage assessment. Nutrients from farm fields are a substantial water pollution challenge. Fertilizers applied to saturated fields can be more easily washed away by rain. The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture designed an online tool that tells farmers when to spread manure in order to minimize runoff. Combining water storage data with weather forecasts can indicate whether nutrients are likely to remain on the field.
Those sorts of applications are possible only when the data is open. Dalton said the numbers underlying the USGS mapping tool are publicly available, but not easily accessible. She said that future updates of the map will include a search function. Users will be able to click on an area of interest and download the data for that watershed.
And that’s What’s Up With Water from Circle of Blue, which depends on your support for independent water news and analysis. Please visit circleofblue.org and make a difference through your tax-deductible donation.