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The Blue Planet Report, a quarterly feature, reveals world-shaping trends for water.
The world is awash in flames.
Nearly 22 million acres in Canada have burned this year, the second highest annual total for the country in the last four decades. The European Union is experiencing its worst fire year in the last two decades. Much of the damage has occurred in Portugal, where three times more acres have burned than average. In July, large fires cut through Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey. Half the island of Kythira burned. Earlier this year, the Eaton and Palisades fires blitzed Los Angeles County, destroying 16,246 structures and killing 31 people.
Not all the world’s fire hotspots had a terrible year – Australia was comparatively calm in 2024-25. But the global trend is unmistakable and worrisome. Due to a warming planet, land management decisions, and building in hazardous places, the risk equation has changed. Fires are growing faster, burning hotter, and doing more damage to ecosystems and infrastructure.
Water puts out fire, but increasingly water is threatened by flame.
Fires generate a cascade of environmental and health problems. Smoke and the toxic materials it contains attack lungs, hearts, and brains. These injuries from inhaling particulates can trigger asthma attacks, cognitive impairments, and lead to premature death. Meanwhile, the carbon released in a large fire helps to warm the planet. The additional heat stress will fuel the next fire cycle.
All the burning and scorching is also turning out to be ruinous for water systems, both natural and man-made. Water puts out fire, but increasingly water is threatened by flame.
The problems begin in the forest, where today’s fire can diminish tomorrow’s water supply. A study published in September and led by the Colorado School of Mines found that low-elevation snowpack in the western United States melted earlier for several years following a wildfire. This builds on previous research showing that soot deposition also causes snowpack to melt earlier.
Besides heat-absorbing ash, wildfires mobilize other chemicals that alter ecosystems. Nitrate concentrations can spike after a fire, fertilizing algal blooms in lakes, rivers, and coastal waters. River impairments from the nutrient surge can last for years, a University of Colorado Boulder study published in June found. The hottest fires cook the soil, rendering it water repellent, more like concrete than dirt. These forests shed more water and debris. The floods that follow fires have destroyed homes and roads.
Since people are building deeper into the wildlands, the fallout extends beyond the forest.
Irrigation and water distribution systems have been damaged or destroyed in fires in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. Benzene and other volatile organic chemicals have contaminated water-supply pipes and require costly remediation.
Fires that wipe out urban areas leave a temporary ghost town in their wake. This depopulation can cause economic calamity for water utilities. They lose customer payments just when funding is critical for operations and recovery and to repair damaged assets. Government assistance is often required.
After the Eaton Fire, Las Flores Water Company, which serves the Altadena area of Los Angeles County, lost 75 percent of its revenue base, according to a report from the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. The company is seeking state and federal funds to rebuild its reservoirs and wells. It also joined a lawsuit against Southern California Edison, a power company, to seek compensation for the company’s alleged role in starting the fire.
None of this will happen quickly. In the meantime, Las Flores is considering a temporary fixed charge on water bills of $30 to $60 per month.
“It’s obvious that it will take multiple years to reestablish our revenue streams to pre-fire levels,” John Bednarski, the board president, wrote to company shareholders in a September 4 letter that outlines its fiscal problems.
As the northern hemisphere transitions to autumn and winter, fire danger in many areas will subside. At the same time, the southern hemisphere will be entering spring and summer, when fire risk ramps up.
AFAC, the fire council for Australia and New Zealand, issued its spring bushfire outlook for those countries. Risk is highest in southeast Australia, where the state of Victoria is witnessing prolonged and significant rainfall deficits.
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- Water is running short in Iran. As of mid-August, a dozen major reservoirs in the country held less than 10 percent of their capacity, according to the national water company. Shina Ansari, Iran’s vice president and head of the government’s Environmental Protection Agency, told the Guardian that agriculture, which consumes almost nine out of 10 gallons in the country, must change its ways.
- A Texas investor wants to pump groundwater from counties in the eastern half of the state and ship it to fast-growing cities hundreds of miles away. Kyle Bass’s proposal was met with outrage. The Texas House passed a bill that would pause project permitting for two years while the state water agency studies the proposal. But the Senate version did not include the moratorium and the bill failed.
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the status of the Texas groundwater bill. The House and Senate passed competing versions that could not be reconciled.