Global Rundown
- Lawmakers in Argentina are considering relaxing a law that protects ice — which supplies freshwater for millions of residents and dozens of rivers — in favor of mining.
- A farmer-driven effort in southwestern Kansas to preserve the Ogallala aquifer would reduce water withdrawals by nearly 30 percent over the next two decades.
- Ecuador’s booming flower industry is coming at the expense of human health, environmental quality, and freshwater supply, researchers warn.
- The state of Utah has acquired a magnesium mine and its water withdrawal allowances in an effort to help save the shrinking Great Salt Lake.
The Lead
High mountain glaciers are a crucial source of drinking water for both alpine and sea-level communities across Argentina. More than 3,000 square miles of ice span 39 river basins, meeting the freshwater needs of 7 million residents, or 18 percent of the country’s population.
Now, in the aftermath of a new economic deal between Argentina and the United States, lawmakers are considering scaling back protections for these icy landscapes to clear an easier path for the mining of critical minerals.
The country’s National Glacier Law, passed in 2010, protects ice as a “strategic water reserve” and “shields glaciers from infrastructure, mining and hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation, as well as the release of polluting substances,” Mongabay reports. The law applies to all ice listed in the country’s National Glacier Inventory, a database managed by the country’s top cryospheric scientists. Pro-mining advocates and Argentina’s president Javier Milei have called the inventory “too broad.”
If the law is narrowed, it would give individual provinces greater leeway to determine whether mining can occur on or near ice that is currently protected. Environmental impact assessments — which determine steps to mitigate, not eliminate, ecological harm — would be considered sufficient for projects to move ahead.
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This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
A plan to reduce water use by 27.7 percent over the next 20 years is being considered by Kansas lawmakers aiming to stabilize the health of the Ogallala aquifer, one of the country’s most important groundwater reserves, located underneath the Great Plains.
In some parts of the aquifer — which stretches from northern Texas through the southern border of South Dakota — less than 40 percent of its original water remains. Large-scale water extraction for agriculture remains the most significant strain on the reserve’s supply.
Groundwater management officials in the state’s southwestern region propose reducing water pumping by 5 percent each year over the next two decades. The effort is part of a farmer-driven plan that prioritizes water conservation while protecting growers’ financial health. As part of its implementation, individual wells would not be restricted by more than 10 percent, the Topeka Capital-Journal reports. Kansas has set a July deadline for all state groundwater districts to draw up water conservation plans.
In context: Kansas Farmers Dramatically and Profitably Pare Water for Irrigation
In Ecuador, the world’s third-largest exporter of roses, 61 percent of floriculture workers are burdened by health problems, according to a 2024 study led by researchers at the country’s Universidad Técnica del Norte. The plight’s cause is clear, the Guardian reports: the unchecked application of pesticides, which are deemed necessary to preserve the flowers’ quality as they travel worldwide.
Many floriculture laborers are Indigenous growers who receive few protections from unenforced labor laws, and are paid low wages for their services in the water-scarce Andes north of Quito. In addition to the liberal application of toxic chemicals, the flowers’ great water needs are deepening another crisis. Twelve-hour periods of non-stop watering, three days per week, have impacted communities’ access to freshwater. The health of rivers and canals, already overtaxed by the needs of nearby plantations, are gradually diminishing.
Meanwhile, the effects of climate change on Andes water sources are acute. Regionwide, erratic rainfall, glacial retreat, and drying wetlands threaten the water supply of 90 million people.
On the Radar
The state of Utah last month won a bid in bankruptcy court to acquire one of the nation’s largest magnesium mines, a purchase heavily motivated by the potential to preserve water in the Great Salt Lake, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
U.S. Magnesium’s 4,500-acre facility, which shut down in 2021 due to equipment failure, sits near the Great Salt Lake, the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere. The mine was permitted to extract up to 145,000 acre-feet of water annually from the lake, a volume equivalent to the household needs of 300,000 Utah homes. These water rights now belong to the state.
It is likely that most of the water once permitted for withdrawal will stay in the lake, but officials did not commit to complete preservation. Several smaller mineral companies that historically leased water from U.S. Magnesium’s supply — including 19,000 acre-feet in 2022, when the lake’s water levels sank to record lows — may continue to purchase needed amounts from the state.
Environmentalists hope the state’s acquisition of the mine, which has a long legacy of toxic waste spillages and is an active Superfund site, will lead to its faster cleanup.
Meanwhile, the overextraction of water from the Great Salt Lake has put it in a precarious situation. According to a comprehensive 2023 report, the lake has lost 73 percent of its water and 65 percent of its surface area since 1850.
Experts have called for more rigid water conservation measures and a “lake-first approach” to the usage of its waters, which support $2.5 billion in economic activity each year. Over the weekend, President Trump pledged to make the lake “great again” during a speech at the National Governors Association dinner.
