Global Rundown
- A landmark agreement between a Seattle electric utility and local tribes will prioritize salmon recovery on the Skagit River, which also has three hydroelectric dams.
- A World Bank grant will support a new program in Djibouti to provide basic water access to more than 120,000 people in rural areas.
- An investigation reveals that Oklahoma oil regulators neither set limits nor administered violations on injection wells they knew were threats to groundwater.
- A global analysis of aquifers that recovered from supply shortages identifies a pattern of success, with most recovering areas acquiring alternative supplies.
The Lead
Seattle City Light, a public utility, and three tribes in Washington state have announced an agreement to facilitate fishery recovery, flood prevention, riparian conservation, and renewable energy on the Skagit River, which for generations has sustained the lifeways of the watershed’s Indigenous communities, known as “salmon people.”
The river now flows through three hydroelectric dams, which provide roughly 20 percent of Seattle City Light’s available power. Dams in the Pacific Northwest, along with a changing climate and other industrial activities, have contributed to the precipitous decline of Pacific salmon populations.
The utility’s operational license for the Skagit Hydroelectric Project expired last April. Earlier this month, a settlement for the project’s relicensing was reached, on the condition that the utility commits to improving fish passage and habitat, tribal access, resource protection, and water quality, among other requirements.
“The settlement is an expression of Seattle’s commitment to safe, renewable energy,” Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said in a statement. “Through it, we are also committing to putting people first by respecting Tribal sovereignty and leadership, prioritizing flood risk management for downstream communities, and enhancing education and recreation opportunities. The Skagit ecosystem and the broader public will be better served because of this agreement achieved through years of collaboration.”
Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue
- Could Iran Disrupt the Gulf Countries’ Desalinated Water Supplies? — Originally published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies
- The Great Lakes Are Wasting a Massive Source of Clean Energy — Huge potential gains from using waste heat from sewers, data centers, and power plants.
This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
An estimated 127,000 people living in rural communities across Djibouti are expected to receive reliable access to basic water services following the approval of a $35 million World Bank grant.
The funding will support a new national project for Djibouti to participate in the $455 million Groundwater for Resilience program, a regional collaborative effort prioritizing the development of sanitation infrastructure, waste management, irrigation systems, and livestock economies in the Horn of Africa, one of the most water-stressed areas in the world.
In Djibouti’s rural communities, only 47 percent of people have access to basic drinking water, compared 83 percent in urban areas, according to the World Bank. Drought, floods, and increasing groundwater salinity continue to threaten the long-term health of the country’s aquifers.
“Improving water access in rural Djibouti is both a humanitarian and an economic imperative,” Fatou Fall, the World Bank Group joint resident representative for Djibouti, says in a statement. “Drought can cost the country up to 4 percent of GDP, and it is pastoral and rural communities who bear the heaviest burden.”
More than 1,400 injection wells — which shoot the toxic byproduct of oil production back underground — have been operating in Oklahoma for years without being subject to any limits on volume or pressure, The Frontier reports. Another 600 wells that did have limits were found to be illegally operating above these thresholds, threatening groundwater pollution.
These findings were identified by oil regulators and watchdogs in an internal database that was completed in 2021. But no action was taken by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the state agency charged with oil and gas regulation, according to the Frontier. In the meanwhile, roughly 150 pollution events occurred across the state over the next several years, “with toxic wastewater gushing to the surface, polluting farmland and water sources.”
On the Radar
A new analytical review published last week in the journal Science examines where groundwater aquifers have recovered from water supply declines. The analysis looks at dozens of places around the world, including Beijing, Green Bay, and Las Vegas.
More than 80 percent of the 67 aquifer success stories analyzed by researchers sourced an alternative water supply, and most employed multiple types of interventions. Among the top secondary options were introducing strong environmental policy and artificially replenishing aquifers.
“It’s important to manage groundwater quality alongside quantity,” the researchers write in a summary of ten key takeaway themes. “Interventions should consider the direct and indirect impacts of climate change.
