The Palo Verde nuclear power plant near Phoenix is the largest power plant in the United States, serving about four million people. It is the only large nuclear plant in the world not near a large body of water — instead, it uses treated wastewater from nearby cities for cooling.

Global Rundown

  • Weeks after severe storms killed dozens of people in Bolivia, rural communities are contending with flooded pastures and the spread of waterborne diseases. 
  • The desire by Australia’s Coalition to develop several new nuclear energy facilities is at odds with the nation’s short supply of water. 
  • New real estate development in Laredo, Texas, means the city will need to look beyond just the Rio Grande to fulfill its future water needs — and private companies are expressing interest.
  • Residents of “The Land of Fires,” a notorious location north of Naples, Italy, where cancer rates are high and groundwater pollution is pervasive, have scored a major legal win in a human rights court.

The Lead

At least 55 people were killed in Bolivia in late March when the country was hit by its most intense rainstorms in decades. Several weeks later, communities near the Brazilian border, where the Mamoré River overtopped, are coping with the aftermath. 

More than 100,000 people have been displaced from their homes and 590,000 families have been affected, Reuters reports. In Beni, a rural region in northern Bolivia where floodwaters submerged residences and entire pastures, thousands of people have been treated for illnesses worsened by contaminated, sitting water. Cases of diarrhea, hepatitis, and respiratory diseases continue to be monitored by emergency medical workers and have been the impetus for dozens of families to leave their properties behind, seeking shelter elsewhere.

Farmers and their livestock have also been forced to move. Videos show cattle navigating neck-deep waters in what was once their grazing land, and farmers have struggled to migrate them to safer, drier areas. Roughly two percent of the country’s herd — some 200,000 head — “are at risk, struggling with flood water and fatigue.”

Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue

This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers

90

Percent of nuclear generation facilities Australia’s Liberal-National Coalition proposes to build that would not have proper access to clean water to run safely, the Guardian reports. The new reactors, proposed for seven sites across the country, would require roughly 200 gigaliters of water for cooling each year and, on a per-kilowatt-hour basis, need more water than coal. Current water demands on the world’s driest habitable continent — for irrigation, drinking, and sanitation — would be massively compromised, critics say. 

54 million

Gallons of Rio Grande water the city of Laredo is allotted each day, Inside Climate News reports. The Texas city’s peak daily demand reached 44 million gallons last year, but by the 2040s experts predict that needs will outweigh supply. The foundations of luxury developments, ranches, and homes are being laid as several large real estate projects are expected to complete within the next two decades. Legacy Water Supply Corporation, a private water company founded by a well-known local rancher, is making its case to be the long-awaited secondary supplier for Laredo — though its ambitions to build a facility that treats salty groundwater, then pumps it more than 20 miles to residences, has many worried about cost and sustainability.

On the Radar

After 10 years of legal battles and deliberation, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled against the Italian government for failing to intervene in an area north of Naples where industrial waste is frequently dumped and burned, France24 reports. Those living in the 90 municipalities which comprise the so-called “Land of Fires” partnered with medical experts and NGOs to bring the case. It was a highly personal endeavor — for more than 20 years residents have been subject to high rates of cancer, toxic metals in their blood, groundwater pollution, and livestock born with deformities. Found culpable of failing to protect the communities’ right to live, Italy will have two years to resolve the issue. 

Fresh: From the Great Lakes Region

Whitefish Worries: Whitefish populations have been on the decline in the Great Lakes over the past two decades, due in large part to the spread of invasive quagga mussels which also eat zooplankton, the native fish’s food. Biologists are trying new approaches to help recover whitefish populations, including moving their eggs to rivers via PVC pipes, where conditions are more favorable for early life development, NPR reports.

Keystone Pipeline Spill: The underground oil pipeline — which stretches from Alberta, Canada to Illinois, Texas, and Oklahoma — remains closed after a spill last week sent 147,000 gallons of crude oil into farmland in North Dakota, about 60 miles southwest of Fargo, the Associated Press reports. Cleanup efforts are underway.

Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, Michigan Public and The Narwhal work together to report on the most pressing threats to the Great Lakes region’s water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work here.

  • Fish, mines and Indigenous Rights ensnared in court case in northern Ontario — The Narwhal
  • How community gardens serve as ‘third places’ for Detroiters — Great Lakes Now
  • Climate change making Great Lakes water birds sick — Bridge Michigan
  • Dam failure risk prompts Trout Lake drawdown — Michigan Public

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer from Chicago. He is passionate about climate and cultural phenomena that often appear slow or invisible, and he examines these themes in his journalism, poetry, and fiction.