Global Rundown
- Oilfield expansion in southern Iraq continues to pollute some of Mesopotamia’s oldest marsh and wetland ecosystems.
- This year’s glacial outburst flood in Juneau, Alaska, has begun, with potentially record-breaking amounts of water flooding the capital.
- Aquifers beneath the Arkansas Delta lost more than a foot of groundwater between 2023 and 2024, according to a new analysis.
- Leaders in Tucson, Arizona, voted to reject a $3.6 billion data center proposal after community outcry.
The Lead
Iraq’s southern wetlands, known as the Mesopotamian marshes, once stretched nearly 120 miles across, connecting the cities of Nasiriya and Basra. But today this ecosystem — protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a Ramsar wetland of international importance — is overshadowed and under threat by three adjacent oil concessions, the Guardian reports.
The Halfaya, Huwaiza, and Majnoon oil fields comprise hundreds of wells, and the extraction process is water-intensive. Six pumping stations along the Tigris River extract 60,000 cubic meters of water each day, “roughly the daily consumption of a mid-sized city.”
The water required for oil exploration is already in shorter supply due to man-made projects. Dams built upstream in Turkey and Kurdish territory have more than halved the typical water flow into southern Iraq since the 1970s. Those who depend on the Mesopotamian marshes for fishing, travel, and agriculture are now forced to contend with polluted canals, fish die-offs, and habitat degradation. “This economy is literally killing people,” Majid al-Saadi, director of the agriculture department in Maysan province, tells the Guardian.
Crude oil accounts for 69 percent of Iraq’s GDP and 95 percent of its total exports. Despite health, environmental, and water scarcity concerns, satellite imagery shows the oil fields are expanding. “Leaked photographs and videos, geolocated by the Guardian, now show excavators, pipelines, and workers digging directly into the heart of the protected zone – where the new Huwaiza oilfield is now under development.”
Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue
- As Flames Scorch Western Forests, Flagstaff Area Offers Roadmap for Post-Wildfire Flood Prevention — Floods and landslides are post-wildfire hazards spreading a slow disaster across the American West.
- Chicago’s “Quantum Prairie” Promises New Era of Great Lakes Technology and Water Use — Big technology development aims for zero water waste.
This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
1.35
Average number of feet the groundwater level dropped across the Arkansas Delta — which comprises the state’s eastern third and abuts the Mississippi River — between 2023 and 2024, according to a new report released last month by the state’s department of agriculture. According to the Wynne Progress, 71 percent of Arkansas’s water use comes from groundwater, and 80 percent of its demand is for crop irrigation. The state accounts for half of U.S. rice production.
16 billion
Estimated gallons of water currently filling Mendenhall Lake in Juneau, Alaska — the same volume it held before last year’s glacial outburst flood that damaged 290 homes in the state capital, filling some houses with between four and six feet of water, the Alaska Beacon reports. Forecasters have predicted this year’s flood, which has occurred annually since 2011, could break records. According to the New York Times, the Mendenhall River is expected to crest at 16.75 feet, and residents have been advised to evacuate the area.
On the Radar
The City Council in Tucson, Arizona, voted unanimously last week to reject a new data center, called Project Blue, that would have been built within city limits, the Arizona Luminaria reports. The $3.6 billion development, which has ties to Amazon, would have been one of Tuscon’s largest-ever projects. But as word spread, community members mounted an opposition and expressed concerns over the center’s potential impact on water availability and rates. “I feel a weight has totally lifted,” Maria Renée, an artist for the coalition No Desert Data Center, told the Luminaria. “I also feel a continued responsibility to show up and continue to advocate for policy that puts guard rails on large water users.”
In context: Data Centers a Small, But Growing Factor in Arizona’s Water Budget
Fresh: From the Great Lakes Region
Lake Alice Drawdown: Where a man-made lake once stretched across Minnesota’s William O’Brien State Park, “only a stream remains” following a weekend of heavy rain and an engineering failure, the New York Times reports. Normally nine-feet-deep and spanning 26 acres, the water levels of Lake Alice, a popular fishing destination, had risen so much during weekend downpours that it began to spill into the nearby St. Croix River. Fearing an increased risk of erosion along the river, officials followed a routine drawdown procedure on Lake Alice to lower water levels — but the valve failed and remained stuck open, disappearing the entire lake. Nearly all of the fish in the lake have died, and it will take at least a month for the lake to recover its usual size.
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.
- Blue-green algae is making a home in the warming waters of Lake Superior’s watershed — The Narwhal
- Michigan regulators to hear arguments on restricting factory farm pollution — Bridge Michigan
- Judge broadens temporary hold on nuclear waste disposal at Wayne County landfill — Michigan Public
- How Michigan’s Inland Fish Farmers Cultivate a Sustainable Future for the Great Lakes — Great Lakes Now
