Global Rundown
- Swarms of mayflies have overtaken Budapest, Hungary, following heat waves and low water levels on the Danube River.
- In Monterey County, California, a grant to fund drinking water improvements for a carcinogen-contaminated aquifer has been rescinded by the EPA.
- The construction of a Meta data center in Newton County, Georgia, has been linked to household water shortages, pollution, and rising water rates.
- Wildlife officials have identified new colonies of invasive zebra mussels in northern stretches of the Colorado River.
The Lead
In Budapest, unusually warm summer temperatures and low water levels on the Danube River, Europe’s second longest waterway, have sparked massive swarms of mayflies through Hungary’s capital, Reuters reports.
Low river levels allow for increased algae growth, which is food for mayfly larvae. Drawn to city lights, millions of these insects swarm to mate along the riverbed. According to Reuters, “mayflies live for less than a day after they hatch, and their abundance is closely connected to the health of the Danube.”
Their overwhelming presence in the city is expected to last for several weeks, though such abundance is a relatively new phenomenon. Until 2012, mayflies hadn’t been observed on the river for roughly 40 years due to pollution. The construction of wastewater treatment plants, along with the naming of mayflies as a protected species, has helped them rebound. A single specimen, Reuters reports, is worth about $30.
Elsewhere on the Danube, which stretches nearly 2,000 miles through 10 countries, low water levels have disrupted shipping and agricultural production. Heat waves and similarly dry conditions have hampered industry on the Rhine River this spring and summer.
Last September, ongoing drought exposed the wreckage of World War Two-era Nazi ships from the Danube in Serbia.
Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue
- After Wildfire, Unstable Earth Pummels Irrigation Systems in American West — The travails of an irrigation district in Washington state illustrate agriculture’s wildfire risk.
- Damming the River by Feeling the Stones: China’s Mekong Hydropower Strategy — Originally published by New Security Beat
This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
$20 million
Dollars that the White House earmarked in December for Monterey County, California — a farming hub located some 50 miles south of San Jose — to improve the water quality of an aquifer long-contaminated with carcinogenic pesticides, the Guardian reports. But as of this week those funds, slated to be distributed via a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, have been labeled a “wasteful DEI program” and cancelled. Along with state funding, the grant would have helped connect polluted wells with municipal lines, delivering clean water to the roughly 1,000 residents who for 30 years have been forced to buy bottled water and endure the health harms of agricultural contaminants in local soils and groundwater.
33
Percent by which the water rates in Newton County, Georgia, are expected to rise over the next two years — compared to the average 2 percent annual increase — as concerns over water shortages mount, the New York Times reports. A water deficit is projected by 2030 if the county’s water authority’s facilities are not upgraded, which may force residents to ration the resource. Meanwhile, the effects of a nearby Meta data center, which broke ground in the county in 2018, are still reverberating. Residents say their water lines have become polluted with sediment and fail to work altogether. Many households have been forced to buy bottled water, as the cost of water line replacements and well upgrades total thousands of dollars.
In Context: Are Data Centers a Threat to the Great Lakes?
On the Radar
Earlier this month, Colorado wildlife officials announced they had discovered several new colonies of invasive zebra mussels on the Colorado River. With these additional detections, “the river is now considered ‘positive’ for the species from the confluence of the Roaring Fork River north of Aspen to the Colorado-Utah border,” Colorado Public Radio reports. The spread of these non-native mussels — which, by filtering phytoplankton from water, reduce the food supply of native fish — is known to wreak havoc on local ecosystems, increasing the likelihood of blue-green algae blooms and clogging water distribution systems. For now, the areas which draw water from the infested stretch are limited to “Colorado’s western slope like Grand Junction, Fruita, Palisade and part of the Grand Valley Domestic Water Users Association.” But because the mussels are hard to contain, experts have shared concerns that they may eventually spread to other parts of the river, on which 40 million people depend for a portion of their drinking water.
Fresh: From the Great Lakes Region
Black River Canal: The city of Port Huron, Michigan, has requested $6.5 million from the state of Michigan to restore the city’s Black River Canal, which was damaged by a flood in January 2024 and has remained closed ever since, the Port Huron Times Herald reports. Connecting the river to Lake Huron, the canal is part of the Island Loop National Water Trail and cited as a critical waterway for “both public safety and the local economy.”
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.
- ‘You want my consent? You improve my people’s health,’ First Nations chief near oilsands tells Carney — The Narwhal
- Environmental groups use anniversary of Kalamazoo River oil spill to warn about Enbridge Line 5 — Michigan Public
- Ohio regulators clamp down on data center power costs amid soaring demand — Great Lakes Now
- Michigan home energy efficiency standards stalled amid homebuilders lawsuit — Bridge Michigan