Global Rundown
- Near Houston, an LLC’s request to withdraw nearly the entirety of a local aquifer’s water capacity has sparked outrage from residents and officials.
- A new law went into effect last week in the United Kingdom that bans water companies from paying bonuses to their executives.
- The damming of rivers upstream of the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest inland body of water, is contributing to its disappearance.
- As Texas grapples with high water demand, Gov. Greg Abbott has signed new bills that seek to boost the state’s water-related funding and allow treated fracking wastewater to be used for irrigation.
The Lead
As both population and industry continue to grow in Texas amid its uncertain climate future, a report from Rice University’s Center for Energy Studies estimates that the state will need to spend $154 billion over the next half-century to maintain reliable water infrastructure.
Gov. Greg Abbott took steps to secure part of this funding by signing a new legislative package that aims to invest in the state’s flood protection, water infrastructure, and conservation efforts, the Washington Post reports. A one-time investment of $2.5 billion has also been set aside in the Texas Water Fund, which was created two years ago to “spur investment in water infrastructure across the state.”
Voters will decide in November if the legislation reaches its full potential. The new law will put a referendum on the ballot seeking approval for Texas to spend “$1 billion per year for water-related projects over the next two decades, beginning in 2027.”
Water has been the talk of Texas this year. The Texas Tribune reported in a series of pieces earlier this spring that the state was on the cusp of running out of water: “By one estimate, the state’s municipal supply will not meet demand by 2030 if there’s a severe drought and no water solutions are implemented.”
Prolonged drought south of the border has impacted Mexico’s ability to participate in its 1944 water-sharing treaty with the United States. As part of the treaty, the United States allocates water from the Colorado River to Mexico, in exchange for water from the Rio Grande. Earlier this year, U.S. President Trump accused Mexico of “stealing the water from Texas Farmers [sic]” and forced the nation to complete a large water delivery to Texas’s Rio Grande Valley.
Gov. Abbott also signed a bill that allows treated fracking wastewater to be used for irrigation or discharged into streams, WFAA reports. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will be responsible for setting standards and issuing permits.
“Well, we need water,” Sid Miller, Texas agriculture commissioner, told WFAA. “We don’t really care what the source is as long as it’s good, clean water that we can grow crops with. Fracking water would be fine.”
In Context: Trump Forces Mexico to Share More Water Along the Rio Grande
Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue
- Trump Wants to Wreck Progress on Restoring Great Lakes — Proposed environmental budget cuts spell big trouble for region’s ecology and economy.
- Speaking of Water | Will Congress Defy Trump on Water Infrastructure Spending? — White House proposes deep spending cuts.
This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
98.9
Percent of a Houston-area aquifer’s available groundwater that Redtown Ranch Holdings — a Texas-based LLC — has requested to withdraw “with no clear explanation of how the water will be used,” Messenger News reports. The company seeks to drill 21 wells in Anderson and Houston counties that would extract more than 15 billion gallons of water. Angered community members have called the company’s permit request a “water grab,” and local officials have sent letters of opposition to the Neches and Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District, which is reviewing the permit. “Satisfying the permit request would mean the district is authorizing more withdrawal from the aquifer than what the aquifer could sustainably produce, according to the district’s own management plan and their own numbers,” Amber Stelly, general manager of Consolidated Water Supply of Houston County, told Messenger News.
$150 million
Amount of money in bonuses that water company executives in the United Kingdom have been paid within the last decade, all while the health of the country’s fresh waterways continued to worsen from unchecked pollution, BBC reports. But as of last Friday, these types of rewards are banned. The rule, which received Royal assent in February, is one of several new measures introduced to the U.K.’s Water Act. The ban is backdated to April 2024, which means a regulator “can force firms to claw back bonuses that have been paid or face enforcement action.” As the health of the country’s rivers and streams deteriorates, residents are becoming increasingly aware of and involved in environmental protection efforts. During last year’s general election, failure to address water quality concerns contributed to the Liberal Democrat party winning its highest-ever number of parliamentary seats.
On the Radar
The Caspian Sea is the world’s largest inland body of water, landlocked within five countries and holding 3.5 times the volume of all five Great Lakes combined. But since the 1990s, water levels have fallen by more than three meters while 10 percent of its surface area — some 30,000 square kilometers — has evaporated. Though the sea’s waters are brackish, its inflows are supplied by rivers, primarily the Volga, Ural, and Terek, which together supply nearly 90 percent of the Caspian’s freshwater recharge. But the construction of upstream dams, power stations, and reservoirs in recent decades has greatly reduced these flows, altered water quality, and pushed wild sturgeon — a culturally and economically important fish in Central Asia — to the brink of extinction. Coupled with warming temperatures, France24 reports, these developments have had the greatest effect on Kazakhstan’s residents, for whom the sea is disappearing the fastest.
49th State Focus: River Breakup Floods Dalton Highway
The Dalton Highway, the lone, 414-mile road leading north from Fairbanks to the shores of the Arctic Ocean and Prudhoe Bay oil fields, was flooded this week near the Sagavanirktok River, the Alaska Beacon reports. A cool spring followed by a warm start to the summer — punctuated by Alaska’s first-ever heat advisory, issued this week — sparked a rapid breakup of the Sagavanirktok and surrounding water bodies. Roughly 80 feet of road were destroyed, though officials said that the highway would reopen on Wednesday. “Climate change and permafrost thawing are making the North Slope’s ground increasingly unstable and are contributing to chaotic river breakups across the state,” the Alaska Beacon reports.
Fresh: From the Great Lakes Region
In Wisconsin, Lake Districts Grow: More than 250 lake districts — organized bodies of homeowners whose residences surround particular lakes — are currently active in Wisconsin, which is home to some 15,000 lakes. As summer arrives, many of these districts are complying with state laws to enact ordinances that protect water quality, set boating regulations, and restore habitat, Wisconsin Public Radio reports. Some districts are tackling the issue of invasive plants, while others are addressing aging dams, voting for either their removal or reconstruction.
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.
- Stateside Podcast: Why “pounds” of mayfly carcasses pile up each year — Michigan Public
- Why Ontario is experiencing more floods — and what we can do about it — The Narwhal
- Michigan triples ‘do not eat’ fish warnings as PFAS contamination concerns rise — Great Lakes Now
- Michigan cities fight effects of climate change — Bridge Michigan