Reservoirs in southern Spain’s Andalusia region, like Zahara-El Gastor Reservoir, are recovering from low levels seen here in October 2024. Photo Brett Walton/Circle of Blue

Global Rundown

  • More flooding has come to Spain’s Andalusia region after three straight weeks of heavy rain, just months after deadly floods in Valencia shook the nation. 
  • The recent approval of eight dams in Cambodia puts the country’s irrigation and energy needs at odds with forest conservation and Indigenous rights.
  • Six months after devastating flooding left much of Maiduguri underwater, the Nigerian city has rebuilt itself and is looking to the future — which includes a new multimillion-dollar dam project.
  • Abandoned mounds of toxic asbestos from former mines, including one in Newfoundland, Canada, may have a second life: removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The Lead

In Baie Verte, Newfoundland, a small town on the Canadian province’s north coast, a former asbestos mine has sat abandoned since the operation shuttered in 1995. Some 50 tons of mine tailings, holding a known carcinogen, sit there in piles, leaking into local air and waters. Studies have shown that these tailings are detrimental to aquatic health and biodiversity, and pose great risks to humans. It’s a problem “too big to address yet too dangerous to ignore,” Yale Environment 360 reports. 

A new pilot project seeks to put these residuals to good use. Asbestos’ lesser-known superpower is its ability to absorb carbon — and its potential is tantalizing. Tailings in the U.S. and Canada combined could remove 750 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, according to a 2022 report. In western Australia, specialized machines “churn” asbestos tailings, which increases the gas uptake speed by between 10 and 25 times. 

The effort is not without its critics. Concerns linger that churning asbestos, if done incorrectly, could actually increase the likelihood of their dispersal into waters, air, and human lungs. 

Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue

This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers

65.6 percent

The capacity of Spain’s reservoirs — now sitting above their 10-year average — after it rained in 19 of the last 20 days in the country’s Andalusia region, Reuters reports. Authorities have issued flood warnings for 19 rivers, though excess water has already ruined homes, shut down roads and train lines, and forced the closure of schools. At least one person has died in the heavy rains and their aftermath, and some 400 families have been evacuated from their residences. Local reservoirs in Málaga and Córdoba, which quickly reached their fill, have been opened, and the Guadalhorce River “reached its highest average level since record-keeping began,” El País reports. The country is particularly sensitive to flooding at this moment, with October’s deadly event in Valencia — during which 225 people were killed — fresh in the minds of many.

15

Percent of Maiduguri, Nigeria, that was underwater in September following heavy rainstorms and the collapse of a local dam, the Associated Press reports. Among the devastation — markets and merchandise being swept from small businesses, homes ruined, roads inaccessible — was the loss of nearly 80 percent of the animals at Sanda Kyarimi Zoo. But just six months later, the capital of Borno state is unrecognizable. Emergency funding from the United Nations and Nigerian government was significant, though residents also credit grass-roots efforts such as canoe- and meal-sharing for helping the community rebuild so quickly. The Nigerian government also plans to rebuild the dam to “support expanded irrigation channels to improve agriculture and water supply,” a $53 million project expected to finish in 2027.

On the Radar

The Cambodian government has approved three new irrigation dams to be built in the country’s Cardamom Mountains, an effort which adds further strain to two ongoing carbon credit conservation efforts, Southern Cardamom REDD+ and Samkos REDD+. To make way for the dams’ construction, Mongabay reports that 12,850 acres of forest will be lost — a significant addition to the 37,000 acres of trees that have already been cut down to make way for five other hydropower dams and reservoirs. The Cambodian government has denied allegations of illegal logging operations near these sites, despite evidence suggesting further environmental and human loss where these energy projects are occurring.

Fresh: From the Great Lakes Region

Lamprey Unit Among DOGE Cuts: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s sea lamprey control unit — a 12-person team dedicated to controlling the population of the invasive parasitic fish, which single-handedly decimated the Great Lakes commercial fishing industry in the mid-20th century — was among Elon Musk’s “first DOGE casualties,” the Guardian reports. The move has stoked fears among environmentalists and fishers, who are citing the recent history of ecological and economic loss as they express concerns for the 75,000 jobs that support the region’s multi-billion dollar fishing industry, should lamprey populations explode again.

Hocking Valley Coalfield: Between 1800 and 1948, two billion tons of coal were extracted from the Ohio coalfield, one of the world’s most productive mines. Decades later, the land is still recovering — the local Sunday Creek watershed, which connects to the Hocking River, is “one of the most polluted waterways in the state,” Ideastream Public Radio reports. A local nonprofit, Rising Appalachia, received a $1.7 million state grant to help cultivate and conserve a community forest while cleaning these waterways, suffering “heavily from acid mine drainage.”

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.

  • A pulp mill shutters, a creek comes back to life — The Narwhal
  • Michigan’s newest PFAS threat: Contamination from household septic systems — Bridge Michigan
  • How farmer-led research could revolutionize the relationship between agriculture and researchers — Great Lakes Now
  • Federal appeals court hears ongoing Line 5 case over pipeline in Straits of Mackinac — 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.