A combine harvests withered wheat on a former rice paddy near Deniliquin, New South Wales, Australia, an area gripped by drought. Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue
A combine harvests withered wheat on a former rice paddy near Deniliquin, New South Wales, Australia, an area gripped by drought. Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue

Global Rundown

  • The U.S. EPA has proposed repealing a landmark rule that sets limits on four types of PFAS compounds in drinking water.
  • Australia is projecting its wheat exports this year will be 10 million tons lighter than usual amid rising fertilizer costs and a strong forecasted El Niño.
  • The United Nations is warning of a global sand deficit caused by over-dredging, threatening water quality, infrastructure, and biodiversity. 
  • Pollution in Colombia’s Magdalena River is contributing to the rapid spread of an invasive plant that is restricting wetland communities’ access to fresh water. 

Policy Brief

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week proposed repealing limits on four types of PFAS “forever chemical” compounds — GenX, PFHxS, PFNA, and PFBS — that are known to be harmful to human health. The agency also extended the deadline by which water utilities can decide to opt in to comply with contamination limits for two other compounds, PFOS and PFOA, by two years. 

The announcement represents a complete turnaround from the agency’s landmark Biden administration-era rule issued in 2024, in which it established maximum allowable concentrations for these compounds in public water systems. That standard was estimated to reduce PFAS exposure for roughly 100 million people.

“The administration is abandoning science-based protections at the exact moment its own tests prove we need them most,” Melanie Benesh, vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit, says in a statement. “This is a deliberate decision to expose American families to chemicals linked to cancer and other serious health harms…The communities least able to protect themselves will pay the highest price. That is not regulatory reform. It is an environmental injustice.”

Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue

On the Radar

Image courtesy of NOAA

Farmers in Australia, the third-largest wheat exporter in the world, are expecting to produce between 10 million and 15 million fewer tons of the grain this year than is usually planned, Reuters reports. The anticipated losses amount to at least 5 percent of the world’s total wheat exports — equivalent to a field of grain the size of Belgium, according to the outlet. 

Two factors are at play. Australia imports roughly half of its fertilizer from the Middle East, an import pipeline that has become significantly more expensive since the war in Iran began. Because the country is the first major wheat producer to enter its growing season, experts warn that other major wheat producers — including Canada, Ukraine, and the United States — will experience similar declines. 

Growers are also bracing for possible drought caused by a strong El Niño phenomenon — a climate pattern that often corresponds with dry conditions in Australia and is signaled by atmospheric heat anomalies over the Pacific Ocean — and which NOAA researchers predict with an 82 percent likelihood will emerge in either May or June. 

This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers

50 billion metric tons

The amount of sand that is being used per year for construction and urbanization, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). This staggering amount — equivalent to 19,000 Great Pyramids of Giza, Mongabay calculates — is the result of over-dredging in both fresh- and saltwater bodies at a faster rate than the material is replaced. Experts warn that this so-called  “sand gap” is threatening biodiversity, water quality, and water accessibility, among other rights. 

“As part of a dynamic Earth system flow, sand forms landscapes and provides the very morphological stability on which the fundamental functioning of societies and economies rests,” the report reads. “These values extend to food and water security, climate resilience, disaster risk reduction, and territorial integrity, as sediment dynamics influence river courses, coastlines, and therefore borders and land availability.”

Wetland Watch

In just one year’s time, an invasive water plant has spread rapidly across Colombia’s Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta wetlands, a UNESCO biosphere spanning 1,600 square miles of lagoons, marshes, and mangroves. The plant has wrought havoc on fisheries and is limiting local residents’ abilities to travel and collect clean water, the Associated Press reports. 

The wetlands are home to two palafitte communities, Nueva Venecia and Buenavista, where stilt houses stand above a fluctuating water line. Circle of Blue wrote last year that the construction of a highway altered the ecosystem’s natural flow of water, which is sourced primarily by the Magdalena River, Colombia’s largest waterway. Local protests resulted in a court ruling that another nearby river, the Aracataca, had to be unblocked so that residents could access its water. 

The poor health of the Magdalena is again the cause of the wetlands’ newest issue. Untreated wastewater flowing through the river contains high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen — nutrients the invasive plant, Hydrilla verticillata or horsetail, feeds on. The plant was likely introduced from Asia on a trade ship, and possibly disseminated via smaller vessels. 

Residents, threatened with possible displacement as their access to freshwater continues to shrink, are continuing to protest what they are describing as a slow and inadequate response from the government. 

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.