Global Rundown
- A new report on the future of AI and water stewardship reveals that more Americans are aware of the technology’s energy needs than its water use.
- Texas voters approve a new amendment that will allocate up to $1 billion of sales tax revenue each fiscal year to water infrastructure projects.
- In northern British Columbia, a small town affected by historic drought weighs building a new water-supply pipeline — and fracking interests are flocking to strike a deal.
- Peru’s second-largest body of fresh water, the Junín Lake basin, suffers from sweeping heavy metal contamination, likely caused by mining, according to a new study.
The Lead
A record drought in the northern British Columbia town of Dawson Creek, population 12,500, has forced officials to plan the construction of a 30-mile pipeline to source drinking water, The Tyee reports — and the burden is falling on taxpayers. The pipeline is expected to cost $100 million Canadian ($70 million).
The Kiskatinaw River, which supplies all the town’s water, has fallen to record lows. In an emergency decision, city planners are aiming to connect to the nearby Peace River to recharge municipal supplies.
The project they propose is massive in more ways than one. With a diameter of 36 inches, the pipeline would transport 2.6 billion gallons of water each year to Dawson Creek, about three times more than what the town currently uses. The excess two-thirds of water is likely to be sold to fracking operators, a decision that has residents — who are currently slated to pay the full cost of the pipeline in taxes — up in arms, calling for companies to foot the bill.
According to The Tyee, “oil and gas companies are currently guzzling more water in northern B.C. and Alberta than at any point in history.”
Dawson Creek city officials are seeking an exemption from the provincial government to fast-track the project, cutting its approval process from five years down to two, according to CBC. The town’s reserve supply of water is currently enough to sustain its residents for approximately 180 days.
Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue
- Traces of Old Farm Chemicals Contaminate Water Across the U.S. — No surprise: The Trump administration doesn’t want Americans to know they’re there.
- What It Means For Water and Resources When Trump Budget Cuts Hit Home — U.S.D.A. halts $20 million in Northern Michigan conservation projects.
This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
48
Percent of Americans who believe that water used to power artificial intelligence is leading to water scarcity for people, according to a recent EcoLab report assessing both the risks and opportunities AI creates for water stewardship. Across all six global regions surveyed, public recognition of AI’s energy consumption outnumbered that of the technology’s water needs. Meanwhile, 69 percent of American respondents believed that “restoring water to its source at the same or better quality” should be a business’s top water management priority.
The EcoLab report also addressed water needs in the context of a changing climate: 65 percent of Americans agreed that climate change was leading to increased water stress, and viewed government and business as equally responsible for lessening these effects.
71
Percent of votes cast in Texas this week in favor of Proposition 4, which will authorize the state legislature to allocate up to $1 billion of sales tax revenue annually to the Texas Water Fund, used to finance water infrastructure across the state. As the Texas Tribune reported in March, the state is barreling toward a water crisis fueled by development, population growth, and drought. The state’s two largest groundwater sources, the Ogallala and Gulf Coast aquifers, are the most prone to depletion. According to a 2022 Texas Living Waters report, the state’s water systems lose 572,000 acre-feet of water every year — “enough water to meet the total annual municipal needs of the cities of Austin, Fort Worth, El Paso, Laredo, and Lubbock combined.” The Proposition 4 amendment will take effect on September 1, 2027.
On the Radar
The Junín Lake basin, one of the most important freshwater ecosystems in Peru’s highlands and the second-largest in the entire country, is suffering from extensive heavy metal contamination caused by nearby mining operations, according to a new study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.
Approximately 99 percent of the basin’s waters — which are relied upon by 1.3 million people in downstream, rural and urban communities — have “very high to ultra-high” levels of arsenic, lead, and cadmium.
Acting as a sink for metalloids, the lake also serves as the headwaters for the Mantaro River, which is widely used for irrigation in lower-elevation valleys. High levels of pharmaceuticals have also been found in this waterway.
“The combined carcinogenic risk is unacceptable,” Samuel Pizarro, one of the study’s authors, told SciDev.Net. “The amount of chromium found is also significant and poses a serious threat to human health.”
Wetland Watch
Global Freshwater Losses: In the first edition of a new Global Water Monitoring Report released this week by the World Bank, figures show that the world is losing 324 billion cubic meters of water per year, “enough to meet the needs of 280 million people annually,” according to a World Bank press release.
“These losses are driven by worsening droughts and unsustainable land and water practices, including poor pricing policies, weak coordination, deforestation, wetland degradation, and excessive irrigation,” the release reads.
