Water News for January 2026

The Big News in Water Is that The Real News Isn’t Being Reported

The big news in water is that the EPA is no longer prioritizing public heath, as it was created to do, but is quickly being converted to serve the interests of big business.  The Natural Resources Defense Council has identified 66 environmental rollbacks in the first year of the second Trump presidency. Most of the news has been about program cancellation.

After a tumultuous year under the Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has adopted a new, almost unrecognizable guise – one that tears up environmental rules and cheerleads for coal, gas-guzzling cars and artificial intelligence.

When Donald Trump took power, it was widely anticipated the EPA would loosen pollution rules from sources such as cars, trucks and power plants, as part of a longstanding back and forth between administrations over how strict such standards should be. 

But in recent weeks, critics say the EPA has gone far further by in effect seeking to jettison its raison d’etre, forged since its foundation in 1970, as an environmental regulator. The EPA is poised to remove its own ability to act on the climate crisis and has, separately, unveiled a new monetary worth assigned to human lives when setting air pollution regulations. The current new value? Zero.

“The EPA was designed to protect public health and the environment and did a remarkably effective job of that,” said William Reilly, who was EPA administrator under a previous Republican president, George HW Bush.

“That record is now at risk and we will see the degradation of air quality in major cities. The administration seems to conceive the purpose of the agency as solely promoting business, which has never been the agency’s mission. That’s revolutionary – it’s not been seen before.”

A vivid illustration of this, Reilly said, was when the EPA asked businesses last year to simply email a request to be exempt from air pollution rules. “The notion you could be excused from a black letter law just by asking for it was startling to me,” he said. “I thought it was a spoof. But it did happen.”

After returning to the White House, Trump vowed to “unleash” oil and gas drilling and the burgeoning AI industry by sweeping away environmental regulations that the president says only serve a “globalist climate agenda” and a “scam” clean energy sector.

The EPA under its current administrator, Lee Zeldin, has zealously followed this lead – initiating 66 environmental rollbacks in the first year, according to a tally compiled by green group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

This list includes paring back limits on pollutants such as mercury and soot coming from cars and power plants, cancelling grants for renewables and aid for communities blighted by toxins, squashing clean water protections and deleting mentions of the climate crisis from the EPA website. For the full account:  The Guardian. 

Scientists warn of alarming growth of huge mats of seaweed in the oceans

Scientists have warned of a potential “regime shift” in the oceans, as the rapid growth of huge mats of seaweed appears to be driven by global heating and excessive enrichment of waters from farming runoff and other pollutants.

Over the past two decades, seaweed blooms have expanded by a staggering 13.4% a year in the tropical Atlantic and western Pacific, with the most dramatic increases occurring after 2008, according to researchers at the University of South Florida.

A harmful algae bloom in Lake Erie

Scientists warn of an ecosystem out of balance because of lethal algae blooms that could darken the waters below, changing their ecology and geochemistry, and also accelerate climate breakdown. The Guardian 

A single bluefin tuna was sold for $3.2 million

A Pacific bluefin tuna the size and weight of a grizzly bear sold for a whopping $3.2 million at auction last week inside a popular Japanese fish market.  Smithsonian.

With Rainfall Far Below Average, Water Scarcity in Northwestern Turkey has Reached a Critical Point

Water scarcity in northwestern Turkey has reached a critical point after the Kadıköy Dam, a key drinking water source for the town of Keşan, effectively ran dry, according to Daily Sabah.  Authorities suspended all water withdrawals after reservoir levels dropped below what is known as “dead storage,” and intensifying droughts linked to rising temperatures are pushing vital water systems to the brink. The Kadıköy Dam supplies drinking water to Keşan. The reservoir, designed to hold 56 million cubic meters of water, has dropped to below 1% capacity. Prolonged drought, extreme summer heat and increased evaporation have driven the decline. According to the Turkish government, rainfall was 26% below the long-term average last year.  Yahoo News. 

“The World Is Entering a Situation of Water Bankruptcy. Water May Soon Be More Valuable than Gold”

What is water bankruptcy?

We are using up water sources faster than they can be replenished, essentially putting us in water debt. In “many basins and aquifers, long-term water use has exceeded renewable inflows and safe depletion limits,” said a report by the United Nations. Other water sources, including rivers, lakes, wetlands, soils and glaciers, have been “damaged beyond realistic prospects of full recovery.”

Like financial bankruptcy, water bankruptcy happens gradually. We “pull a little more groundwater during dry years. We use bigger pumps and deeper wells. We transfer water from one basin to another. We drain wetlands and straighten rivers to make space for farms and cities,” said Kaveh Madani, the director of the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health and author of the report.  After that, the costs begin to pile up. “Lakes shrink year after year. Wells need to go deeper. Rivers that once flowed year-round turn seasonal. Salty water creeps into aquifers near the coast. The ground itself starts to sink.” The Week.

Forest Service Research Underlines the Importance of Forests for Drinking Water Quality

Across the United States, forests play a major role in protecting our drinking water supply. A U.S. Forest Service analysis found that 89% of public surface drinking water supplies receive at least some surface water from forested lands.

That means forests help filter the drinking water of roughly 150 million Americans. Some western cities, like Portland, Oregon, receive up to 90% of their drinking water from nearby national forests.

In other words, preserving forests helps keep our water clean and reliable. Environment America

Proprietary Water Filters vs. Standard Models

The most “standard” size in point of use drinking water filters uses 2.5″ x 9.75″ replaceable filter cartridges. Over the years the 2.5″ X 9.75″ cartridge (we call it Size 1) has dominated the industry.  Virtually all cartridge makers offer cartridges in this size. Wide use encourages a competitive market, hence lower prices, and a big variety of products to choose from.

Not all filters are made in standard size, however. Some manufacturers create unique filter styles that can have advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is convenience in the form of easy-to-replace filter elements in which the housing itself is discarded. This means easier replacement but greater cost and limited choice in replacements.

A major disadvantage of buying a water filter with proprietary replacement parts is that you are dependent upon the manufacturer to stay in business and continue to supply replacement elements. Most basic drinking water filters are durable products that will last for years, but if the product disappears from the market after a couple of years your only option is to discard the unit and replace it. This happens often. In fact, it is a sales strategy of some makers who regularly discard proprietary filtration units to force replacement with “improved” (slightly different) units.

Below, for comparison, are examples of proprietary and standard filtration units. Both models shown are “simple” undersink filters–filters that treat all the cold water at the sink and dispense the filtered water through the cold-water side of the regular sink faucet. Simple undersink units are easy to install because no extra faucet for drinking water is needed. The principles in this article also apply to regular undersink filters that need their own faucet and to undersink reverse osmosis units.

The unit pictured above is a respected proprietary unit which features regular city water treatment including fluoride removal. Although the manufacturer does not give specifics about the standard 3-filter replacement package, the expectation would be that one is a sediment cartridge, one a carbon block cartridge, and one a fluoride removal cartridge. The unit features easy-to-change disposable cartridges. Go here for more information and purchase details.

Pictured above is a Pure Water Products Standard Simple Undersink Filter. It is offered with many standard 2.5″ x 10″cartridges to select from, including several carbon block filters, several sediment cartridges, carbon block cartridges with lead removal and cyst removal built in, both coconut shell and standard carbons, fluoride and nitrate removal–in other words, a lot of treatment styles to choose from so that the final product can be tailored to the customer’s local water.

Comparative Chart

Water news for December 2025

Trump Threatens Tariff to Force Water from Drought-stricken Mexico

President Donald Trump demanded that Mexico provide more water to the United States and threatened to raise tariffs by 5% on imports if the country doesn’t open the spigot before the end of the year.

Under a 1944 treaty, Mexico must send 1.75 million acre-feet of water to the United States from the Rio Grande River through a network of interconnected dams and reservoirs every five years. Water is measured in increments needed to cover an acre of land 1 foot deep.

Trump raised the prospect of tariffs in April on social media in response to a shortfall and the State Department announced Mexico committed to providing more water. USA Today. 

Drying Lake Is a Serious and Expensive Hazard

The drying Great Salt Lake is generating serious and expensive-to-address health issues to Utah residents. Grist

Plastic Pollution to Double

A new report shows that by 2040 plastic pollution will double in the absence of efforts taken to combat it. New Lede

More than 1000 dead from flooding

Sri Lanka and Indonesia have deployed their militaries to help victims of floods that have killed more than 1,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia in recent days.

Millions have been affected by a combination of tropical cyclones and heavy monsoon rains, with ensuing flooding killing at least 502 in Indonesia, 355 in Sri Lanka, and 170 in Thailand. Three deaths have been reported in Malaysia.

The losses and damage are the worst in Sri Lanka since the 2004 tsunami that killed about 31,000 people and left more than a million homeless, while for Indonesia, it is the deadliest event since a 2018 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that killed more than 2,000 people in Sulawesi. The Guardian 

EPA Dismisses New Atrazine Warnings

US regulators are dismissing new research by international cancer experts that warns of links between cancer and the widely used pesticide atrazine, deriding the team of cancer scientists and echoing atrazine maker Syngenta in its criticism.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sees no need to act quickly on the new assessment issued last month by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), according to an EPA spokesperson. New Lede. 

Sardine Shortage Leads to Massive Starvation of Penguins

More than 60,000 penguins in colonies off the coast of South Africa have starved to death as a result of disappearing sardines, a new paper has found.

More than 95% of the African penguins in two of the most important breeding colonies, on Dassen Island and Robben Island, died between 2004 and 2012. The breeding penguins probably starved to death during the moulting period, according to the paper, which said the climate crisis and overfishing were driving declines. The Guardian 

Death Toll Devastating for Floods in Indonesia

The death toll in Indonesia from recent flooding has passed 900, with hundreds still missing.

More than 100,000 homes were destroyed when a rare and powerful cyclone formed over the Malaca Strait last week, bringing torrential rain and landslides to parts of the South East Asian country. BBC 

PFAS in Drinking Water Puts Babies at Risk

A study has shown that PFAS in drinking water of pregnant women puts their babies at risk. The Conversation 

Programming Fleck 5600 and 2510 SXT Water Softener Controls

Fleck 5600 SXT Metered Softener Control Valve Setup Your softener is controlled by a metered electronic control valve. Metered means that it counts gallons of water used rather than time to make its regeneration decisions.

To enter master programming: Use the up and down buttons to set the time of day to 12:01 PM. Must be PM. Then press the “Extra Cycle” button–the button on the left–to save the time.

With the time set to 12:01 PM, press the Up and Down buttons simultaneously and hold for 5 seconds (until the display changes). You are now in Master Programming Mode. The display should show GAL.

Use the Extra Cycle button to advance through the various programming stages. Pressing the button saves the setting on the screen and advances to the next item.

Below are the main items to be programmed. They may not follow this order exactly.

Display Explanation Set your unit to DF Display Format GAL (for gallons)

VT Valve Type dF -1b (downflow, single backwash)

CT Control Type Fd (meter delayed)

NT Number of tanks 1 C

Capacity Capacity of Unit in Grains Per Gallon.

H Hardness Your water’s hardness, in grains per gallon.

RS Reserve Capacity Selection Choose rc RC

Reserve Capacity Multiply the number of people who live in the home by 75 and enter here.

DO Day Override This feature allows you to set a limit on the days that the softener can go without regeneration. Recommeded: 15.

RT Regeneration Time Set to the time you want the unit to regenerate. For example, 2:00 AM.

BW Backwash Duration of the backwash. 10 mintes recommended.

BD Brine Draw Softener draws brine from the salt tank. Recommended: 60.

RR Rapid Rinse Duration of the rinse cycle. Recommended: 10.

BF Brine Fill The softener puts water in the brine tank to make brine for the next regeneration. This determines how much salt the softener will use. For full salt, enter 10 minutes for each cubic foot of resin in the softener.

FM Flow Meter Type t0.7 Leave at default.

When programming is finished, the softener display will alternate between the actual time of day and the number of gallons until the next regeneration. To initiate a manual regeneration for the regularly scheduled time of the current day, press and release the extra cycle button. To initiate an immediate regeneration, press the extra cycle button and hold for 5 seconds, or until the screen changes. The regeneration will start in backwash (BW) and count down the minutes left in the cycle. It will progress through the cycles in this order: Brine Draw, Rapid Rinse, Brine Refill —then return automatically to service position. The full regeneration cycle takes approximately 90 minutes

Setup Instructions for Fleck SXT Filter Controls.

These instructions apply to all SXT-controlled filters, but not softeners. AIO (Air Induction, Single Tank Aeration) Filters are not included.

To enter master programming:

Use the up and down buttons to set the time of day to 12:01 PM. Must be PM. Then press the “Extra Cycle” button–the button on the left–to save the time.

With the time set to 12:01 PM, press the Up and Down buttons simultaneously and hold for 5 seconds (until the display changes). You are now in Master Programming Mode. The display should show GAL.

Use the Extra Cycle button to advance through the various programming stages. Pressing the button saves the setting on the screen and advances to the next item.

When selections are complete, the display will return to service mode.

The display will alternate between the time of day and the number you put in the Day Override setting. Reset the time to the actual time of day. The Day Override number will count downward one number per day until the day of the regeneration is reached, then it will reset itself.

When the filter is in service you can begin a regeneration at any time by pushing and holding the Extra Cycle Button for 5 seconds.

Theory of Global Warming Formulated in Oklahoma by Gene the Bean

by Gene Franks

Sometime around 1948, when I was almost ten years old and was still known to friends and family as Gene the Bean, I put forth the theory of Global Warming.

My family home in Okemah, OK was only two lots off of the three-service-station intersection of red brick North 4th St. and the very busy black-topped Highway 62–the highway that carried all the traffic between Oklahoma City and Ft. Smith.

When I sat on the south porch of the house in summer, it was hot.

My grandfather lived nine miles north on a seldom-traveled gravel country road that ran the mile that separated Last Chance and Morse (combined population of about 75). On hot summer days when I visited my grandfather and sat on his south-facing porch, it was cool and breezy.

It did not take my nine-year-old brain long to figure out that when you’re in a place where the breeze blows through pastures, thickets  and big shady trees, a place where  there are no cars and trucks in sight, it’s a lot cooler than when you’re in a place where the breeze is blocked by houses and greasy service stations and the sun’s heat is being soaked up by red bricks and black pavement and there is a steady stream of cars and trucks with heat-belching exhaust pipes. That’s when I made my prediction that as more and more cars and trucks come on the scene, and we cut down more and more trees and thickets, and we pave more and more of the land, the warmer the world is going to get.

I formed that theory without computer models or sophisticated analytical equipment, proving that “you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” It was my theory, and I’m sticking with it.

WOTUS Explained

by Gene Franks

When my grandfather built a house on his farm in Oklahoma just before the Great Depression he decided to leave behind the outdoor toilet and washtubs of his family’s previous home and go with modern indoor plumbing. Indoor plumbing was not yet common in farmhouses at the time.

The new house was in the middle of a 160-acre farm and there were no nearby neighbors, so he saw no problem in simply letting the raw sewage and grey water from the home discharge from a pipe into an empty field that sloped down to a small creek. Except on the days when the wind came from the wrong direction, it was easy to forget that raw sewage was collecting just a few feet down the slope. Conveniently, rain washed everything down the hill and eventually into the creek.

My grandfather built his new house about 50 years before the 1972 Clean Water Act when the concept of WOTUS, which stands for “Waters of the United States,” came into being. He followed the prevailing logic that since the land was his, it was no one else’s business where he discharged his sewer water. In 1972 the initial understanding of what the “Waters of the United States” consists of applied mainly to navigable water so my grandfather’s pasture and the tiny creek his sewage eventually washed into were not a great concern.

In 2025, defining WOTUS has become a complicated on-going political dilemma. The scope of WOTUS changes depending on which party is running the EPA. In broad terms, those who value private property ownership over public wellbeing and water quality, most often Republicans, take the view that my grandfather was within his rights to dump his sewage and his leftover farm chemicals and the used crankcase oil from his tractor on the side of his hill and let the rain wash it into “his” little creek. The other side, the radical lefties, take the view that the “Waters of the United States” concept includes the water on a farm in Oklahoma regardless of who owns the land, that all water is part of the Waters of the United States, just as McElligott’s little pool is part of an underground stream which is part of a river which is part of the oceans.

Under President Obama, WOTUS was broadened and more restriction was placed on what could be done on private land and by private businesses. Greater restrictions were placed on private activities that had an effect on the public water supply. The current administration is now working to redefine WOTUS and thus loosen restrictions on private individuals and businesses. Most recently, the new EPA administrator is seeking to remove wetlands, an essential component of nature’s water management system, from control under WOTUS.

Redefining WOTUS according to the way the political winds blow is now expected.  Today’s rural homebuilders have accepted that they have to have an approved septic system for disposal of sewage. That’s progress. The battle today has shifted to do land developers have to be burdened by bothersome WOTUS rules about draining wetlands to build apartments.

Water News for November 2025

By Riley Kleemeier

The Basics for Backwashing Water Filters for Residential Applications

A backwashing filter is a water filter that cleans itself periodically by rinsing away impurities it has filtered from water. An equally important purpose of the backwash is to resettle the filter’s media bed.

Although a backwashing filter may look like a water softener and be the same size, it’s a different animal. Softeners are “ion exchangers,” not filters.

A backwashing filter is a simple device that consists of a large tank called a “mineral tank” that is filled with a filtering substance called a filter medium. (The plural is media.) Water enters the top of the tank through a special control valve and passes downward through the medium, which removes impurities and holds them. Some media do not hold impurities, but cause a change to occur. Calcite, for example, dissolves and in the process increases the pH of acidic water. The treated water then enters a tube at the bottom of the mineral tank, passes upward through the tube (called a riser), and exits the filter via the control valve.

When the filter medium is saturated with contaminants, the control valve initiates a backwash. The backwash is an operation in which water passes backward through the filter at a rapid rate. It enters the tank at the bottom via the riser tube, then passes upward through the filter medium, exiting at the top, via the control valve. The rapid upward flow, in addition to washing away stored impurities, fluffs and resettles the media bed, preparing it for another filtering cycle.

Media

Filter media are selected according to purpose. Some of the most common are Katalox (iron removal), Zeolite (sediment removal), Calcite (increase pH of acidic water),  and KDF55 (chlorine and lead removal), KDF85 (iron and hydrogen sulfide reduction). Older favorites that are still around but not as widely used as before are Manganese Greensand (iron and sulfide removal), Birm (iron removal), and Filter Ag (sediment reduction).

Some media have numerous applications, like the very useful and widely used GAC, or Granular Activated Carbon, which is used to remove chlorine, the by-products of chlorination, pesticides, herbicides, and chemicals in general. GAC, following proper pretreatment, also removes iron and hydrogen sulfide. It comes in various formulations made from a variety of materials (bituminous coal, coconut shells, wood, etc.), each with its own special properties. Catalytic carbon, a specially processed version of GAC, is aimed at special problems like chloramines in city tap water and iron and hydrogen sulfide in well water. GAC is proving to be an effective treatment for new contaminants like PFAS as well.

The Pure Water Products website includes a useful Filter Media Guide and a second guide that gives flow and backwash features of the various media.

City Water Problems

• Chlorine/Chloramines and Taste/Odor

  The standard medium for removal of chlorine, both free and combined, and for the enhancement of taste and odor in city tap water is granular activated carbon (GAC).  Catalytic carbon, sold under such brand names as Centaur® and Aquasorb,, is a specially processed carbon designed for effective removal of chloramine. KDF55, an excellent long-term remover of free chlorine, is not effective against chloramine or combined chlorine. It is often mixed in small quantities with GAC to enhance its performance.

• Fluoride Reduction

  Unfortunately, there isn’t a practical way to get significant, dependable fluoride reduction with a residential backwashing filter. Activated Alumina, the most commonly used medium for fluoride removal, requires very low flow rates and must be used in large quantities. These problems make it impractical for use in standard “whole house” filters.Although reduction of fluoride by standard GAC is not claimed by manufacturers, the reality is that carbon often reduces fluoride. Although fluoride reduction by carbon filtration may depend on many variables (pH, mineral content of the water, etc.) that make performance uncertain, a good carbon filter is probably your best bet for fluoride reduction in city water. We can’t promise it, but it often works. A specialty carbon called “bone char” (made from animal bones) is often sold as a fluoride treatment. We have not seen evidence that it removes fluoride better than standard GAC.

• Chemical Reduction

  For general chemical reduction — removal of pesticides, herbicides, etc.— carbon (GAC) is the standard. Filter carbon is made from a variety of substances, the most common being bituminous coal. Carbon made from coconut shells is generally regarded as the medium of choice for the removal of chlorinated solvents or Volatile Organics. Catalytic carbon is superior for treatment of chloramine. Catalytic carbon is made from either bituminous coal or coconut shells.

• Hard Water

  “Hardness” is an overabundance of calcium and magnesium. It is removed by a water softener, which is an ion exchanger, not a filter. Go here to see water softeners.

Well Water Problems

• Iron Removal

  You should not simply purchase a filter with “iron removal” media and expect it to solve your iron problems. Although a simple Katalox filter is sometimes all that’s needed, iron removal often requires pretreatment by chlorination or aeration or some other oxidization strategy. In many cases, a common water softener is a great iron removal tool. A free-standing Katalox filter will usually work quite well to remove a reasonably small amount of iron if your water has a pH of 7.0 or higher and there is sufficient dissolved oxygen in the water to be treated. If pH is low, an ordinary water softener may be your best choice for removal of small amounts of iron.

• pH Increase

  Backwashing filters with calcite can increase the pH of acidic water to neutral. They can also remove sediment and, if the water is properly oxidized, they can remove iron. Increasing pH is often necessary as a pretreatment for iron removal with a backwashing filter.

• Hydrogen Sulfide Removal

  Small amounts of hydrogen sulfide, the noxious gas that produces the “rotten egg” smell that wells are sometimes plagued with, can be removed by carbon filters and KDF/carbon combinations. If the problem is significant, you’ll get best results by treating with aeration or chlorination before filtering with carbon. This is a case where catalytic carbon works better than standard GAC.

• Sediment

  Most standard filter media will provide some filtration of larger particles, 20 microns and larger. Zeolite filters are superior for sediment removal and can effectively remove particles down to 5 microns or smaller.

• Hard Water

  “Hardness” is an overabundance of calcium and magnesium. It is removed by a softener, not a filter. Go here to see water softeners. Hardness can also be “sequestered” by filtration through poly-phosphate, though this is not commonly done with backwashing filters.

• Bacteria

  Filters are not designed to make water contaminated with bacteria safe to drink. For that, you need a chlorination system or an ultraviolet system.

Fleck 5600 Backwashing Filter.  Our popular Fleck 5600 SXT series of backwashing filters.

How Backwashing Filters Work.