Water News for June 2025

40% of Glaciers Are Doomed 

Almost 40% of glaciers in existence today are already doomed to melt due to climate-heating emissions from fossil fuels, a study has found. The loss will soar to 75% if global heating reaches the 2.7C rise for which the world is on track. The massive loss of glaciers would push up sea levels, endangering millions of people and driving mass migration.  The Guardian.

Crypto Outbreak in Devon

BBC reported that in Devon a cryptosporidium outbreak, which contaminated the local water supply and lead to hospitalizations and more than 100 reported cases of illness, caused significant financial loss to the water supplier. BBC.

De Not Eat Warnings for Fish in Michigan

Amid evidence that PFAS is far more dangerous than previously thought, state officials have revised statewide guidelines for eating contaminated fish.

Michigan health officials have dramatically reduced the amount of PFAS-tainted fish they consider safe to eat, tripling the number of water bodies where anglers are warned against eating their catch.

Ninety-eight water bodies are now subject to “do not eat” advisories because fish are contaminated with the so-called “forever chemicals,” up from 33 last year. Hundreds more advisories suggest that Michiganders limit meals of certain fish species to anywhere from 16 servings a month to six a year.

Officials with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced the change Monday while publishing the annual Eat Safe Fish Guide, a document that identifies waterways where fish are contaminated with unsafe levels of toxic chemicals. Bridge Michigan

Diesel Spill in Baltimore

A leak of some 2000 gallons of diesel at Johns Hopkins Hospital in East Baltimore traveled through storm drains for more than a mile to the harbor. The impact on drinking water quality is still unclear. Newsweek  

Salmonella Traced to Cucumbers Grown in Contaminated Irrigation Water

A salmonella outbreak tore through the country last spring and summer, infecting more than 550 people and sending 155 to the hospital.

The likely culprit wasn’t raw eggs or undercooked chicken but an innocuous salad staple: cucumbers.

One year later, cucumbers are once again making people sick — and federal officials say that one of the same Florida farms is once again involved. Forty-five people in 18 states recently contracted salmonella in an outbreak linked to cucumbers from Bedner Growers in Palm Beach County, setting off a widespread recall that has affected everything from California rolls sold at Target to banh mi sandwiches served at a North Carolina high school.

The Food and Drug Administration has yet to explain how the cucumbers linked to the current outbreak became contaminated; the investigation is ongoing. But last year, the agency found that Bedner Growers had used untreated canal water for irrigation — and that the water was contaminated with one of the salmonella strains that had made people sick.

Cucumbers and other fresh produce may be a surprising source of salmonella, which can cause diarrhea, stomach cramps and fever, as well as more serious health problems that can turn fatal. Heat from cooking can kill the bacteria, but fruits and vegetables that are eaten raw, like cucumbers, can be unsafe once they are contaminated. That means it’s particularly important to protect fresh produce from pathogens lurking in water used for irrigation or washing.   NBC News.   

Contaminated Water Blamed for Elephants’ Death

The unexplained deaths of hundreds of elephants near watering holes across the Okavango delta in May 2020 alarmed conservationists. Nearly five years later, scientists finally published a paper indicating what they believe to be the reason behind the deaths: toxic water caused by an algal bloom.  The Guardian  

National Hydration Day

National Hydration Day was June 23. As far as we can determine, not a single business or government office anywhere closed to honor the holiday.

The World’s Worst Case of PFAS Contamination

When residents in a small Swedish town discovered their drinking water contained extremely high levels of PFAS, they began blood testing. They had no idea what it would mean for their health and their children’s future.  Read the Guardian report:   Poison in the water: the town with the world’s worst case of forever chemicals contamination.

Water Treatment Employee Dies in Water Tank

In Ottawa County Ohio, a water treatment employee was found dead inside a water tank, prompting a boil advisory in multiple areas in the state.

According to WTOL, citing a report from the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office, authorities responded to the Ottawa County Regional Water Treatment Plant on Monday and discovered a night shift employee floating face down in a tank filled with water.  WKRC – TV

Expectant Mothers Advised to Drink Filtered Water

Pregnant women have been advised to use water filters by experts who spoke to Newsweek after a study found levels of arsenic in water systems considered safe are impacting birth outcomes.

A national study led by researchers at Columbia University evaluated risks from 13,998 pregnancies across 35 cohort sites participating in the National Institutes of Health’s Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, and published its findings on the medical journal site JAMA Network last week.

The researchers discovered that prenatal exposure to arsenic was associated with a higher likelihood of babies being born preterm with lower birth weights, factors that they said are important “predictors of infant mortality and morbidity across the life span.”

This was the case even at the level of exposure the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently deems safe, 10 micrograms per liter, a regulation that was established in 2001 and has not been changed since.  Newsweek. Full article.

How to Disinfect a Well

Information from National Testing Laboratories.

To disinfect a private well . . .

1. Remove well cover. Pour the required amount of bleach into the well. See the list below.

2. Run ALL faucets in the house, one at a time, until you smell the chlorine at the faucet. This ensures that the whole system will be disinfected

3. Connect a garden hose to an outside tap or an indoor tap with the correct thread fitting. Put the other end of the hose into the well, turn on the faucet, and from time to time move the hose so that the chlorinated water bathes the sidewalls of the well casing. Do this for at least six hours. Turn off tap and remove the hose from the well.

4. Replace the well cover

5. DON’T USE THE WATER for at least twelve hours. Forty-eight hours in optimal.

6. Run the water to waste but NOT INTO THE SEPTIC SYSTEM for several hours, or until the chlorine taste is dilute enough to be unobjectionable. The best way to run the water to waste is to use the garden hose mentioned above (item 3). Direct the hose into an area where the chlorinated water will not cause environmental damage or affect the water supply of others. For a typical well, this may take 3-4 hours. NOTE: To avoid pump overheating and possible damage, turn off the water when flow is at a trickle and wait at least 15 minutes before turning on the pump again

7. After a week of use, retest for bacteria.

8. In some cases, one chlorination treatment WILL NOT be sufficient. Repeat disinfection procedures as needed.

Water Tests for Your Home

The exceptional value of a good water test and how to understand what it means

For some years we been offering high quality water tests to our customers provided by National Testing Laboratories of Cleveland. General information and pricing for these excellent tests can be found here on our website.

The lab offers a comprehensive test (Watercheck) as well as specific city water and well water versions. A number of individual analytes not included on the standard tests (iron bacteria, for instance) can also be added if needed.

How It Works

The test is ordered from our website. Upon receipt of the order, we send you a test kit. You then take samples of  your water, as directed in the kit, and overnight the samples to the NTL laboratory in Cleveland. The lab reports the results to you in an easy-to-understand format and also sends us (Pure Water Products) a copy of the results so we can help with interpretation and recommendations for treatment if you ask us.

The lab also makes available valuable online information to help with understanding the test result. Here are a couple of valuable reference guides provided.

Analyte Reference Guide 

A comprehensive chart giving detailed information about water contaminants such as commons sources of the contaminant in drinking water, the allowable amounts, the treatments required for removal with very helpful color coding for classification of the contaminant.

Corrective Actions Brochure

An informative brochure telling how to deal with water issues revealed by testing.

Please visit our website for more information:

Professional Water Test (from National Test Laboratories)  — Information and ordering from our website.

Which drink is best for hydration? Hint: It isn’t water

by Lisa Drayer

When you’re thirsty and in need of a drink, which beverages are best at keeping you hydrated?Sure, you can always reach for a glass of water — but plain H20 isn’t the most hydrating beverage around, according to a study from Scotland’s St. Andrews University that compared the hydration responses of several different drinks.The researchers found that while water — both still and sparkling — does a pretty good job of quickly hydrating the body, beverages with a little bit of sugar, fat or protein do an even better job of keeping us hydrated for longer.

The reason has to do with how our bodies respond to beverages, according to Ronald Maughan, a professor at St. Andrews’ School of Medicine and the study’s author. One factor is the volume of a given drink: The more you drink, the faster the drink empties from your stomach and gets absorbed into the bloodstream, where it can dilute the body’s fluids and hydrate you.

Milk is more hydrating than water

The other factor affecting how well a beverage hydrates relates to a drink’s nutrient composition. For example, milk was found to be even more hydrating than plain water because it contains the sugar lactose, some protein and some fat, all of which help to slow the emptying of fluid from the stomach and keep hydration happening over a longer period.Milk also has sodium, which acts like a sponge and holds onto water in the body and results in less urine produced.

The same can be said for oral rehydration solutions that are used to treat diarrhea. Those contain small amounts of sugar, as well as sodium and potassium, which can also help promote water retention in the body.“This study tells us much of what we already knew: Electrolytes — like sodium and potassium — contribute to better hydration, while calories in beverages result in slower gastric emptying and therefore slower release of urination,” said Melissa Majumdar, a registered dietitian, personal trainer and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics who was not involved in the study.

Sugar in moderation

But here’s where it gets tricky: Beverages with more concentrated sugars, such as fruit juices or colas, are not necessarily as hydrating as their lower-sugar cousins. They may spend a little more time in the stomach and empty more slowly compared to plain water, but once these beverages enter the small intestine their high concentration of sugars gets diluted during a physiological process called osmosis. This process in effect “pulls” water from the body into the small intestine to dilute the sugars these beverages contain. And technically, anything inside the intestine is outside your body.Juice and soda are not only less hydrating, but offer extra sugars and calories that won’t fill us up as much as solid foods, explained Majumdar. If the choice is between soda and water for hydration, go with water every time. After all, our kidneys and liver depend on water to get rid of toxins in our bodies, and water also plays a key role in maintaining skin’s elasticity and suppleness. It’s the cheapest moisturizer you’ll find.While staying hydrated is important — doing so keeps our joints lubricated, helps prevent infections, and carries nutrients to our cells — in most situations people don’t need to worry too much about how hydrating their beverages are.“If you’re thirsty, your body will tell you to drink more,” Maughan said. But for athletes training seriously in warm conditions with high sweat losses, or for someone whose cognitive function may be negatively impacted by working long hours without beverage breaks, hydration becomes a critical issue.

Can beer and lattes keep me hydrated?

Alcohol acts as a diuretic, which causes you to pass more urine, so when it comes to alcoholic beverages hydration will depend on a beverage’s total volume. “Beer would result in less water loss than whiskey, because you are ingesting more fluid with beer,” Maughan said. “Strong alcoholic drinks will dehydrate, dilute alcoholic drinks will not.”When it comes to coffee, how well your java hydrates you will depend on the amount of caffeine you consume. A regular coffee with about 80 milligrams of caffeine — roughtly what you would find in 12 oz. of Folgers’ house blend – would be pretty much as hydrating as water, according to Maughan’s research.Consuming more than 300mg of caffeine, or about 2-4 cups of coffee, could cause you to lose excess fluid as the caffeine causes a mild, short-term diuretic effect. This is more likely to happen with someone who doesn’t typically consume caffeine, and it could be offset by adding a tablespoon or two of milk to your cup of joe.

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Water news for May 2025

The new EPA cancels regulations on PFAS

The EPA rolled back regulations on four of the innumerable “forever chemicals” that had been recently added to the regulatory list.  Now thousands of PFAS chemicals remain unregulated. For a full discussion of the PFAS regulatory dilemma, see The Pure Water Gazette.

Wealthy tech companies are exhausting water supplies of the poorest and driest areas

The poorest and driest regions of South America are being pumped dry by giant international tech companies. The Guardian. 

Trump’s Budget Request Contains Deep Cuts for the Nation’s Water Systems

On May 2nd, a letter to Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins revealed that President Donald Trump’s budget proposal for FY2026 calls for a sweeping $4.2 billion in total funding reduction for the U.S. EPA. $2.46 billion of this will be taken from the Clean and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, or SRFs — slashing 89% of the FY2025 funding.

The Clean Water SRF (CWSRF) program provides funding for water infrastructure projects such as stormwater runoff mitigation, decentralized wastewater treatment systems, and water reuse.

Similarly, the Drinking Water SRF (DWSRF) program is dedicated to supporting and protecting water supply projects. The DWSRF is designed to help communities finance the maintenance of safe drinking water — significantly, replacing aging pipelines. After the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI) issued in October 2024, the importance of distribution system investment has become even more paramount. Water Online

Phylate and heart disease

A study published April 29 in the journal eBiomedicin is the first to estimate heart disease deaths from exposure to di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), a class of phthalate chemicals that are used in raincoats, food packaging, shower curtains, PVC flooring and pipes, IV bags and other items. The chemicals make plastics softer and more pliable but are associated with multiple health problems, including hormone disruption, obesity, diabetes, infertility, cancer and heart problems. New Lede

Snow Crabs

Ten billion snow crabs, 90% of the Eastern Bering Sea population, have died off on the coast of Alaska largely due to warming ocean temperatures. Smithsonian

The nation’s biggest cities are sinking, according to data from a new study on “subsidence”

Known scientifically as land “subsidence,” the most common cause of the sinking is “massive ongoing groundwater extraction,” say the study authors, though other forces are at work in some places. The cities include not just those on the coasts, where sea level rise is a concern, but many in the interior. USA Today
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EPA Lifts 2016 Emergency Order on Drinking Water in Flint, Michigan

WASHINGTON – On Monday, May 19, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the City of Flint, Michigan has completed all requirements of EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) emergency order and it will now be lifted. Since EPA issued the emergency order in January 2016, the City of Flint and the State of Michigan have worked cooperatively with EPA to address and complete all requirements. Water sampling shows that Flint’s water system is now in compliance with lead standards, a major milestone accomplished through years of cooperative federalism dating back to 2016, culminating in the termination of this emergency order.

Adios Fluoride

States are beginning to discontinue the addition of Fluoride to drinking water. The trend is growing fast. In addition, the FDA in May announced that supplemental Fluoride treatment will be removed from the market.

Texas experiencing record heat and water scarcity

Texas is experiencing a scorching, early heatwave, with temperatures across the central and southern region of the state ranging from 100F to 111F – record-breaking for this time of year. These parts of the state have recently been hotter than Death Valley, California, the hottest place on Earth. The Guardian.

Older PFAS Concentration in Foods on the Decline according to a new study

While concentrations of older “forever” chemicals appear to have decreased in many foods over the last two decades, a new study found that drinking water, along with seafood, eggs, and brown rice, still contribute to PFAS exposure in adults. More attention is needed to newer, replacement PFAS.

Food has long been considered a major source of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a large class of long-lasting chemicals used in industry, consumer products, and found in the environment that are hazardous to human health. A new study led by School of Public Health researchers reveals that PFAS exposure through food appears to have declined among adults over the last two decades—but drinking water remains an important source of these chemicals. In related PFAS news, The EPA has announced it will uphold the current enforceable limits for PFOA and PFOS at 4 parts per trillion in drinking water. However, the agency plans to rescind regulations for four other PFAS compounds. Water Online.

Ten Dirtiest Beaches in CA

The LA Times listed the state’s 10 dirtiest beaches.  LA Times for the full article.

Last week, environmental groups decried plans from the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind and “reconsider” drinking water limits for four per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, compounds linked to cancer and damage to the immune and endocrine systems, among other health effects.

The limits had been finalized by Joe Biden’s administration last April as part of an effort to limit people’s exposure to hazardous “forever chemicals.” Out of a total of more than 10,000 known PFAS, they targeted just six of the most concerning ones. The Trump administration’s EPA said it would retain the limits for two of the PFAS but give utilities more time to comply with them and scrap the others. One advocate called the EPA’s move a loss for public health and a “victory for chemical companies.”

But how protective were the Biden regulations to begin with? And how much of a difference will it make to pare them back?

On the one hand, experts agree that backtracking is not in the public’s interest. Virtually everyone has PFAS coursing through their veins, and specific kinds like PFOS and PFOA are known or likely to contribute to kidney and testicular cancers. The other compounds originally regulated by the Biden administration have been linked to elevated cholesterol, heart disease, and an increased risk of diabetes.

The chemicals have become so ubiquitous in people and the environment because of their use in everything from outdoor clothing to cooking utensils and food packaging. Runoff from firefighting foam, infused with the chemicals, has contributed to widespread drinking water contamination, along with manufacturers’ deliberate dumping of the chemicals into rivers — despite knowing about their health risks.

Once they’re created, PFAS don’t break down naturally; hence the moniker “forever chemicals.” Regulating them is an “important win,” experts have said, one that “allows the country to begin cleaning up the mess in its water.”

But the fight over drinking water limits for individual PFAS distracts from the larger context that there are thousands of types, and scientists suspect they all have similar health effects. Even last year, when the Biden administration first announced its national drinking water standards, scientists criticized it for addressing PFAS on a chemical-by-chemical basis. “The EPA is trying to regulate six forever chemicals. Just 10,000 to go,” as the title of an op-ed by one Harvard researcher put it.

Erik Olson, a senior strategist for the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council, said the U.S. is “stuck in a Whac-a-Mole game” with PFAS, in which only the best researched compounds are regulated. Lesser-known compounds may be just as toxic — thanks to their similar chemical structures — but escape regulations just because they haven’t been studied, he added. “What we need to do is control PFAS as a class.”

Of the six forever chemicals targeted by the Biden administration’s original policy, PFOA and PFOS are the most prevalent and, consequently, they’ve been researched the most extensively. Those compounds got the strictest drinking water limits of 4 parts per trillion, the lowest level at which they can be detected, reflecting scientists’ understanding that there is no safe exposure level for them. Three additional compounds — PFNA, PFHxS, and GenX — were given a contamination limit of 10 parts per trillion. Water utilities were instructed to use a “hazard index” to monitor a sixth chemical, called PFBS, as well as mixtures of the chemicals.

The Trump EPA said it would keep the PFOA and PFOS drinking water limits but give utilities until 2031 to comply with them, instead of 2029. The rules for the other four compounds will be scrapped and reevaluated. The EPA said it intends to finalize its replacement regulations by next spring.

A statement from EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the extended timeline for PFOA and PFOS would provide “common-sense flexibility” to utilities, some of which sued the EPA over its regulations last year. The utilities said the EPA’s new rule was too strict and would cause unreasonable compliance costs.

A spokesperson for the EPA told Grist that the process by which the agency had “promulgated the preliminary regulatory determinations simultaneously with the proposed regulation” for PFNA, PFHxS, GenX, and PFBS under the Biden administration “was inappropriate and may not comply with the statutory requirements of [the] Safe Drinking Water Act.” With regard to the rescissions, they said that “while EPA cannot predetermine the outcome, it is possible” that the agency will issue more stringent requirements this spring.

Daniel Jones, an emeritus professor of molecular biology at Michigan State University, said the impacts of the Trump administration’s reversal will depend on geography. Communities primarily affected by PFOS and PFOA may not be greatly affected, since the standards for those chemicals remain in place — albeit with an extended timeline for compliance. To meet the standards, water utilities will likely have to install something like an activated carbon filtration system, he said, which is effective at removing “long-chain” PFAS like PFOA and PFOS, which have a larger chemical structure than compounds like GenX.

Putting these filtration systems into place will thankfully sweep up more PFAS than just PFOA and PFOS, Jones said.

States like North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia, however, face disproportionate contamination from GenX due to production facilities concentrated there. This contamination could continue unabated if the standard for the compound is eliminated. According to Olson, some of the technologies that remove PFOS and PFOA are not as effective at attracting GenX. “To really control the full suite of PFAS, we need to go to more advanced technologies like tight membranes, like reverse osmosis,” he said.

Some water utilities may opt for these more advanced — and expensive — technologies if they believe that they will eventually be required to test for and limit a much larger number of PFAS, Olson added.

Although Jones is disappointed that the EPA intends to drop regulations for the four PFAS, he said he is more concerned about a single clause in the EPA’s press release, about the EPA’s intent to establish a “federal exemption framework” for the PFOS and PFOA limits. The release contains no further information about what this would entail, but Jones worries it could allow water utilities to circumvent the federal government’s water quality requirements altogether. “It seems that an exemption framework is likely to open the door to say, ‘This is going to cost too much, you don’t have to do it,’” he said.

The EPA spokesperson said exemptions would not allow utilities to violate regulations: “Rather, they allow additional time to find a compliance solution.”

Jones also raised concerns about funding for further PFAS research, including investigations on how exposure to mixtures of the chemicals may impact human health. One of his federal grants for PFAS research was recently cut by the Trump administration, he said, and a colleague at Michigan State University studying PFAS on farms has also had his funding rescinded.

In addition to regulating PFAS by groups or as a class, Jones said the EPA should set pollution standards using what’s known as the “precautionary principle,” which doesn’t require definitive evidence about a chemical’s harms before it can be regulated. “In some countries, if you want to release a chemical into the environment you have to show it’s safe,” he said. “The U.S. usually takes the opposite approach and says, ‘You can use these chemicals … and if we find that there’s a problem, then we’ll come up and regulate [them].’”

Olson believes the EPA’s alterations to the PFAS rules are in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act’s “anti-backsliding provision,” which says any revision the EPA proposes to a drinking water standard must be at least as protective of public health as the previous one. The law also caps compliance timelines at five years, whereas postponing the PFOS and PFOA compliance deadline to 2031 would give water utilities seven years.

“Ultimately, we need to be phasing these chemicals out,” Olson added. “We have to turn off the spigot and stop using these things so that five generations from now, our great-great-great grandchildren won’t be dealing with them.”

This article originally appeared in Grist.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org.

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Article Source: Water Online.

Installing Your Reverse Osmosis Membrane, or Replacing Your Existing Membrane

 

Source: Water Online

Water News.  April 2025

Tensions over Kashmir and a warming planet have placed the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty on life support

Today, more than 300 million people rely on the Indus River Basin for their survival.

This has put increased pressure on the precious source of water that sits between India and Pakistan. The effects of global warming, and the continued fighting over the disputed region of Kashmir, has only added to those tensions. Excellent analysis in The Conversation

US/Mexico Water Treaty at a Standoff

Drought is preventing both the US and Mexico from fulfilling obligations of the 1944 Colorado River water treaty. 65% of Mexico is under drought conditions and the northern states are being hit hardest.

Shocking Amounts of Raw Sewage Are Being Released into England’s Waterways

In a new report released in April, the UK’s Environment Agency (EA) revealed a staggering figure: water companies released raw sewage into England’s waterways for 3.61 million hours in 2024. While some spilling is legal, scientists are raising alarms about the potential danger to the public.

“These figures are disgraceful and are a stark reminder of how years of underinvestment have led to water companies discharging unacceptable levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes, and seas,” said Environment Secretary Steve Reed, per BBC News.

Due to the UK’s combined sewer system, both rainwater and wastewater are carried in the same pipes. Wastewater is usually treated at a sewage treatment works, but during heavy rainfall, the sewage works are at risk of being inundated. To prevent backups to the system, which could allow sewage into homes and streets, the excess flow goes straight into waterways.  Water Online.

Utah Bans Fluoridation of Water

Utah has become the first US state to ban the decades-old practice of adding fluoride to public water supplies, due in part to a mix of health concerns about the practice.  Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed the new law, prohibiting fluoridation starting May 7. The move comes amid growing scrutiny of the practice, which started in the 1940s as a strategy to help people prevent cavities and reduce tooth decay.

Though more than 70% of the US population receives fluoridated public water supplies and many medical professionals support the practice, opposition has been growing due to studies suggesting fluoride may have neurotoxic effects on fetuses and young children. New Lede

Florida is also considering banning the fluoridation of water supplies.

Corrosion Inhibitors Category Dominates the Water Treatment Chemicals Market.

The Global Water Treatment Chemicals Market was valued at USD 36,815 million in 2024 and continued strong growth is expected.

Based on the type, the global water treatment chemicals market is segmented into organic coagulant, inorganic coagulant, flocculant, corrosion inhibitors, scale inhibitors, biocide & disinfectants, chelating agents, anti-foaming agents, PH adjusters & stabilizers, and others. Corrosion inhibitors have seen tremendous growth and development over the past few years due to their usefulness in industrial water systems such as cooling towers, boilers, and pipelines. This is primarily because these inhibitors prevent failure of expensive equipment and infrastructure through rust and corrosion, which eventually leads to very high maintenance costs. In addition, stricter environmental regulations coupled with continuous emphasis on sustainability push industries to invest in efficient corrosion control solutions, driving demand in the market even further.  UnivDatos.

The World’s Most Beautiful Sewage Treatment Plant

A stunning new sewage treatment plant in Arklow in Ireland has been described as the most beautiful in the world. Full story with pictures in The Guardian.

Big Tech’s Plans To Suck Water from the Nation’s Driest Regions

Amazon, Microsoft and Google are operating datacentres that use vast amounts of water in some of the world’s driest areas and are building many more.

With Donald Trump pledging to support them, the three technology giants are planning hundreds of datacentres in the US and across the globe, with a potentially huge impact on populations already living with water scarcity.

“The question of water is going to become crucial,” said Lorena Jaume-Palasí, founder of the Ethical Tech Society. “Resilience from a resource perspective is going to be very difficult for those communities.”

Efforts by Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, to mitigate its water use have sparked opposition from inside the company with one of its own sustainability experts warning that its plans are “not ethical”.

In response to questions from SourceMaterial and the Guardian, spokespeople for Amazon and Google defended their developments, saying they always take water scarcity into account. Microsoft declined to provide a comment.

Full story in The Guardian.

2024 Was A Record-Setting Year

The devastating impacts of the climate crisis reached new heights in 2024, with scores of unprecedented heatwaves, floods and storms across the globe, according to the UN’s World Meteorological Organization. The WMO’s report on 2024, the hottest year on record, sets out a trail of destruction from extreme weather. The Guardian

The Mississippi Tops the List of America’s Most Endangered Rivers

The Mississippi River ranks as the nation’s most endangered river as federal plans to cut flood relief programs meet with a rise in severe weather, a new report warns.

American Rivers, a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization, said the threats to the Mississippi River – which provides water for nearly 20 million people – come as communities along the lower river flooded from torrential rain in early April, and as Trump administration officials consider eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which helps state and local governments respond to disasters. New Lede.