 | | The well that serves about 80 homes in the unincorporated community of Tooleville, on the east side of Exeter, in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Photo © Brett Walton / Circle of Blue |
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The release of an in-depth report gives California state regulators a detailed picture of how many small water systems are failing or at the brink of failure and what it would cost to bring them up to par.
The State Water Resources Control Board’s needs assessment found 326 public water systems that are consistently failing to provide drinking water that meets state and federal standards.
Another 617 public water systems are at risk of failing, and 611 state small systems, those that serve fewer than 25 people, are at high risk of exceeding health standards because of their location. These failing and at-risk systems are clustered in heavily agricultural regions like the Central Valley and Salinas Valley, as well as in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Sonoma counties.
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Nearly all of Jordan’s lower-income populations will suffer from severe water insecurity by the end of the century without immediate and comprehensive national reform, according to a Stanford University study.
The predictive research, analyzed using computer simulations, modeled Jordan’s freshwater system across a range of socioeconomic and climate change scenarios. The team found that introducing measures such as fixing pipelines, raising tariffs on big water users, preventing water theft, and implementing large-scale desalination could drastically improve Jordan’s water security for years to come. |
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For the news you need to start the week, tune into “What’s Up With Water” fresh on Monday’s on iTunes, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and SoundCloud. Featured coverage from this week’s episode of What’s Up With Water looks at: - Taiwan is suffering its worst drought in over 50 years, and widespread water restrictions are underway.
- In the United States, California officials are bracing for a long summer, after a rainy season that is the third-driest on record.
- Elsewhere in the United States, Alaska officials are suing major chemical companies over alleged groundwater contamination from toxic PFAS compounds.
This week Circle of Blue reports that the U.S. government is preparing to explore two critical health issues that may be connected. |
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 | | The Great Lakes Ready or Not project is produced by the Great Lakes News Collaborative, a partnership between Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at DPTV and Michigan Radio that explores an essential question: Are Great Lakes residents and leaders ready for the stirred and shaken conditions that climatologists say we can expect? A new piece will be published every Tuesday over the next four months. |
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 | | Photo © Lester Graham, Michigan Radio |
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Scientists trying to determine how the lakes will fare this year and watching for trends.
One trend, the warming climate, could mean changes for the base of the food web in the lakes. But, the researchers are not yet sure what those changes might be. |
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 | | In northern Louisiana, some towns that are losing population are finding their water systems in financial and administrative distress. Photo © Flickr/Creative Commons user Nathan |
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Clarence was in a bind. The northern Louisiana community of fewer than 500 people could not pay its bills. The situation was on the verge of deteriorating further. Frustrated with the late payments, Natchitoches, a larger town that supplied Clarence's water, was threatening to cut off supplies to Clarence. Natchitoches officials relented only because the state promised to step in.
Louisiana wants to anticipate problems similar to those in Clarence and head off financial problems before needing to appoint a fiscal administrator, which it has done six times in the last three years. Two of those administrators — in St. Joseph and Sterlington — were appointed for water-related financial problems.
For water systems, there is strength in numbers. Like California and Kentucky, two states that have put resources into fixing rural water infrastructure, Louisiana is aiming to merge small, struggling systems with larger neighbors that are more financially stable.
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