 | | The multi-use Bay Trail extends along the levee that protects Foster City, California from flooding. The city is in the process of raising the levee. Photo © Brett Walton/Circle of Blue |
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| Six miles of mounded rock and earth already partially encircle this Bay Area city some 20 miles south of San Francisco. The levees protect about 17,000 parcels of land here and in neighboring San Mateo from waves, tides, and flood waters.
Those earthen embankments, however, are not protective enough. Not for floods today and not for floods of the future.
Spurred by a recent change in federal flood zone maps and a desire to prepare for rising seas, Foster City is in the process of raising its levees by 1 to 7 feet. Residents voted in 2018 to tax themselves in order to pay for the estimated $90 million upgrade. |
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The future of a controversial brewery in northern Mexico will be determined by the public, according to statements from Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The $1.5 billion brewery, which is being built by the U.S.-based Constellation Brands in the border city of Mexicali, is a target of locals and environmental groups, who are alarmed about groundwater depletion in an arid region where water supplies are already stressed. |
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What's Up With Water - March 9, 2020
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.
This week's episode features coverage on Mexico, where a dispute over a beverage corporation’s use of groundwater reached a turning point.
For news in the United States, a new study finds that crops grown for cattle feed are the largest consumers of river water in the American West. Additional coverage looks at Michigan, where the legal battle stemming from the Flint water crisis continues to play out in court. Last week, the state Supreme Court heard arguments over whether Flint residents should be able to sue state officials for their role in the city’s lead crisis.
Finally, this week's featured Circle of Blue report covers a neglected flood risk in California. You can listen to the latest edition of What's Up With Water, as well as all past editions, by downloading the podcasts on iTunes, following Circle of Blue on Spotify, following on iHeart Radio, and subscribing on SoundCloud. |
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| From Circle of Blue's Archives: |
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 | | In Jakarta, sinking due to groundwater withdrawals and urban growth, lies Lake Pluit, which is below sea level. The district around the lake was inundated by historic flooding in 2007. Photo J. Carl Ganter/Circle of Blue |
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| The coasts, particularly delta regions, were a natural setting for urbanization. At the intersection of river and ocean, they connected upstream producers to global markets. It was a successful model, for a time. But a new geography of risk has emerged. Because of climate change and mismanagement of natural resources, coastal cities are increasingly hazardous locations.
Subsidence is one of those risks. Shifting land topples buildings and buckles roads and bridges. It is worsened by unrestrained urbanization on fragile, compactable soils and by upstream dams that block the sediments that replenish delta lands. |
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