Cattle-feed crops account for 23 percent of water consumption in the US and are rapidly becoming a major driver of water shortages across the country. Crops like alfalfa and hay which are fed to cattle end up as beef and dairy products. Those crops require a lot of irrigation and are often grown in arid […]
After years of effort, the Trump administration’s EPA rolled back the Obama-era rule to clarify the Clean Water Act and replaced it with a new water rule that could increase pollution. Called the Navigable Waters Act, the new rule narrows the definition of waters that can be protected by eliminating many small streams and wetlands […]
Between 4,000 and 12,000 domestic water wells could go dry over the next 20 years if California state groundwater sustainability plans are enacted, according to a new report released by the Water Foundation. The sustainability plans were created to help bring the Central Valley’s depleted groundwater aquifers into balance, per the California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. […]
The Lake Powell water level reached capacity in the 1980s. Created in the 1920s to store Colorado River water to be used for farms, homes and businesses, capacity calculations for the reservoir were based on a now changed set of assumptions about precipitation and water availability. Those capacity assumptions are the basis of the amount […]
A new report about drinking water policy just released by the Water Foundation and the US Water Alliance that was based on roundtables held around the country found that “despite regional differences, leaders face many shared challenges, and winning coalitions and campaigns have approached drinking water challenges in some similar ways,” yet they face similar obstacles […]
More than 40 percent of the world’s population lacks access to adequate handwashing facilities, even though handwashing is an effective way to help prevent spreading COVID-19. In Asian countries many people lack access to clean water or handwashing facilities, although it varies by country and region within countries. Southeast Asia has more handwashing facilities than […]
Use of Colorado River water in the river’s lower basin fell to a 33-year low in 2019. Arizona, California, and Nevada consumed just over 6.5 million acre-feet last year, about 1 million acre-feet less than the states are entitled to use under Colorado River Compact. River water consumption hasn’t been that low since 1986. “It […]
The key to finding outbreaks of the COVID-19 may lie in detecting the Coronavirus in sewage. As the United States struggles to establish adequate testing programs in communities around the country, testing for the virus in sewage might present a collective early warning tool that could indicate an outbreak among specific communities. Based on methods […]
Countries that want to cut their plastic use and address a significant source of plastic litter in waterways should improve their infrastructure and build a safe water supply, according to a new report that looked at solutions to stop plastic pollution in the ocean. Many developing and middle-income countries struggle with both water quality and […]
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