Water News
Alberta Water News is a free, subscription-based service that provides the latest information on water news across Alberta and upcoming events.
The news is distributed weekly on Mondays via a collated email and Monday to Friday via WaterPortal social media (X was Twitter). Please note that news will not be distributed on Holiday Mondays and will be released the following Tuesday.
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Compare and Contrast: EPA begins to clean up black globs of asphalt from Yellowstone River train derailment
The Guardian
Globs of asphalt binder that spilled into Montana’s Yellowstone River during a bridge collapse and train derailment could be seen on islands and riverbanks downstream from Yellowstone National Park a week after the spill occurred, witnesses report. Click here to continue reading
‘Tar-like substance’ seeping out of ground among environmental concerns at Alberta park
CBC News
The Alberta government is trying to identify the risks and liabilities of continuing to operate an Edmonton-area park in the river valley, tender documents show. The province recently posted a request for proposals (RFP) for a Phase 2 environmental assessment of the Strathcona Science Provincial Park, just east of Edmonton. Click here to continue reading
Compare and Contrast: ‘Stay out of the water’: what lurks below California’s zombie lake?
The Guardian
There are portions of California’s Tulare Lake, with its blue water that stretches for miles and birds bobbing around the shoreline, where it can be easy to forget that a few months ago, none of this was here at all. Click here to continue reading
Compare and Contrast: Taps run dry on Thai island as tourism boom worsens water shortage
The Guardian
Authorities on Koh Samui are working to tackle a water shortage that has left taps running dry often for months, saying they do not want the Thai island to become a “disaster zone”. A lack of rain and a resurgence in tourism has put intense pressure on supplies, prompting Sutham Samthong, a deputy mayor of Koh Samui, to urge the public to use supplies sparingly. Click here to continue reading
Compare and Contrast: UK holds crisis talks as top water supplier seeks cash
Reuters
The British government has held emergency talks over the fate of the country’s biggest water supplier, Thames Water, and said it is ready for any outcome, including temporary state ownership, as the company buckles under huge debts. Click here to continue reading
Rain helps but much of the Prairies remain dry
The Western Producer
Spring rain that usually hits the Prairies in May came about a month later, and while the situation improved, southern Alberta producers continue to experience dry conditions. “It’s been wild,” Laura Richard, Agriculture Canada agroclimate analyst, said of this spring. Leading into the last week of spring, Richard said several record 24-hour rainfall events hit Alberta. But the volume and speed in which the precipitation fell may have not allowed for soil infiltration. Click here to continue reading
Compare and Contrast: Agriculture moves through the eras on the Mississippi
The Western Producer
The canal today is a silted-in wetland, home to a community of songbirds, bugs, marsh plants and hardy riparian weeds that have found a home along the stone and brickwork of the broken wharf. Rising above it are the ruins of Minneapolis mills, the broken walls, rusting iron and half-hidden arches providing mute testimony to the time when the city was known as the “Flour Milling Capital of the World.” Click here to continue reading
Alta. irrigation taps turned back on, but questions remain over the issue
The Western Producer
The water is flowing again through the canals of the Lethbridge Northern Irrigation District, but questions percolate over why one of Alberta’s major irrigation systems has been unable to provide early season water to its stakeholders for the second straight year. Click here to continue reading
Foothills County latest to declare agricultural disaster as drought grips areas of Alberta
CBC News
A lack of early season moisture, unseasonably high temperatures and varying winter snowpack have led to poor growing conditions throughout Foothills County, south of Calgary, prompting the municipal district on Wednesday to declare a municipal agricultural disaster. Click here to continue reading
A failed sewer installation has left this Alberta village millions of dollars in debt
CTV News
The summer village of Ma-Me-O Beach on Pigeon Lake is facing a bill for millions of dollars as a result of a failed attempt to install a sewage system in the community. “In many ways it has divided our community,” Mayor Christine Holmes told CTV News Edmonton. “It has been a very big topic for a number of years. Going into our hundredth anniversary this year it’s tough to see that we’re not concluded yet.” Click here to continue reading