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: Removing dams from the Klamath River is a step toward justice for Native Americans in Northern California
The Conversation (Canada)
Historically, the Klamath was the third-largest Pacific salmon-producing river on the West Coast. But dams and irrigation systems built before the 1960s – along with other pressures, such as logging, mining and overharvesting – have separated fish from their spawning habitats and Indigenous cultures from sacred fish. Recognizing this harm, state, federal and tribal agencies now are removing four of the Klamath’s six dams to let fish migrate farther upstream to historical habitats. Click here to continue reading
Rural municipalities declare ag disaster in Alta.
The Western Producer
More counties are expected to make the declaration as the impact of extremely dry weather continues to affect producers. A swath of Alberta continues to experience extremely dry conditions during what is traditionally the wettest time of year. Rainfall hasn’t fallen at all along an area of the southern portion of the province since the beginning of June. Click here to continue reading
Canada’s Crawford Lake chosen as ‘golden spike’ to mark proposed new epoch
CBC News
Scientists have picked the bottom of Crawford Lake in Ontario as the “golden spike” to mark the start of a new proposed geological epoch — the Anthropocene. The announcement was made at a media conference in Berlin Tuesday by a group of scientists called the Anthropocene Working Group — more on them later. Here’s why the lake was chosen and what evidence it provides that humans have made such big changes to the Earth that we may be in a new geologic time period. Click here to continue reading
Gull Lake Watershed Society hopes increasing membership will push government to address dropping water levels
Ponoka News
Members of the Gull Lake Watershed Society (GLWS) are hoping to have their concerns heard by increasing their voices along with their membership. GLWS membership director Henry Brander says the water level of Gull Lake is nearly at crisis level, and the society wants the government to consider their suggestions on how to safely pump more water into the lake. Click here to continue reading
Canada calls for halt to deep-sea mining amid fears of ecological devastation
The Guardian
Canada has joined a growing list of nations calling for a pause on deep-sea mining in international waters amid fears the nascent, untested industry could cause ecological devastation without further study and clear safeguards. Click here to continue reading
Study: Water temperature found to not impact blue-green algae blooms
Water Canada
Even if most cyanobacteria blooms in Canada’s lakes happen during the hottest periods of summer, water temperature seems to have little to no impact on the development of these potentially toxic bacteria better known as blue-green algae. Details of this discovery made by an international research team including scientists from Université Laval were published in the journal Harmful Algae. Click here to continue reading
Newmarket’s pilot leak detection program works at saving water
Water Canada
Newmarket’s Water Meter Replacement Program is continuing with great success to replace and upgrade all water meters in Town. The aim is to replace or upgrade all water meters (residential and businesses) across Town to increase efficiencies and provide even better services to residents. To date, the Town and its contractor WAMCO have upgraded or replaced 30 per cent of the Town’s water meters. Click here to continue reading
Plastic pollution on coral reefs gets worse the deeper you go, study finds
The Guardian
No part of the planet is free of plastic waste, and coral reefs are no exception, but scientists have now made the discovery that the deeper the reef, the more plastic debris it is likely to have. A study published in Nature found that not only is every coral reef encumbered with plastic, but almost three-quarters of the larger items were from “ghost gear” – fishing paraphernalia such as ropes, lines and nets. Click here to continue reading
Compare and Contrast: Australian trial of seaweed cow feed fails to achieve hoped-for methane cuts
The Guardian
One of the world’s longest commercial trials of a seaweed supplement that the global meat industry hopes could slash methane from beef cattle has recorded much lower reductions in the potent greenhouse gas than previous studies. Click here to continue reading
Pesticides from farming leach into world’s waterways at rate of 710 tonnes a year, UN research shows
The Guardian
Agricultural pesticides leach far from their original sources into the world’s waterways, according to new research which finds pesticides exceed safe levels in 13,000km of rivers globally. Click here to continue reading