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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Cajun crawdads make unwelcome appearance in Nova Scotia lake
CBC News
An invasive crayfish native to the southern United States has been found in a lake near Lower Sackville, N.S., outside Halifax. It is believed to be the first confirmed detection in Canada of the red swamp crayfish, better known as the crawdad in Louisiana cuisine. Click here to continue reading
Province putting up $5M to study feasibility of proposed new southern Alberta dam
Calgary Herald
The Alberta government will spend up to $5 million on a study that will look into whether a new dam is needed in southern Alberta. The proposed Eyremore dam would be located southwest of the city of Brooks along the Bow River, about 43 kilometres downstream of the Bassano dam, improving southern Alberta water management and security, and flood mitigation. Click here to continue reading
Compare and Contrast: ‘Everything out the faucet is salt’: Louisianans struggle as drinking water crisis persists
The Guardian
A few weeks ago the water crisis in Plaquemines parish stirred national headlines as a so-called “wedge” of saltwater surged upriver, traveling up the Mississippi, threatening the drinking water for nearly a million people in the city of New Orleans and the suburbs that surround it. Click here to continue reading
Ice that survived Arctic summer hits low, with implications for traditional harvesting and shipping
CBC News
The amount of sea ice that persists throughout the summer also affects how thick ice will grow in the Arctic in the winter. Ice that builds on an existing layer of ice can grow thicker than ice that grows seasonally from scratch. Summer sea ice in the Arctic naturally shrinks in the summer. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC), Arctic summer sea ice dwindled to 4.23 million square kilometres on Sept. 19 — the sixth lowest extent on a 45-year record. Click here to continue reading
Drought conditions expose rivers to hotter water temperatures
Science Daily
A new study reveals how reduced water flows and rising atmospheric temperatures are set to heat our rivers — creating major challenges for aquatic life, ecosystems, and society. Click here to continue reading
Compare and Contrast: Pipeline dreams: the desert city out to surpass Phoenix by importing water
The Guardian
Arizona, stressed by years of drought, has declared its housebuilding boom will have to be curbed due to a lack of water but one of its fastest-growing cities is refusing to give up its relentless march into the desert – even if it requires constructing a pipeline that would bring water across the border from Mexico. Click here to continue reading
Compare and Contrast: ‘You should be able to have a water break’: US workers fight for extreme-heat rules
The Guardian
Climate change is fueling record high temperatures, and the number of workers who die from heat exposure has doubled since the early 1990s. More than 600 people died on the job from heat between 2005 and 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Undocumented workers in outdoor industries like agriculture, landscaping, and construction who may fear retaliation for reporting unsafe working conditions, are often the most at risk.) Click here to continue reading
Shuswap Watershed Council releases updated report on nutrients and water quality
Water Canada
The Shuswap Watershed Council (SWC) has released an update to a report it originally published in 2020 summarizing the results of a multi-year water quality research partnership with UBC Okanagan. The report explains two separate research projects to better understand the inputs of nutrients to Shuswap and Mara Lakes. Click here to continue reading
Meet the magnet fishers pulling treasure from the Detroit River
CBC News
There’s plenty of history, some treasures and a whole lot of junk at the bottom of the Detroit River — and local magnet fishers are doing their part to bring it all to light. By casting strong magnets into the depths of the river in Windsor, Ont., the hobbyists hope they’ll pull up a something interesting — or at the very least, clean up some of the underwater litter. Click here to continue reading
Research finds water quality in Gulf of Mexico improves when adding social costs to carbon emissions
Science Daily
Researchers took a closer look at what would happen to agriculture if there was an extra cost, or so-called social cost, added to fossil fuels, which are essential for making fertilizer used in farming. They found that while CO2 emissions would decline by as much as 50%, the cost of fertilizer would rise leading to a significant benefit on water quality by lessening fertilizer runoff contributing to the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone. Click here to continue reading