The Stream, October 22: California’s Water-Infrastructure Challenges Intensifying

Water is becoming ever-more expensive in California. Major infrastructure work, Capitol Weekly reported, is only the highlight of a long list of necessary improvements needed across the state that will push residential water prices higher.

Financial Fallout from Hydraulic Fracturing
The United States’ natural-gas boom has pushed energy prices down across the country—a financial perk for most Americans and the national economy overall. Despite those benefits, The New York Times reported, many gas-exploration companies and tens of thousands of investors have lost money.

Turning Water into Fuel
A British company created usable petrol from air and water, Reuters reported. The technique combines the carbon dioxide from air with hydrogen from water, and may one day produce refinery-level volumes.

Industrial Limits
A water-supply suspension in Karachi, Pakistan has put leather exports in jeopardy. The country’s largest cluster of production and export units is water deprived, The News International reported, because tanker supply was suspended from the Karachi Water and Sewerage board.

Water, Energy and Politics
Water is a hot-button issue in an Iowa Congressional race. The Democratic candidate, the Des Moines Register reported, says voters consistently support water-protection measures and realize their centrality to quality of life. The Republican candidate has also called water a top issue.

An oil group in Washington, D.C., pointed to what it called flawed testing in a Wyoming town to support its skepticism of national studies. The Environmental Protection Agency, Bloomberg reported, was testing an aquifer for pollution related to hydraulic fracturing, and the American Petroleum Institute said the contaminants found are naturally occurring. An EPA spokesman said the agency’s results were corroborated by United States Geological Survey data.

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