The Stream, June 11: Oil Spill in Canadian River

Infrastructure
Government officials in Alberta, Canada are telling people downstream of an oil spill to stay away from the Red Deer River, according to the Calgary Herald. Plains Midstream Canada estimates roughly 475,000 liters (125,000 gallons) leaked from one of its pipelines on Thursday. In April 2011, the company reported a spill of more than 4.5 million liters (1.2 million gallons) in a pipeline elsewhere in the province.

The Australian government will spend US$492 million (AU$500 million) on four water conservation and efficiency projects in the Murray-Darling River Basin, ABC News reports.

Four Israelis were arrested for sabotaging a pipeline supplying water to a Bedouin community near Jerusalem, Haaretz reports.

The Texas Tribune is running a four-part series on water use in the state in an age of drought. So far, the online newspaper has examined water rates and desalination.

Food and Drink
Salon has an excerpt from the journalist Fred Pearce’s new book on land grabs.

Good beer needs good water, which provides each beer its unique flavor. NPR’s The Salt blog takes a look at how craft brewers need to “tweak” the chemistry of their water when they build breweries in different parts of the country.

The Stream is a daily digest spotting global water trends. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.

Brett Walton

Brett writes about agriculture, energy, infrastructure, and the politics and economics of water in the United States. He also writes the Federal Water Tap, Circle of Blue’s weekly digest of U.S. government water news. He is the winner of two Society of Environmental Journalists reporting awards, one of the top honors in American environmental journalism: first place for explanatory reporting for a series on septic system pollution in the United States(2016) and third place for beat reporting in a small market (2014). He received the Sierra Club’s Distinguished Service Award in 2018. Brett lives in Seattle, where he hikes the mountains and bakes pies. Contact Brett Walton