The Stream, March 6, 2025: Clean Water Act Weakened Again by U.S. Supreme Court; Running Dry, El Paso Turns Wastewater Into Drinking Water

In Jakarta, sinking due to groundwater withdrawals and urban growth, lies Lake Pluit, which is below sea level. The district around the lake was inundated by historic flooding in 2007. Photo J. Carl Ganter/Circle of Blue

YOUR GLOBAL RUNDOWN

In a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the EPA’s ability to limit sewage discharge by wastewater permit holders.
El Paso, Texas, has broken ground on a new purification facility that aims to convert 10 million gallons of wastewater into drinking water, each day.
Nine-foot floods in Jakarta, Indonesia, have sparked emergency action — including shooting salt flares at clouds so that rain falls on the sea, not land.
A legacy of mining and water pollution in Kwabe, Zambia, has given almost all of the community’s children lead poisoning.

— Christian Thorsberg, Interim Stream Editor

Fresh: From the Great Lakes Region

Ohio’s Drinking Water: A new report from the Environmental Working Group has identified high levels of more than 100 contaminants — including disinfectants, nitrates, and PFAS — in Ohio’s drinking water, Ideastream Public Media reports. A total of 36 contaminants were found above health guidelines, while two contaminants — arsenic and trihalomethanes — were identified above the legal limit in eight water utilities.

Chautauqua County: The county in western New York state has approved a $70,000 project to study the environmental and logistical impacts of selling Lake Erie water to the village of Fredonia, the Observer Today reports. Currently, Fredonia receives its water from surface water sources. But over the past decade, their utility has been shown to have elevated levels of contaminants, according to the Environmental Working Group’s Tap Water Database.

Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, Michigan Public and The Narwhal work together to report on the most pressing threats to the Great Lakes region’s water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work here.

B.C. ranchers say fracking-induced earthquakes hurt cattle — The Narwhal
After losing in court, Michigan township tries again to block ‘green’ cemetery — Bridge Michigan
Latest Minnesota PFAS bill allegedly shifts power, sparks controversy — Great Lakes Now
Layoffs at Chicago EPA office have implications for Michigan — Michigan Public

The Lead

In July 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the EPA’s authority to issue “narrative” wastewater permits “to protect the quality of surface water sources like rivers and streams relied upon for drinking water,” the Guardian reports.

The rule had been challenged by the city of San Francisco, whose permit to discharge sewage from its combined sewer system into the Pacific Ocean included general limits and non-specific conditions meant to protect the ocean’s water quality. The EPA held the city broadly responsible for the ocean’s water quality standards — while San Francisco could use the ocean as a dumping ground, it would violate the permit should water quality worsen.

In a 5-4 vote this week, the Supreme Court sided with San Francisco — and the National Mining Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, and American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, who had sided with the city during its legal battle — and blocked the EPA from issuing non-specific permits “that make a permittee responsible for surface water quality,” a move many fear will lead to greater freshwater pollution.

Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue

Opinion: Trump’s Attack on Science Drowns Common Sense — Blocking research funds challenges president’s promise of a “proud, prosperous, and free” nation.
Republican Attack on Science Targets Water Research that Benefits All — National Science Foundation grants have been reviewed for ideological influence.

This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers

Height, in feet, to which floodwaters rose in and around Jakarta this week following days of torrential rainfall, Reuters reports. More than 1,000 homes were submerged and thousands were evacuated from the Indonesian capital, including several wards of a local hospital where power outages forced the relocation of patients. With the federal government issuing its second-highest critical alert, local authorities have been urged to activate pumps to clear out water and “conduct weather modification operations – which typically includes shooting salt flares into clouds to trigger rains before they reach land.”

Percent of children living in or near the mining town of Kabwe, Zambia, who have elevated levels of lead in their blood, Al Jazeera reports. The figure comes from a new report published this week by Human Rights Watch. Though the local mine, which was first operated by British colonial powers, closed in 1994 after decades of operation, the Zambian government continues to process and extract both lead and zinc, “leaving an estimated 6.4 million tonnes of uncovered lead waste in dumps,” much of which seeps into surface and groundwater sources. According to Al Jazeera, Kabwe is considered one of “the world’s most polluted places.”

On the Radar

El Paso, Texas, which experienced its hottest two years on record in 2023 and 2024 and receives single-digit inches of rain per year, broke ground this week on a transformative new facility: one that will turn wastewater into drinking water for direct reuse, Inside Climate News reports. The plant, the first of its kind in the U.S., aims to purify 10 million gallons of water each day.

Christian Thorsberg

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer from Chicago. He is passionate about climate and cultural phenomena that often appear slow or invisible, and he examines these themes in his journalism, poetry, and fiction.