The Stream, February 6, 2025: Most of EU’s Surface Waters Are Polluted; Niger Delta Oil Production Could Restart

General view of the flooded river-side of the River Seine in central Paris with the ‘Ile Saint-Louis’ in the background. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

YOUR GLOBAL RUNDOWN 

• A majority of surface water bodies in the European Union are in poor ecological condition, according to a new report from the European Commission. 
• As precipitation falls more intensely and erratically in a changing climate, officials in Paris are preparing in advance for a “flood of the century” they consider inevitable. 
• After Shell became the latest Western oil giant to leave the Niger Delta, Nigeria itself is considering restarting crude oil drilling in the region.
• The lack of rain in Ukraine, the “breadbasket of the world,” threatens both the local grain economy and its worldwide market.

— Christian Thorsberg, Interim Stream Editor

Fresh: From the Great Lakes Region

All Too Clear: A new documentary film centers the influence of “quadrillions” of invasive quagga mussels — which, by filtering water, make crucial nutrients unavailable for other native species — in the Great Lakes, the Presque Isle County Advance reports. According to the film, one of the most impacted species has been whitefish, a crucial creature for both commercial and subsistence fishers.

Western PA Train Lines In ‘Disrepair’: Following the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that caused sweeping regional pollution, a new report has identified 11 more bridges in “serious or poor condition” in western Pennsylvania, Inside Climate News reports. Norfolk Southern responded to the outlet by discounting the report, deeming all its bridges “structurally safe.”

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.

• Toronto-area national park to grow as feds scrap airport plan — The Narwhal
• What furor over drab Gaylord land says about Michigan’s energy transition — Bridge Michigan
• How Ducks Unlimited Became Heroes of the Conservation Movement — Great Lakes Now
• “A crisis”: Lake whitefish survey paints an even more dire picture — Michigan Public

The Lead

From November through January, just over three inches of rain fell in Ukraine — nearly 33 percent less than the 4.6 inch average for those months. 

The dry spell, which followed a similarly rainless autumn, has left the nation’s soils at their lowest moisture levels in the last seven years. As a result, growers in Ukraine, known as the “breadbasket of the world” for its vast global exports of grain, expect some pain.

Winter wheat accounts for 95 percent of the country’s total, Reuters reports. Growers sowed more than five million hectares, though they were throwing seed into dry soil in hopes that winter would be wetter. With a high likelihood of underdeveloped seedlings, “most of Ukraine’s winter crop” is under threat.

Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue

• At Phoenix’s Far Edge, a Housing Boom Grasps for Water — More than 1 million people could pour into western Maricopa County in the coming decades — if housing developers can secure the water.
• Opinion: Trump’s “Thrilling New Era” Is a Gas — More carbon means powerful storms and floods, worse droughts and wildfires lie ahead.

This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers

39.5

Percent of surface waters in the European Union considered, as of 2021, to be in healthy ecological standing, while only 26.8 percent achieved “good chemical status,” according to a new report released this week by the European Commission. Throughout the continent, pollution and the influence of climate change — including warmer temperatures and drought — are hurting above-ground waterways. “The situation for water in the EU is in bad shape,” Jessika Roswall, the EU Environment Commissioner, told Reuters last month. “We have taken water for granted for so long. And I think it’s time now that we have this mindset change.” Most member countries are expected to miss the 2027 target for 100 percent of surface waters in “good” condition.

$2.4 billion

Amount for which the oil company Shell sold its onshore business in the Niger Delta to a group of local companies after operating there for nearly 100 years, the Associated Press reports. Operations were stalled in 1993 in southern Nigeria’s Ogoniland Region in the aftermath of “violent protests over allegations of widespread environmental damage and human rights abuses.” Across the delta, water sources and networks — rivers, lakes, farms, soils — have been tested and shown to contain high amounts of heavy metals and chemical contaminants. Shell follows other Western oil companies in leaving the region, its departure — like those of its peers — tied to protests and local tensions. But local environmental activists warn that a “potential restart in oil production,” to be run by Nigerian-based producers, is gaining quite a bit of steam. 

On the Radar

Officials in Paris — Europe’s most densely populated city with the smallest percentage of green space —  are preparing for a once-in-a-century flood they consider “certain to happen,” France24 reports. Each year brings a roughly one percent chance of such a catastrophic event, which last occurred in 1910. That year, the River Seine, which flows through the heart of the French capital, reached depths of more than 28 feet. Sewage networks were polluted, infrastructure failed, and residents were rescued on boats. It took more than 45 days for the floodwaters to thoroughly recede.

Though the city has emergency contingencies ready, the congestion of modern Paris makes the hazards no less harrowing. Experts forecast that such a flood today would inundate roughly 350,000 homes and more than 700,000 buildings could lose power. The lack of green space, which would otherwise act as natural sponges for excess water, will make conditions underground — in the subways, sewers, and other facilities — particularly difficult. One estimate places the cost of damages in these networks alone at €5 billion. Pooling water, ripe for the accumulation of pollution and bacteria, is similarly a large concern.

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.