With concerns about the Texas power grid's reliability this summer, ERCOT has issued its first "weather watch" beginning this Thursday through June 21. The weather watch is a new communications strategy to prepare for the all-time demand record being surpassed, which is expected to happen this week. Demand is “shockingly high for this early, but it is not out of the realm of what was expected this summer."
El Paso Water is celebrating their Aquifer Storage and Recharge project, which will preserve the Hueco Bolson aquifer for future generations. The project will use stormwater runoff, reclaimed water, and non-peak treater river water to replenish the important aquifer.
Algae is being used to speed up wastewater treatment in a trial in Australia, reducing treatment time from 60 days to two weeks. The process, called "algae raceways", removes nutrients quickly to naturally purify wastewater.
Seagrasses, one of the world's most productive and critical underwater ecosystems, are vanishing. In Sierra Leone, while they await official protections, regulations, and funding from the EPA, volunteers are taking on the responsibility to protect the seagrass. “I come and sit by the sea and watch to make sure that people don’t disturb the seagrass,” one volunteer said. The researchers “told us that this seagrass is important to us, that’s why we do it.”
Calm seas, cloudy skies, and warm water created a perfect storm of bad conditions in the Gulf Coast, causing thousands of dead fish to wash ashore. Warming ocean water is increasing these incidences of hypoxia.
This week's TWDB Drought Map shows the area of the state impacted by drought has decreased consecutively for 10 weeks now. Drought conditions impact the least area of the state since October 2021.