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Tag: Droughts

  • Federal officials plan to announce 2024 cuts along the Colorado River. Here’s what to expect

    Federal officials plan to announce 2024 cuts along the Colorado River. Here’s what to expect

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    WASHINGTON — Federal officials this week are expected to ease water cuts for 2024 under a slightly improved outlook for the Colorado River’s health, though long-term challenges remain.

    The river provides water for seven U.S. states, 29 Native American tribes and two states in Mexico. It also supports a multibillion-dollar farm industry in the West and generates hydropower used across the region. Years of overuse by farms and cities and the effects of drought worsened by climate change has meant much less water flows today through the Colorado River than in previous decades.

    The U.S. government in 2021 announced cuts that hit Arizona particularly hard. Last year, those cuts grew more severe thanks to continued drought, poor precipitation and less runoff from the river’s Rocky Mountains source.

    A wetter winter and conservation measures have helped improve the river’s health a bit this summer, but experts warn a drier future is ahead.

    WHAT CUTS ARE EXPECTED?

    The Bureau of Reclamation will describe the Colorado River’s status based on projected water levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead, key reservoirs that serve as barometers of the river’s health. Officials are expected to announce cuts for next year to some basin states.

    The cuts are based on previous agreements to keep Lake Mead from getting too low.

    Bountiful snowfall and rain last winter pulled much of the region out of drought this spring and raised water levels at reservoirs.

    State water officials expect a return to what was announced in 2021, a “Tier 1” shortage. That means Arizona would see an 18% cut from it’s total water allocation, down slightly from last year. Farmers will face the brunt of the forced cuts while cities and tribes will be spared, though some have already volunteered to cut back in exchange for federal money.

    Nevada, which gets far less river water than Arizona and California, is expected to lose slightly less than it did last year. Mexico is expected to face a 5% reduction.

    California has not faced any forced water cuts.

    WILL THE RIVER KEEP GETTING HEALTHIER?

    No. While the winter’s precipitation brought immediate relief, the challenges of a hotter, drier future and overuse of the river remain.

    Lake Powell and Lake Mead are still only about 39% and 33% full, respectively.

    “That is a little better than last year, but still extremely low. It only takes a few dry years to set us back,” said Kim Mitchell, senior water policy advisor at Western Resource Advocates, a Phoenix-based nonprofit dedicated to protecting water and land in the West.

    ARE DEEPER CUTS COMING?

    Yes, but not immediately. This week’s announcement is just one piece of various water-savings plans already in place or being negotiated.

    Earlier this year, Arizona, California and Nevada released a plan to conserve an additional 3 million acre-feet of water through 2026 in exchange for $1.2 billion from the federal government. An acre-foot of water is enough to serve 2-3 households annually. The Interior Department is expected to release its analysis of the proposal this fall.

    The plan, likely be finalized in 2024, would mean cuts for California’s Imperial Irrigation District, the largest user of Colorado River water. The district, which supplies farmers who grow fruits, vegetables and feed crops, is typically spared based on senior water rights.

    Some tribes and individual districts in the West that supply water to farms and cities are signing contracts to use less water in exchange for federal money.

    The Gila River Indian Community in Arizona agreed in April with the U.S. government not to use some of its river water rights in return for $150 million and funding for a pipeline project. The tribe gets Colorado River water through the the same aqueduct system that delivers river water to Arizona’s major cities.

    The cuts anticipated this week would not be “a big swing one way or the other in terms of on-reservation use,” said Jason Hauter, a member of the Gila River Indian Community and a tribal water attorney.

    WHAT ABOUT WESTERN FARMS?

    Farmers use between 70% and 80% of all water in the Colorado River system, but this week’s announcement is not expected to change much for most of them.

    In August 2021, one farming district in Arizona’s Pinal County outside of Phoenix lost almost its entire Colorado River water supply. Though the river’s health is improving, the farmers are not expected to get that water back.

    Instead, they have either turned to groundwater or given up — as much as half the farmland has gone unplanted in the past two years, estimated Brian Yerges, general manager of the Maricopa-Stanfield Irrigation and Drainage District, which serves the region.

    WHAT ABOUT CITIES?

    Western residents are unlikely to feel the effect of this week’s announcement. In Arizona, Phoenix’s water supply didn’t diminish when the state’s was cut because other sources compensated. The nation’s fifth-largest city is supplied by the Colorado River as well as the in-state Salt and Verde rivers, with a small portion from groundwater and recycled wastewater.

    Already in the Las Vegas area, ornamental lawns are banned, swimming pool sizes are limited, and almost all water inside homes is recycled. Because of that, the impact of water cuts over the past two years has been minimal. Despite last winter’s precipitation, the Southern Nevada Water Authority said it would continue with its strict conservation measures.

    The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies nearly 20 million people, lifted restrictions in March on nearly 7 million people. But that was largely because of improved conditions for rivers in Northern California that supply the district with most of its water in addition to the Colorado River.

    WHAT’S NEXT?

    Guidelines that dictate how Colorado River water is allocated expire in 2026.

    “We have a generational set of agreements coming up,” said Bill Hasencamp, manager of Colorado River resources for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. “That’s where we need to focus.”

    Discussions among states, tribes and the federal government about their priorities for the river after 2026 are just starting. Mexican negotiators will engage in a similar but parallel process with U.S. officials.

    Negotiators say long-term discussions must consider how users will live with significantly less water in the system.

    “We had a good year,” said Anne Castle, U.S. Commissioner to the Upper Colorado River Commission. “But no one expects that’s going to be the new normal. The question is, ‘What’s the plan for the future?’”

    ___

    Associated Press writers Ken Ritter in Las Vegas and Amy Taxin in Orange County, California, contributed.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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  • These factors are making it hard to combat the deadly Maui wildfires | CNN

    These factors are making it hard to combat the deadly Maui wildfires | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The wind-whipped fires in Maui spread swiftly and created a deadly tinderbox, overwhelming residents and local officials in one of the nation’s deadliest wildfires.

    “It’s very strange to hear about severe wildfires in Hawaii – a wet, tropical island – but strange events are becoming more common with climate change,” Jennifer Marlon, a research scientist and lecturer at the Yale School of the Environment, told CNN.

    Fueled by a combination of strong winds and dry conditions – and complicated by the island’s geography – the fires have killed at least 36 people.

    “For those of us who’ve been working on this problem, it just makes us feel sick,” said Clay Trauernicht, an assistant specialist who studies tropical fire at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

    Maui’s wildfire appears to be one of the deadliest in modern US history. The fire already ranks as the second deadliest in the past 100 years, trailing California’s Camp fire, which killed 85 people in November 2018, according to CalFire.

    Trauernicht said it was by far the deadliest wildfire in Hawaii’s history.

    These are some factors making it difficult to combat the fires that have plunged a state known for its stunning natural beauty into an unprecedented crisis:

    Drought worsened in Hawaii over the past week, leading to fire spread, according to the US Drought Monitor released Thursday. Severe level drought conditions in Maui County ticked up to 16% from 5% last week, while statewide moderate drought levels jumped to 14% from 6%.

    Dried-out land and vegetation can provide fuel for wildfires, which then can swiftly turn deadly if strong winds help fan the flames toward communities.

    “It’s more a fuels problem than a climate problem – which means that it’s a problem we can tackle,” Trauernicht said in a phone interview.

    “There are tangible actions that we could be taking that would reduce the risk of something like this happening in the future,” he added, referring to measures such as the creation of fuelbreaks to reduce fire-prone vegetation and support for agricultural land use.

    “It’s a priority when the fires are burning. But at that point, it’s too late.”

    While scientists try to fully understand how the climate crisis will affect Hawaii, they have said drought will get worse as global temperatures rise: Warmer temperatures increase the amount of water the atmosphere can absorb – which then dries out the landscape.

    Drought conditions are becoming more extreme and common in Hawaii and other Pacific Islands, according to the Fourth US National Climate Assessment, released in 2018. Rainfall has generally been decreasing in Hawaii over time, with the number of consecutive dry days increasing, scientists noted in the report.

    And the climate crisis has caused droughts that previously may have occurred only once every decade to now happen 70% more frequently, global scientists reported in 2021.

    “Combining abundant fuels with heat, drought, and strong wind gusts is a perfect recipe for out-of-control fires,” Marlon said by email.

    “But this is what climate change is doing – it’s super-charging extreme weather. This is yet another example of what human-caused climate change increasingly looks like.”

    Evacuation orders in parts of Hawaii as wildfires grow

    Hurricane Dora, a fast-moving and powerful Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 140 mph, isn’t helping matters.

    As the storm roared south of Hawaii, a strong high-pressure system stayed in place to the north, with the two forces combining to produce “very strong and damaging winds,” according to the National Weather Service.

    “These strong winds coupled with low humidity levels are producing dangerous fire weather conditions” through Wednesday afternoon, the weather service said.

    The high winds, ongoing drought conditions and dry relative humidity are “ingredients to spark those fires and to fan the flames,” CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam said.

    “The problem is that this wind – similar to, let’s say, Santa Ana winds in Southern California – is that it dries out and it warms up as it (travels down) the mountains, and it creates these very dry, timber-like conditions,” he said.

    Hurricane Lane in 2018 was also associated with large fires on Maui and Oahu, noted Abby Frazier, a climatologist and geographer at Clark University in Massachusetts.

    “Wildfire is a bigger issue in Hawaii than many people may realize,” Frazier said via email from Hawaii, where she has been working on a research project in Oahu.

    “During the wet season, fuels are built up and then dry out over the dry season,” she added. “When you combine these dry fuels with the high winds and low humidity we have right now from Hurricane Dora, we have extremely dangerous fire weather.”

    Another compounding factor is El Niño, Frazier said. The climate pattern originates in the Pacific Ocean along the equator and impacts weather all over the world.

    “This means higher than usual hurricane activity in the central Pacific this summer,” she wrote.

    “While we tend to see wetter conditions during El Nino summers (which builds up fire fuels), Hawaii should expect drought conditions likely this winter, which will dry out the fuels and usually leads to an earlier start to our fire season for next year.”

    van dam hawaii vpx

    A hurricane is fueling wildfires in Hawaii. Meteorologist explains how

    Nonnative species now cover nearly a quarter of Hawaii’s total land area, and invasive grasses and shrubs become highly flammable in the dry season, Trauernicht said.

    Hawaii also has lost large plantations and ranches, with fire-prone grasses overtaking fallow lands, he said.

    “When plantations were active, firefighters would show up on scene … people would be there opening the gates, all the roads were maintained, there was water infrastructure and equipment. And they would have support from the people working on these plantations,” Trauernicht said.

    “As that has changed, and land use has changed. It’s all on the firefighters right now.”

    Hawaii also has suffered from dramatic shifts in rainfall patterns.

    The area burned each year in Hawaii is now about 1% of the state’s total land area – comparable to and often exceeding the 12 Western states on the mainland where fires are most common, according to Trauernicht and the Pacific Fire Exchange.

    The geography of Hawaii – an island chain in the Pacific – and limited firefighting resources also complicate efforts.

    Personnel at the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife are primarily natural resource managers, foresters, biologists and technicians – not full-time wildland firefighters, according to the agency website.

    “West Maui is kind of a perfect example – one highway through the whole place,” Trauernicht told CNN. “Our resources are limited to what’s on island. The resources … are going to be spread thin.”

    Fewer than 300 firefighting personnel responded to the state’s second-largest fire, on the Big Island in 2021, Trauernicht said.

    “If you compare that to the mainland, there would have been probably a couple of thousand firefighters,” he said.

    “That gives you a sense of the kind of … limitations that we have here. This fire right now, I guarantee it, anyone who’s available to respond is responding. We don’t really have the ability to definitely bring in resources from other states. That’s not happening.”

    By Thursday, meanwhile, the wildfires had killed at least 36 people on the island, compared to six deaths reported just a day earlier.

    “I think this is going to be far worse than anything we’ve ever seen, unfortunately,” Trauernicht said.

    Despite warnings it seems many were taken by surprise.

    “The National Weather Service issued a kind of heads up. We had a few days lead time about the weather conditions,” Trauernicht said.

    “We anticipated the high winds and dry conditions. But managing fuels at the scale in which we need to, those are actions that need to be taken at minimum months in advance of these fires and these conditions.”

    Longer-term planning and prevention efforts are needed to fight the growth of invasive grasses and shrubs, Trauernicht said.

    “This is something that we’ve been saying for decades,” he said. “We can create landscapes that are far less likely to burn, far less sensitive to these fluctuations in climate or in weather that create such dangerous conditions.

    “We sort of owe it to these guys that are fighting this thing right now.”

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  • ‘This is going to get worse before it gets better’: Panama Canal pileup due to drought reaches 154 vessels

    ‘This is going to get worse before it gets better’: Panama Canal pileup due to drought reaches 154 vessels

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    A ship navigates through the Panama Canal in the area near the Americas’ Bridge in Panama City on April 24, 2023. The scarcity of rainfall due has forced the Panama Canal to reduce the draft of ships passing through the interoceanic waterway, in the midst of a water supply crisis that threatens the future of this maritime route.

    Luis Acosta | Afp | Getty Images

    The number of vessels waiting to cross the Panama Canal has reached 154, and slots for carriers to book passage are being reduced in an effort to manage congestion caused by ongoing drought conditions that have roiled the major shipping gateway since the spring. The current wait time to cross the canal is now around 21 days.

    The Panama Canal is a critical trade link for U.S. shippers heading to Gulf and East Coast ports. The U.S. is the largest user of the Panama Canal, with total U.S. commodity export and import containers representing about 73% of Panama Canal traffic. Forty percent of all U.S. container traffic travels through the canal every year, about $270 billion in cargo.

    The massive pileup is a result of water conservation measures the Panama Canal Authority deployed in late July due to drought. The PCA has temporarily lowered the availability of booking slots from August 8-August 21 for Panamax vessels, which are the largest vessels that can cross the canal. These vessels can carry 4,500 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), which are the dimensions of a container. The number of pre-booking slots was reduced to 14 daily from 23.

    Satellite photos from Planet Labs detail the congestion.

    Vessels waiting to cross Panama Canal from Pacific Ocean side. Red square indicates Panama Canal

    ‘Planet Labs PBC’

    This latest reduction in bookings is on the heels of the PCA reducing the number of vessels allowed to go through the canal in a day. Starting on July 30, 2023, the daily transit capacity of the Panama Canal was adjusted to an average of 32 vessels per day (10 vessels in the newer Neopanamax locks, which serve the larger vessels, and 22 vessels in the older Panamax locks). Before the water conservation measures, transits were 34 to 36 a day.

    When the daily capacity is reduced, ships lacking reservations are compelled to wait in line. The Panama Canal Authority tells CNBC 38% of ships waiting have reservations. The remaining 62% of ships do not, which means they have to wait for the vessels with reservations to proceed across the canal.

    A temporary measure was put in place where five ships a day on the Panamax locks can traverse the canal on a first come first served basis. The measure is designed to help reduce waiting times but backlog remains.

    The PCA told CNBC that the last time a backlog of vessels like the current situation was in 2022, when the world of shipping was impacted by residual delays from the pandemic and the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

    Additional lower water level restrictions imposed by the PCA in July also require vessels to be 40% lighter, impacting vessels that were in transit when the requirements were implemented. The Ever Max was forced to unload 1,400 TEUs at the Port of Balboa in order to meet the requirements and gain passage. The vessel is currently anchored at the Port of Savannah.

    “Those containers left may need another vessel to complete the journey,” said Captain Adil Ashiq, head of North America for MarineTraffic. “This is going to get worse before it gets better,” he said.

    A canal lock uses 50 million gallons of water when a single vessel traverses the canal. Water levels in Gatun Lake, which feeds the canal, are at a four-year low.

    Ricaurte Vásquez Morales, administrator of the Panama Canal, said that considering the changing circumstances, the canal is maintaining an open line of communication to keep customers informed about booking slot availability. “Through regular updates, transparent dialogue, and close collaboration with shipping lines and stakeholders, we strive to manage expectations and provide real-time information that enables our customers to make informed decisions,” he said.

    Ashiq explained that vessels have to wait longer to transit the canal or ocean carriers make a business decision to take alternative routes, which add time and fuel costs to the journey. Shippers using multiple vessels to move their freight adds to freight costs, and longer lead times to secure bookings. Ultimately, he said, these costs may end up being passed down to businesses and consumers.

    Recent data released by supply chain intelligence firm Descartes shows the East Coast ports continue to be the preference for U.S. shippers. The top five West Coast ports showed a decrease of 4.1% in July, and the top East and Gulf Coast ports processed an increase of 4.1% during the same timeframe.

    “Now is not the time to further stress supply chains that are still straining under ongoing logistical pressures,” said Stephen Lamar, president and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association. He said surcharges and vessel restrictions will likely mean higher clothing and shoe prices for U.S. consumers this holiday season.

    Alan Baer, CEO of logistics company OL USA, told CNBC that shippers may have to start looking at other routes.

    “With the increasing difficulty of reaching the U.S. East Coast via the Panama Canal, importers may be looking at vessels transiting the Suez,” Baer said. He added that this can be an effective solution for freight originating in the ASEAN region and some Southern China origins. However, for Northern China and North Asia, deviation via the Suez can add seven to 14 days of additional transit time.

    Energy sector diversions are already happening

    Diversions are already happening in the energy sector. The mounting delays have clean tankers, which carry refined petroleum products, avoiding the canal, shifting their preference to book routes to the Atlantic Basin, according to S&P Global. Data from its Commodities at Sea unit shows that in the combined June to July period, U.S. Gulf Coast clean petroleum product exports using the canal and traveling to the West Coast of South America slowed by 82% year over year. Exports in July, specifically, were down 12% year over year.

    Cheniere Energy announced in July that it would avoid the Panama Canal to ship LNG because of the wait times. The canal is the quickest route for the LNG market to reach Asia. Coal traffic is also being impacted and making adjustments. India is a big importer of U.S. coal and vessels carrying the commodity also use the Panama Canal.

    Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the correct volume in traffic for the top five West Coast ports and the top East and Gulf Coast ports during the same time frame.

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  • You-pick farms lose customers and crops through heat, drought and haze in Iowa

    You-pick farms lose customers and crops through heat, drought and haze in Iowa

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    You-pick farms are struggling through heat, drought and haze

    BRIGHTON, Iowa — You-pick farms are struggling through heat, drought and haze as customers cancel picking appointments and crops across Iowa refuse to grow.

    These farms offer visitors the chance to harvest their own produce straight from the tree, bush or ground.

    But this summer marks Iowa’s third year in a row of drought. And that is hurting farmers who grow water-intensive crops like blueberries and strawberries that are particularly sensitive to heat and drought, the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported.

    Kim Anderson told The Gazette that her well started faltering during last summer’s heat and drought at her 5-acre Blueberry Bottom Farm near Brighton in southeastern Iowa.

    Many of her blueberry bushes became parched. And recently, for the first time in the farm’s five-season history, she had to cancel a day of picking appointments because there weren’t enough ripe berries.

    “I just never anticipated something like this, that the well wouldn’t have enough water,” she said.

    Similarly, Dean Henry told The Gazette that these are the worst conditions he has seen in his 56 years of operating the Berry Patch Farm in Nevada in central Iowa.

    Henry said the Iowa Department of Natural Resources restricted his well water usage from 20 acres a day to 1 acre a day. But his strawberry plants need lots of water.

    This year, his entire crop failed.

    The heat has affected customers too. Some you-pick farms reported a decrease in customer visits, according to The Gazette. If people do come, they aren’t staying as long as normal to take in the entertainment at the farms, like picnic tables or games.

    Smoke from Canadian wildfires also caused Iowa skies to grow hazy and air quality to be poor several times this summer. Customers canceled their appointments on especially hazy days, Anderson said.

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  • French tourism businesses are wary of customers drying up as droughts worsen

    French tourism businesses are wary of customers drying up as droughts worsen

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    SAINTE-CROIX du VERDON, France — At the pristine southern French lake of Sainte-Croix-du-Verdon, tourists in pedal boats and on white water rafts — and the businesses that welcome them — have been buoyed by generous rainfall and good water management this spring.

    After a prolonged drought last summer, then another in the winter that followed, the once cracked lakebeds are now abundantly watered. Dams are releasing water into reservoirs on a consistent schedule for activities in the lake.

    But tour operators are still wary.

    “Rafting and kayaking is great, but if tomorrow there is not enough water in the river, we will have to reinvent ourselves,” said Antoine Coudray of Secret River Tours, that operates in the gorges of Verdon.

    The artificial lake of Sainte-Croix, a bustling tourist attraction, is one of three reservoirs in the area built for 16 hydroelectric dams. The dams supply the southeastern region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur with 35% of its electricity needs.

    Human-caused climate change is lengthening droughts in southern France, meaning the reservoirs are increasingly drained to lower levels to maintain the power generation and water supply needed for nearby towns and cities. It’s concerning those in the tourism industry, who are working out how to keep their lakeside businesses afloat in the long term if water levels remain low or unpredictable.

    The three reservoir lakes in the area — Serre Ponçon, Castillon and Sainte-Croix — quickly became a draw for nature lovers after their construction in the middle of the 20th century. They’re known for their crisp, clear waters in undisturbed valleys surrounded by tall mountains. The region attracts over 4.6 million visitors a year, the bulk of whom flock to the cool lakes during the summer months.

    Water levels in the reservoirs are set and managed by national energy giant EDF, which operates the dams.

    Last year, the low water levels from a lack of snow and rain in the spring meant the company was forced to draw on the reservoirs to keep hydroelectric power going and water pipes in southern France flowing for drinking and agriculture.

    Then it kept getting worse. By August, France’s government warned the country was in the midst of its fourth heat wave that year, further dwindling water supplies that evaporated in the blazing temperatures.

    For many in the tourism industry, last year’s low water levels came as a shock.

    “In 35 years of working here, I’ve never seen a year like last year. We were not at all prepared,” said Jean-Claude Fraizy who runs a canoe and kayak rental base on the Castillon lake. His leisure center’s sales figures were down by 60% last year.

    “If there is no water, there is no desire to come to the lake,” he said.

    More shocks could follow. A 32-day long dry spell over winter — the longest in recorded history — means reservoirs still haven’t fully recovered for this summer.

    Paul Marquis, founder of meteorology service E-Meteo, said the winter saw 40% less snowfall, keeping water levels below average despite recent rain.

    The Serre-Poncon lake reached just 755 meters (2,480 feet) over winter, prompting EDF to hold back its hydroelectric production so that the water level would have a chance of returning to the optimal level of 780 meters (2,560 feet) in time for the summer season, Marquis said.

    Marquis added that groundwater in the region will also not replenish fast enough, “meaning that we could see water restrictions come in to place during the summer.”

    Touring companies are already preparing.

    “These days we have to be conscious that there will be less and less water in the river for us, so we have to know how to adapt,” said Coudray. He’s introduced “drought-proof” packrafting into the region over the past of couple of years, where the inflatable bottom allows it to float in much shallower waters in the Gorges du Verdon.

    Guillaume Requena, a tour guide at the company Aquabond Rafting, said they have started to offer tubing, another activity that works on lower water levels as they can float along the surface.

    Wary of the spring rains being a temporary blip in the longer-term trend toward drier conditions, Requena knows tour companies need to find a longer term solution and try to ensure that water levels in the reservoirs can be maintained.

    “All of the actors affected by how the water is managed in the region by EDF will have to keep negotiating at the table for their own interests as a changing climate adds more pressure,” he said.

    But with so many people reliant on the dams for power and water in the cities and towns below, Requena is all too aware that propping up the lakes’ tourism industry is further down on the priority list.

    “It is not necessarily the twenty or so rafting businesses who have the final say in the management of water resources,” said Requena. “In many ways we are the last wheel on this wagon.”

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • French tourism businesses are wary of customers drying up as droughts worsen

    French tourism businesses are wary of customers drying up as droughts worsen

    [ad_1]

    SAINTE-CROIX du VERDON, France — At the pristine southern French lake of Sainte-Croix-du-Verdon, tourists in pedal boats and on white water rafts — and the businesses that welcome them — have been buoyed by generous rainfall and good water management this spring.

    After a prolonged drought last summer, then another in the winter that followed, the once cracked lakebeds are now abundantly watered. Dams are releasing water into reservoirs on a consistent schedule for activities in the lake.

    But tour operators are still wary.

    “Rafting and kayaking is great, but if tomorrow there is not enough water in the river, we will have to reinvent ourselves,” said Antoine Coudray of Secret River Tours, that operates in the gorges of Verdon.

    The artificial lake of Sainte-Croix, a bustling tourist attraction, is one of three reservoirs in the area built for 16 hydroelectric dams. The dams supply the southeastern region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur with 35% of its electricity needs.

    Human-caused climate change is lengthening droughts in southern France, meaning the reservoirs are increasingly drained to lower levels to maintain the power generation and water supply needed for nearby towns and cities. It’s concerning those in the tourism industry, who are working out how to keep their lakeside businesses afloat in the long term if water levels remain low or unpredictable.

    The three reservoir lakes in the area — Serre Ponçon, Castillon and Sainte-Croix — quickly became a draw for nature lovers after their construction in the middle of the 20th century. They’re known for their crisp, clear waters in undisturbed valleys surrounded by tall mountains. The region attracts over 4.6 million visitors a year, the bulk of whom flock to the cool lakes during the summer months.

    Water levels in the reservoirs are set and managed by national energy giant EDF, which operates the dams.

    Last year, the low water levels from a lack of snow and rain in the spring meant the company was forced to draw on the reservoirs to keep hydroelectric power going and water pipes in southern France flowing for drinking and agriculture.

    Then it kept getting worse. By August, France’s government warned the country was in the midst of its fourth heat wave that year, further dwindling water supplies that evaporated in the blazing temperatures.

    For many in the tourism industry, last year’s low water levels came as a shock.

    “In 35 years of working here, I’ve never seen a year like last year. We were not at all prepared,” said Jean-Claude Fraizy who runs a canoe and kayak rental base on the Castillon lake. His leisure center’s sales figures were down by 60% last year.

    “If there is no water, there is no desire to come to the lake,” he said.

    More shocks could follow. A 32-day long dry spell over winter — the longest in recorded history — means reservoirs still haven’t fully recovered for this summer.

    Paul Marquis, founder of meteorology service E-Meteo, said the winter saw 40% less snowfall, keeping water levels below average despite recent rain.

    The Serre-Poncon lake reached just 755 meters (2,480 feet) over winter, prompting EDF to hold back its hydroelectric production so that the water level would have a chance of returning to the optimal level of 780 meters (2,560 feet) in time for the summer season, Marquis said.

    Marquis added that groundwater in the region will also not replenish fast enough, “meaning that we could see water restrictions come in to place during the summer.”

    Touring companies are already preparing.

    “These days we have to be conscious that there will be less and less water in the river for us, so we have to know how to adapt,” said Coudray. He’s introduced “drought-proof” packrafting into the region over the past of couple of years, where the inflatable bottom allows it to float in much shallower waters in the Gorges du Verdon.

    Guillaume Requena, a tour guide at the company Aquabond Rafting, said they have started to offer tubing, another activity that works on lower water levels as they can float along the surface.

    Wary of the spring rains being a temporary blip in the longer-term trend toward drier conditions, Requena knows tour companies need to find a longer term solution and try to ensure that water levels in the reservoirs can be maintained.

    “All of the actors affected by how the water is managed in the region by EDF will have to keep negotiating at the table for their own interests as a changing climate adds more pressure,” he said.

    But with so many people reliant on the dams for power and water in the cities and towns below, Requena is all too aware that propping up the lakes’ tourism industry is further down on the priority list.

    “It is not necessarily the twenty or so rafting businesses who have the final say in the management of water resources,” said Requena. “In many ways we are the last wheel on this wagon.”

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Got Sriracha? The price for a bottle of Huy Fong’s iconic hot sauce gets spicy with supplies short

    Got Sriracha? The price for a bottle of Huy Fong’s iconic hot sauce gets spicy with supplies short

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    NEW YORK — It’s not just you. Sriracha is hard to come by these days — at least for one popular brand.

    The shortage of Huy Fong Foods’ Sriracha, the beloved red hot sauce packaged in those green-capped bottles, isn’t new — with the company pointing to a scarcity of chile pepper supply for several years now. And as frustrated fans continue to face store shelves missing the Huy Fong name, third-party resellers are punching up prices.

    Huy Fong Sriracha, which used to go for under $5 or $10 a bottle, is now selling for shocking amounts in some listings posted to sites with vast third-party marketplaces — including Amazon, eBay and Walmart. Many are simply sold out.

    For those still in stock, prices range depending where you look. As of Thursday morning, for example, ads for a single 17-ounce bottle on eBay stretched from around $20 to a whopping $150 — contrasting significantly with the price tags of other hot sauce brands, which don’t appear to have the same level of supply troubles.

    Huy Fong told The Associated Press this week that it continues to be beset by shortages of raw materials, echoing a similar scarcity last year when the company temporarily suspended sales of Sriracha and other popular products like Chili Garlic and Sambal Oelek.

    Huy Fong said Wednesday that “limited production” resumed recently, although the California company didn’t specify by how much or provide an estimate of when it believes suppliers will be able to deliver an adequate number of peppers.

    “Because we do not sell directly to retail/market levels, we cannot determine when the product will hit shelves again and/or who currently has the product in stock,” Huy Fong said in a prepared statement. “We are grateful for your continued patience and understanding during this unprecedented inventory shortage.”

    Here’s what you need to know.

    WHY IS THERE A HUY FONG SRIRACHA SHORTAGE?

    Some experts say that Huy Fong’s shortage is partially a consequence of climate change — pointing to weather shifts and extreme drought in Mexico and the U.S. Southwest, where Huy Fong sources all of its chile peppers.

    “The main culprit here is a shortage of their primary ingredient, the red jalapeño chile pepper,” said David Ortega, a food economist and associate professor at Michigan State University. “And that’s due to climate change and the mega drought.”

    These peppers are typically grown under irrigation, with a lot of water drawn from the Colorado River — which has reached unprecedented low levels over recent years, Ortega said. The region has suffered insufficient rainfall and reduced run-off from snow pack.

    Huy Fong’s troubles with chile supply aren’t new. When the company suspended sales last year, it pointed to a 2020 email warning of a chile pepper shortage, noting that a lack of supply had become more severe due to recent weather conditions.

    But while climate change impacts agriculture as a whole, it’s “not the whole story” for the current Huy Fong Sriracha shortage, said Stephanie Walker, extension vegetable specialist and professor at New Mexico State University. She speculates that Huy Fong may not have enough suppliers with different farmers — and could be looking to build relationships with new growers.

    “Last year (Huy Fong) just couldn’t get the jalapeños that they needed,” said Walker, who also specializes in chile pepper breeding. She noted the contrast to other brands’ supply. “It really does come down to relations that individual processors have with their grower base.”

    She added that it looks like this year will be a strong season for jalapeño and other chile growth in the region.

    WHERE DOES HUY FONG GET ITS CHILE PEPPERS?

    Huy Fong, which was founded decades ago by David Tran, currently sources its chile peppers from various farms in California, New Mexico and Mexico.

    Before sourcing from these farms, California-based Underwood Ranches was Huy Fong’s sole supplier for nearly 30 years. The partnership collapsed in 2017 following a financial dispute. Two years later, a jury determined that Huy Fong breached its contract with Underwood Ranches and also committed fraud — awarding Underwood $23.3 million.

    In a phone interview Thursday afternoon, Craig Underwood, owner of Underwood Ranches, disagreed with the drought and climate change explanations for Huy Fong’s shortage — arguing that Tran “has not rebuilt his supply chain the way he needed to.”

    According to Underwood, there has continued to be a steady supply of jalapeño peppers from Mexico. Underwood Ranches, which now sells its own brand of Sriracha, also started producing red jalapeño peppers again this year — in part because of the Huy Fong shortage, he added.

    “The demand for our product has increased rather dramatically,” Underwood said.

    PRICES SKYROCKET FROM

    The erosion of Huy Fong’s available supplies has rocked the prices of the brand’s Sriracha that is still available. In many places, the bottles are simply sold out — giving leverage to resellers listing the now hard-to-find and highly sought-after product.

    Another market force at play is consumer behavior, in this case, hording. The panic around potentially losing access to a desired product leads many people to buy more than they would typically need, as was seen with toilet paper at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “People just stock up and that exacerbates the situation,” said Ortega, also an expert in consumer decision-making. “You have an increase in demand for the product, on top of these supply shocks. And prices have really nowhere to go but up.”

    ARE OTHER HOT SAUCES FACING SHORTAGES?

    There’s a myriad of hot sauces, including other of Sriracha-style products, that remain easy to find at reasonable prices. Tabasco, for example, has created a page dedicated to helping customers find nearby stores that sell its brand of Sriracha — and notes that it’s been able to scale production to “meet the majority of the of surge in demand” for its sauce.

    There are a few possible explanations for this, experts say. Some speculate that Huy Fong has issues with its current chile suppliers. Other brands could also use different pepper variants and source from more farms. Some might also be in a position to tinker with recipes — but perfecting sauces take a long time, as would finding a new variant, experts say.

    “Growing the crop in an area less affected by extreme weather or breeding new variants of the peppers that are more tolerant to heat and require less water, if possible, at all, would take years,” Richard Howells, a supply chain expert at SAP, wrote in a blog post earlier this week.

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  • Sailors rejoice after snowy winter raises Great Salt Lake — for now

    Sailors rejoice after snowy winter raises Great Salt Lake — for now

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    By SAM METZ



     


    ON THE GREAT SALT LAKE (AP) — A brisk wind caught a Kevlar-fiber sail, sending it snapping as Bob Derby and Randy Atkin pulled lines to turn Red Stripe, their 25-foot boat, through the briny waters of the imperiled Great Salt Lake.

    Little could be heard beyond the low hum of trucks wheeling past a copper smelter on the lake’s shoreline — a respite from the bustle of Salt Lake City and its booming suburbs that push farther into Utah’s deserts and farmland each year.

    “Everything that happened today drifts off behind you and there’s nothing like it,’” said Derby, a 61-year-old veteran sailor battling cancer. “There’s no better therapy than being on the lake.”

    It’s a feeling old friends Derby and Atkin weren’t sure they’d experience again.

    Randy Atkin unfurls a sail while boating on the Great Salt Lake on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, near Magna, Utah. Sailors back out on the water are rejoicing after a snowy winter provided temporary reprieve. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

    Empty docks are visible at the Antelope Island Marina due to record low water levels on Aug. 31, 2022, on the Great Salt Lake, near Syracuse, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
    Empty docks are visible at the Antelope Island Marina due to record low water levels on Aug. 31, 2022, on the Great Salt Lake, near Syracuse, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) –

    Rick Bowmer/AP

    Historic snowpack this winter increased the Great Salt Lake's elevation beyond last year's record lows set and refilled the docks at the Antelope Island State Park Marina on June 15, 2023, near Syracuse, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
    Historic snowpack this winter increased the Great Salt Lake’s elevation beyond last year’s record lows set and refilled the docks at the Antelope Island State Park Marina on June 15, 2023, near Syracuse, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) –

    Rick Bowmer/AP

    Sail boats are hoisted back into the Great Salt Lake Marina on June 6, 2023, in Magna, Utah. Sailors back out on the water are rejoicing after a snowy winter provided temporary reprieve. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

    Sail boats are hoisted back into the Great Salt Lake Marina on June 6, 2023, in Magna, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

    The Red Stripe’s return comes after it and hundreds of other sailboats were hoisted out of the shrinking Great Salt Lake as water levels plummeted in recent years, leaving docks along the lake’s parched southern shore caked with dried mud. The harbormaster at Great Salt Lake State Park’s marina, Dave Shearer, wondered whether he’d see their return before he retires.

    But a record winter of snow has melted and run down through the creeks, streams and rivers that feed the lake, raising its peak level this season about 6 feet (1.8 meters) from last year’s record low — enough to let sailors crane their boats back into the water and convene their beloved Wednesday races where cold beer and banter are as important as who wins.

    Tyler Oborn fire spins at a gathering of dancers and performers on the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake on June 15, 2023, in Magna, Utah. Oborn, who also works at a pontoon boat tour company, said the lake’s rise has given communities that rely on it new life. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

    Tyler Oborn fire spins at a gathering of dancers and performers on the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake on June 15, 2023, in Magna, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

    With their return, they’ve joined many others — farmers, skiers and nearby homeowners — in rejoicing over the surprise rise of the Great Salt Lake amid long-term megadrought.

    “There’s finally some life back in the marina,” said Tyler Oborn, who guides pontoon tours on the lake and enjoys fire-dancing on its shoreline.

    But it’s not clear it will last.

    The Great Salt Lake faces a supply-demand imbalance: As climate change-fueled drought decreases the amount of water that cascades down through the region’s mountains and rivers, appetite for water is increasing from booming towns along the Wasatch Front as well as the farmers whose livelihoods hinge on their fields of alfalfa and onions.

    “Everybody talks about the lake being up, but it’s coming from a historic low. That was an unbelievable catastrophe,” said Derby, who works for a medical device manufacturer. “Now it’s just like a moderate disaster. I worry that everybody declares victory, says the Great Salt Lake has been saved and that we can stop worrying about conserving water.”

    Boats were removed in 2021 and many were put back in 2023

    The diminished Great Salt Lake isn’t the boating mecca or vacation destination it was decades ago, when its footprint was about twice the size it is now. But it remains a lifeblood for Utah’s economy, sustaining a $1.5 billion-a-year mining industry that extracts minerals including magnesium and table salt, an $80 million brine shrimp industry for fish feed and a $1.4 billlion ski industry that markets itself with the fluffy “lake effect” snow that the geography supplies.

    Brigham Young University ecologist Ben Abbott, who authored a January study that warned the lake could dry up within five years, said every foot of lake level rise helps — especially in suppressing hazardous dust from the exposed lake bed. But 6 feet — and images of boats going back in the water — shouldn’t calm the sense of urgency for Utah to take action that could guarantee the lake’s survival, he said.

    “Back on a crashing plane is not where we want to be,” Abbott said. “We should be viewing this big winter as a lease on life and an opportunity to get our long-term conservation measures in place.”

    Before the bump from this winter’s record snow, dire warnings like Abbott’s made saving the Great Salt Lake a top priority for Utah politicians. State and local officials offered millions in incentives to encourage farmers to conserve and pushed education for homeowners and municipalities. But they’ve avoided considering draconian policies beingimplementedelsewhere in the drought-stricken West: water rationing, zoning requirements or fines for overuse.

    “Mother Nature really helped us out,” Republican Sen. Scott Sandall said earlier this year, during Utah’s legislative session. “We didn’t have to pull that lever for emergency use.”

    A young person runs through the Great Salt Lake on June 15, 2023, near Magna, Utah. People are rejoicing after the winter's snow melted and increased the lake's elevation beyond last year's record low. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

    A young person runs through the Great Salt Lake on June 15, 2023, near Magna, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

    Kelsey Isis performs during a gathering of dancers and performers at sunset on the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake on June 15, 2023, in Magna, Utah. People are rejoicing after the winter's snow melted and increased the lake's elevation beyond last year's record low. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

    Kelsey Isis performs during a gathering of dancers and performers at sunset on the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake on June 15, 2023, in Magna, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

    If the great lake resumes its decline, it could mean collapse of the ecosystem. Without enough water flowing to the lake, the reefs that nurture species such as brine fly and shrimp will be decimated, in turn affecting the larger species that feed on them, including pelicans and other migratory birds. And every bit of exposed lakebed means more arsenic-laced dust available for wind to pick up and carry to nearby homes, schools and office parks.

    For now, Derby and other sailors are relishing the opportunity to unfurl their sails and reconnect with friends over crisp breezes and corny jokes.

    “It’s so nice, it’s beautiful,” said Atkin, looking up at the sails. “You feel the power of the wind a little bit, how bad can it be?”

    The sun sets on the Great Salt Lake on June 15, 2023, near Magna, Utah. Thanks to an abnormally wet winter that has raised the lake 6 feet from last November's historic low, sailboats and activities are back. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

    The sun sets on the Great Salt Lake on June 15, 2023, near Magna, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

    __

    Follow Sam Metz on Twitter: https://twitter.com/metzsam

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Sailors rejoice after snowy winter raises Great Salt Lake — for now

    Sailors rejoice after snowy winter raises Great Salt Lake — for now

    [ad_1]

    ON THE GREAT SALT LAKE — A brisk wind caught a Kevlar-fiber sail, sending it snapping as Bob Derby and Randy Atkin pulled lines to turn Red Stripe, their 25-foot boat, through the briny waters of the imperiled Great Salt Lake.

    Little could be heard beyond the low hum of trucks wheeling past a copper smelter on the lake’s shoreline — a respite from the bustle of Salt Lake City and its booming suburbs that push farther into Utah’s deserts and farmland each year.

    “Everything that happened today drifts off behind you and there’s nothing like it,’” said Derby, a 61-year-old veteran sailor battling cancer. “There’s no better therapy than being on the lake.”

    It’s a feeling old friends Derby and Atkin weren’t sure they’d experience again.

    The Red Stripe’s return comes after it and hundreds of other sailboats were hoisted out of the shrinking Great Salt Lake as water levels plummeted in recent years, leaving docks along the lake’s parched southern shore caked with dried mud. The harbormaster at Great Salt Lake State Park’s marina, Dave Shearer, wondered whether he’d see their return before he retires.

    But a record winter of snow has melted and run down through the creeks, streams and rivers that feed the lake, raising its peak level this season about 6 feet (1.8 meters) from last year’s record low — enough to let sailors crane their boats back into the water and convene their beloved Wednesday races where cold beer and banter are as important as who wins.

    With their return, they’ve joined many others — farmers, skiers and nearby homeowners — in rejoicing over the surprise rise of the Great Salt Lake amid long-term megadrought.

    “There’s finally some life back in the marina,” said Tyler Oborn, who guides pontoon tours on the lake and enjoys fire-dancing on its shoreline.

    But it’s not clear it will last.

    The Great Salt Lake faces a supply-demand imbalance: As climate change-fueled drought decreases the amount of water that cascades down through the region’s mountains and rivers, appetite for water is increasing from booming towns along the Wasatch Front as well as the farmers whose livelihoods hinge on their fields of alfalfa and onions.

    “Everybody talks about the lake being up, but it’s coming from a historic low. That was an unbelievable catastrophe,” said Derby, who works for a medical device manufacturer. “Now it’s just like a moderate disaster. I worry that everybody declares victory, says the Great Salt Lake has been saved and that we can stop worrying about conserving water.”

    The diminished Great Salt Lake isn’t the boating mecca or vacation destination it was decades ago, when its footprint was about twice the size it is now. But it remains a lifeblood for Utah’s economy, sustaining a $1.5 billion-a-year mining industry that extracts minerals including magnesium and table salt, an $80 million brine shrimp industry for fish feed and a $1.4 billlion ski industry that markets itself with the fluffy “lake effect” snow that the geography supplies.

    Brigham Young University ecologist Ben Abbott, who authored a January study that warned the lake could dry up within five years, said every foot of lake level rise helps — especially in suppressing hazardous dust from the exposed lake bed. But 6 feet — and images of boats going back in the water — shouldn’t calm the sense of urgency for Utah to take action that could guarantee the lake’s survival, he said.

    “Back on a crashing plane is not where we want to be,” Abbott said. “We should be viewing this big winter as a lease on life and an opportunity to get our long-term conservation measures in place.”

    Before the bump from this winter’s record snow, dire warnings like Abbott’s made saving the Great Salt Lake a top priority for Utah politicians. State and local officials offered millions in incentives to encourage farmers to conserve and pushed education for homeowners and municipalities. But they’ve avoided considering draconian policies beingimplementedelsewhere in the drought-stricken West: water rationing, zoning requirements or fines for overuse.

    “Mother Nature really helped us out,” Republican Sen. Scott Sandall said earlier this year, during Utah’s legislative session. “We didn’t have to pull that lever for emergency use.”

    If the great lake resumes its decline, it could mean collapse of the ecosystem. Without enough water flowing to the lake, the reefs that nurture species such as brine fly and shrimp will be decimated, in turn affecting the larger species that feed on them, including pelicans and other migratory birds. And every bit of exposed lakebed means more arsenic-laced dust available for wind to pick up and carry to nearby homes, schools and office parks.

    For now, Derby and other sailors are relishing the opportunity to unfurl their sails and reconnect with friends over crisp breezes and corny jokes.

    “It’s so nice, it’s beautiful,” said Atkin, looking up at the sails. “You feel the power of the wind a little bit, how bad can it be?”

    __

    Follow Sam Metz on Twitter: https://twitter.com/metzsam

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Supreme Court rules against Navajo Nation in Colorado River water rights case

    Supreme Court rules against Navajo Nation in Colorado River water rights case

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    The Supreme Court has ruled against the Navajo Nation in a dispute involving water from the drought-stricken Colorado River

    ByJESSICA GRESKO Associated Press

    FILE – The Supreme Court is seen on April 21, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

    The Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled against the Navajo Nation on Thursday in a dispute involving water from the drought-stricken Colorado River.

    States that draw water from the river — Arizona, Nevada and Colorado — and water districts in California that are also involved in the case had urged the court to decide for them, which the justices did in a 5-4 ruling. Colorado had argued that siding with the Navajo Nation would undermine existing agreements and disrupt the management of the river.

    The Biden administration had said that if the court were to come down in favor of the Navajo Nation, the federal government could face lawsuits from many other tribes.

    Lawyers for the Navajo Nation had characterized the tribe’s request as modest, saying they simply were seeking an assessment of the tribe’s water needs and a plan to meet them.

    The facts of the case go back to treaties that the tribe and the federal government signed in 1849 and 1868. The second treaty established the reservation as the tribe’s “permanent home” — a promise the Navajo Nation says includes a sufficient supply of water. In 2003 the tribe sued the federal government, arguing it had failed to consider or protect the Navajo Nation’s water rights to the lower portion of the Colorado River.

    A federal trial court initially dismissed the lawsuit; an appeals court allowed it to go forward.

    During arguments in the case in March, Justice Samuel Alito pointed out that the Navajo Nation’s original reservation was hundreds of miles away from the section of the Colorado River it now seeks water from.

    Today, the Colorado River flows along what is now the northwestern border of the tribe’s reservation, which extends into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. Two of the river’s tributaries, the San Juan River and the Little Colorado River, also pass alongside and through the reservation. Still, one-third of the some 175,000 people who live on the reservation, the largest in the country, do not have running water in their homes.

    The government argued that it has helped the tribe secure water from the Colorado River’s tributaries and provided money for infrastructure, including pipelines, pumping plants and water treatment facilities. But it said no law or treaty required the government to assess and address the tribe’s general water needs. The states involved in the case argued that the Navajo Nation was attempting to make an end run around a Supreme Court decree that divvied up water in the Colorado River’s Lower Basin.

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  • AP PHOTOS: To save Alpine glaciers, Swiss team monitors the escalating melt

    AP PHOTOS: To save Alpine glaciers, Swiss team monitors the escalating melt

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    ByMATTHIAS SCHRADER Associated Press

    Team members of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology glaciologist and head of the Swiss measurement network ‘Glamos’, Matthias Huss, drill holes into the Rhone Glacier near Goms, Switzerland, Friday, June 16, 2023. Now dwindling at an alarming rate because of human-caused climate change, the group monitors what is left of the country’s glaciers in an attempt to slow their demise. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

    The Associated Press

    GOMS, Switzerland — It is a sight in decline across Switzerland: glaciers sprawled across the Alps, formed over centuries of snow and sediment packed into a crystalline mass.

    With the glaciers now dwindling at an alarming rate because of human-caused climate change, team members of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology monitor what’s left in an attempt to slow their demise.

    Glaciologist Matthias Huss and his team use measuring and monitoring equipment to keep tabs on how much they’ve shrunk and desperately try to maintain their mass.

    At the Rhone Glacier, one of the biggest in the Alps, workers prepare huge sheets to cover the ice like blankets in a bid to shield it from the warmth of the summer months.

    Some stretches of mountain once covered with the grayish blue of glaciers are now mostly shrouded by white covers. Chunks of ice floating in a nearby lake are also conserved. The sheets are effective locally but are just a small-scale solution.

    Alpine glaciers are still expected to vanish by the end of the century.

    In the short term, glacier melt has meant more water, filling Alpine lakes and the flows for many of Europe’s major rivers, giving some relief to those that rely on them amid Europe’s drought woes.

    But there’s also fear that the melting is causing glacier chunks to detach, sparking deadly avalanches.

    In the longer term, the glaciers’ disappearance would only add to the continent’s water concerns.

    Swiss glaciers experienced record melting last year, losing more than 6% of their volume and alarming scientists who say a loss of 2% would once have been considered extreme.

    At the Aletsch glacier, the longest and deepest in the Alps and popular with tourists, small blue pools form where the snow has melted from the June heat. Water covers the tunnel that leads hikers to it.

    But for those who travel to Aletsch, there’s still enough of the glacier — for now — to make the journey worthwhile.

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Drought, water overuse prompt Arizona to limit construction in some fast-growing parts of Phoenix

    Drought, water overuse prompt Arizona to limit construction in some fast-growing parts of Phoenix

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    PHOENIX — Arizona will not approve new housing construction on the fast-growing edges of metro Phoenix that rely on groundwater thanks to years of overuse and a multi-decade drought that is sapping its water supply.

    In a news conference Thursday, Gov. Katie Hobbs announced the restrictions that could affect some of the fastest-growing areas of the nation’s fifth-largest city.

    Officials said developers could still build in the affected areas but would need to find alternative water sources to do so — such as surface or recycled water.

    Driving the state’s decision was a projection that showed that over the next 100 years, demand in metro Phoenix for almost 4.9 million acre-feet of groundwater would be unmet without further action, Hobbs said. An acre-foot of water is roughly enough for two to three U.S. households per year.

    Despite the move, the governor said the state isn’t running out of water. “Nobody who has water is going to lose their water,” Hobbs said.

    Officials said the move would not affect existing homeowners who already have assured water supplies.

    Hobbs added that there are 80,000 unbuilt homes that will be able to move forward because they already have assured water supply certificates within the Phoenix Active Management Area, a designation used for regulating groundwater.

    Years of drought in the West worsened by climate change have ratcheted up pressure among Western states to use less water. Much of the focus has stayed on the dwindling Colorado River, a main water source for Arizona and six other Western states. Over the past two years, Arizona’s supply from the 1,450-mile powerhouse of the West has been cut twice.

    Phoenix relies on imported Colorado River water and also uses water from the in-state Salt and Verde rivers. A small amount of the city’s water supply comes from groundwater and recycled wastewater.

    The drought has made groundwater — held in underground aquifers that can take many years to be replenished — even more vital.

    Under a 1980 state law aimed at protecting the state’s aquifers, Phoenix, Tucson and other Arizona cities have restrictions on how much groundwater they can pump. But in rural areas, there are few limitations on its use.

    Long pumped by farmers and rural residents in Arizona with little oversight, Hobbs and other state officials recently vowed to take more steps to protect the state’s groundwater supplies.

    In rapidly growing Phoenix suburbs such as Queen Creek and Buckeye, developers have relied on unallocated groundwater to show that they had adequate water supplies for the next 100 years, which Arizona requires for building permits in some areas.

    “Developers rely on groundwater because it has been frankly, cheaper and easier for them, and they have been able to move through the process much more quickly,” said Nicole Klobas, chief counsel for the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

    Under the new restrictions, that won’t be possible.

    “It closes off that path,” said Kathryn Sorenson, director of research at the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University.

    Because the rule largely affects cities and towns outside Phoenix and larger cities in the metro area, Sorenson said developers would likely “weigh whether they want to continue to buy relatively cheap land … and incur the cost of developing a whole new water supply versus purchase land that is probably more expensive without the boundaries of a designated city.”

    ___

    Naishadham reported from Washington, D.C.

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  • No kidding: California overtime law threatens use of grazing goats to prevent wildfires

    No kidding: California overtime law threatens use of grazing goats to prevent wildfires

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    WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Hundreds of goats munch on long blades of yellow grass on a hillside next to a sprawling townhouse complex. They were hired to clear vegetation that could fuel wildfires as temperatures rise this summer.

    These voracious herbivores are in high demand to devour weeds and shrubs that have proliferated across California after a drought-busting winter of heavy rain and snow.

    “It’s a huge fuel source. If it was left untamed, it can grow very high. And then when the summer dries everything out, it’s perfect fuel for a fire,” said Jason Poupolo, parks superintendent for the city of West Sacramento, where goats grazed on a recent afternoon.

    Targeted grazing is part of California’s strategy to reduce wildfire risk because goats can eat a wide variety of vegetation and graze in steep, rocky terrain that’s hard to access. Backers say they’re an eco-friendly alternative to chemical herbicides or weed-whacking machines that are make noise and pollution.

    But new state labor regulations are making it more expensive to provide goat-grazing services, and herding companies say the rules threaten to put them out of business. The changes could raise the monthly salary of herders from about $3,730 to $14,000, according to the California Farm Bureau.

    Companies typically put about one herder in charge of 400 goats. Many of the herders in California are from Peru and live in employer-provided trailers near grazing sites. Labor advocates say the state should investigate the working and living conditions of goatherders before making changes to the law, especially since the state is funding goat-grazing to reduce wildfire risk.

    California is investing heavily in wildfire prevention after the state was ravaged by several years of destructive flames that scorched millions of acres, destroyed thousands of homes and killed dozens of people. Goats have been used to clear fuels around Lake Oroville, along Highway 101, and near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

    “My phone rings off the hook this time of year,” said Tim Arrowsmith, owner of Western Grazers, which is providing grazing services to West Sacramento. “The demand has grown year after year after year.”

    His company, based in the Northern California city of Red Bluff, has about 4,000 goats for hire to clear vegetation for government agencies and private landowners across Northern California. Without a fix to the new regulations, “we will be forced to sell these goats to slaughter and to the auction yards, and we’ll be forced out of business and probably file for bankruptcy,” Arrowsmith said.

    Companies have historically been allowed to pay goat and sheepherders a monthly minimum salary rather than an hourly minimum wage, because their jobs require them to be on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But legislation signed in 2016 also entitles them to overtime pay. It effectively boosted the herders’ minimum monthly pay from $1,955 in 2019 to $3,730 this year. It’s set to hit $4,381 in 2025, according to the California Department of Industrial Relations.

    So far the herding companies, which have sued over the law, have passed along most of the increased labor costs to their customers.

    But in January, those labor costs are set to jump sharply again. Goatherders and sheepherders have always followed the same set of labor rules last year. But a state agency has ruled that’s no longer allowed, meaning goatherders would be subject to the same labor laws as other farmworkers.

    That would mean goatherders would be entitled to ever higher pay — up to $14,000 a month. Last year a budget trailer bill delayed that pay requirement for one year, but it’s set to take affect on Jan. 1 if nothing is done to change the law.

    Goatherding companies say they can’t afford to pay herders that much. They would have to drastically raise their rates, which would make it unaffordable to provide goat grazing services.

    “We fully support increasing wages for herders, but $14,000 a month is not realistic. So we need to address that in order to allow these goat-grazing operations to exist,” said Brian Shobe, deputy policy director for the California Climate and Agriculture Network.

    The goat-grazing industry is pushing the Legislature to approve legislation that would treat goatherders the same as sheepherders. A bill to do so hasn’t yet received a public hearing.

    Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, who heads the California Labor Federation, said goatherders are among the “most vulnerable workers in America” because they are on temporary work visas and can be fired and sent back to their home country anytime. Most of them work in isolation, speak minimal English and don’t have the same rights as Americans or green-card holders.

    “We have a responsibility as a public to ensure that every worker who’s working in California is treated with dignity and respect, and that includes these goatherders,” said Gonzalez Fletcher, who sponsored the farmworker overtime bill when she was a state Assemblywoman representing San Diego.

    Arrowsmith employs seven goatherders from Peru under the H-2A visa program for temporary farmworkers. He said the herders are paid about $4,000 a month and don’t have to pay for food, housing or phones.

    “I can’t pay $14,000 a month to an employee starting Jan. 1. There’s just not enough money. The cities can’t absorb that kind of cost,” Arrowsmith said. “What’s at stake for the public is your house could burn up because we can’t fire-mitigate.”

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  • As electric cars boom, locals fear Chinese battery plant will harm land in drought-stricken Hungary

    As electric cars boom, locals fear Chinese battery plant will harm land in drought-stricken Hungary

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    DEBRECEN, Hungary — Just beyond the pastoral gardens and traditional homes of an eastern Hungarian village, a gigaproject of Chinese industry is taking shape.

    Bulldozers and excavators are already preparing the land for construction of a nearly 550-acre electric vehicle (EV) battery plant. The 7.3 billion euro ($7.9 billion) factory will be one of Hungary’s largest-ever foreign investments, and the government hopes it will make the Central European country a global hub of lithium-ion battery manufacturing in an era where governments are increasingly seeking to limit greenhouse gas emissions by switching to electric cars.

    But residents, environmentalists and opposition politicians worry that the sprawling factory — built by China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) — will exacerbate existing environmental problems, hit the country’s precious water supplies and further undermine its economy to China.

    “You have this viscerally bad feeling when you walk past the area where they are building. I simply feel this bad feeling in my stomach,” said Eva Kozma, 47, a local mother who has joined with other residents of a village near the building site to oppose the project.

    “This is progress, this is the future? Pouring concrete over nature while we know how polluting the factory is going to be?” she said.

    Kozma and others on the outskirts of Debrecen, Hungary’s second-largest city, say they were blindsided by the announcement that the factory would be built on valuable agricultural land. They fear that the large quantities of water diverted to the plant for cooling equipment will threaten their water supply, and that chemicals from the plant could leech into the soil and water, damaging the region’s natural resources.

    That region, the Great Hungarian Plain, is threatened by desertification, a process where vegetation recedes due to high heat and low rainfall. Climate change-driven droughts and record heat waves in the area have compounded heavy water use by agriculture and depleted groundwater, resulting in devastating crop yields.

    Last year, Hungary experienced its hottest summer on record, and nearly 2.5 million acres, or 20% of the country’s croplands, dried out. Experts say that unless a comprehensive water retention plan is enacted, much of the region will soon be unsuitable for agriculture.

    Yet despite these environmental struggles, Hungary’s government believes that the European Union’s ambitions to phase out the manufacture of internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035 present a unique opportunity for the country to take its place as a leader in EV battery production, and has embarked on a major push to attract such investments.

    And there will likely be buyers: transport represents nearly a quarter of Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions, and more than 70% of those emissions are caused by road transport. If the EU is to reach its goal of net zero emissions by 2050, EVs will play a pivotal role.

    CATL’s 100 GWh battery plant in Debrecen, which is expected to create around 9,000 jobs, is the largest of a number of EV battery factories popping up around the country, part of the government’s strategy to serve foreign car manufacturers present in Hungary — like German carmakers Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz — as they transition to battery-powered vehicles.

    Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said earlier this month in Beijing that the presence of those German carmakers had “inspired” the recent spate of Chinese investments in EV battery plants, and that “the Chinese suppliers of these German companies continue to regard Hungary as the meeting point of East-West investment.”

    Gabor Varkonyi, an auto industry expert, agrees that the effort to attract battery makers makes good sense for Hungary’s economy — especially given that more than 20% of the country’s exports comes from the automotive industry.

    “It is very much in Hungary’s interest for these investments to appear here, especially arm in arm with German technology,” Varkonyi said. “This way, both can be tied here in the medium term, so that neither will be able to work successfully without the other. In this sense, it is an absolute national interest.”

    But Dalma Dedak, an environmental policy expert with WWF Hungary, says that despite intentions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by making cars electric, there’s been a lack of environmental impact studies on the longer term consequences for Hungary’s air, soil and water.

    Details have only been released on the first phase of the CATL plant’s multi-stage construction, she said, so its footprint on the environment once it is fully running remains unknown — something that has eroded trust between the affected population and the government.

    “It is of concern that the approval procedure for the first phase of the plant does not show what kind of water consumption and emissions can be expected when the entire plant is built,” she said. “That is, will Hungary’s resources be sufficient for these ambitious plans?”

    The water consumption of the industrial park where the factory is located is expected to amount to more than 40,000 cubic meters (10.5 million gallons) per day — doubling the drinking water consumption of Debrecen and laying a major burden on a region in the midst of a historic water crisis, Dedak said.

    “In the long run, it’s a problem and a question of how to supply water to such a water-scarce city,” she said.

    CATL says that 70% of its water consumption will come from gray water — household wastewater that has been purified — though this plan was not present in the environmental impact study for the first phase of the factory. Hungary’s Ministry of Economic Development did not respond to a request for comment.

    Other critics of the investment point to the economy’s dependence on foreign-owned automobile companies, and see it as a deepening of the foothold Hungary has provided to China in Central Europe.

    Laszlo Lorant Keresztes, president of the Hungarian parliament’s Committee on Sustainable Development, said that Hungary’s economy “is very vulnerable to the automotive industry, and this (plant) increases that vulnerability.”

    Speaking at a protest opposing the factory in Debrecen this week, Keresztes said the roughly 800 million euros ($861 million) in infrastructure and tax incentives Hungary’s government will supply to CATL is “an unrealistic amount of money per job,” and that — as in the case of German car makers — the majority of capital generated would be exported.

    “These are essentially assembly plants, and they take the profits away from here. It is also typical that they do not give work to Hungarian people, not to the local people, but to foreign guest workers,” he said.

    Some of the residents outside Debrecen worry that the massive plant will bring traffic and noise that will spoil the idyllic community where they came to raise their children. But mostly, they’re afraid of the irreversible impact it could have on their natural world.

    “They took the lands, they destroyed the soil, they destroyed the air, the water,” said Eniko Pasztor, 65, a local activist who plans to leave the area if the plant is completed as planned.

    “There’s no amount of money that can fix what we have ruined. We have to make sure that what we have remains,” she said. “We’ve done a lot of damage already. I don’t understand why we need more, more, more.”

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Biden leaning into global diplomacy to manage migration at US-Mexico border

    Biden leaning into global diplomacy to manage migration at US-Mexico border

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    WASHINGTON — On President Joe Biden ‘s first day in office, he handed Congress a legislative plan to modernize the nation’s immigration system.

    It went nowhere, just like so many past overhaul attempts.

    Meanwhile, the number of migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border climbed to record highs and so did the backlog of cases in the nation’s immigration court system. Title 42 emergency health powers that allowed border officials to turn away many migrants were sure to end as the coronavirus pandemic eased. And Congress couldn’t agree on even simple questions like whether the U.S. should let in more people, or fewer.

    So administration officials went looking outside the U.S. for solutions, seeking to portray immigration not as one of America’s most intractable problems, but as an issue for the entire Western hemisphere to address.

    It was a shift in focus that plays to Biden’s faith in the power of global diplomacy, and one that also may hold more promise for making progress, particularly as smuggling networks increasingly steer migrant families from around the world up through the dangerous and often deadly Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama.

    “No nation should bear this responsibility alone.” Biden said last year as he summoned the leaders of 23 nations attending a Summit of the Americas to come up with a shared plan on migration and security. “The economic futures depend on one another. Each of our futures depend on one another. And our security is linked in ways that I don’t think most people in my country fully understand.”

    If the solutions for Biden are international, the politics are still domestic.

    He’s running for reelection, and the border is a top issue for Republicans who portray him as soft on security. His involvement in immigration policy before he became president was relatively light. Prior to this year’s visit, he’d only been down to the 1,951-mile U.S.-Mexico border for a few hours during a 2008 campaign stop, and he played no significant role in past reform efforts in the Senate when he served there.

    His foreign policy experience, though, stretches back decades from his years on the Hill and through his two terms as vice president, and that carries weight internationally.

    “No other president who has sat in the Oval Office has the mileage, the understanding, the engagement that Joe Biden has had in the region. It’s just a fact,” said Arturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S. from 2007 to 2013. “That is an important add that Biden brings to the table.”

    Sarukhan said Biden’s approach has focused on engagement and negotiation, by sending top leaders to the region for discussions, and through invitations to Washington. “Biden hasn’t put the gun to anyone’s forehead,” he said.

    But immigrant advocates worry there’s a cost to the new approach that will likely be paid by migrants who are fleeing persecution and poverty in their homelands.

    “I do think they are trying to manage migration, rather than end migration,” said Yael Schacher, director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International. “But managing migration can also have human rights, terrible human rights, consequences. There’s a moral distancing — the possibility for wiping your hands of a problem if it isn’t at your door anymore.”

    The makeup of those migrating has changed dramatically over the past two decades, bringing new challenges as well.

    Those crossing the border used to be mostly Mexican men who were coming for work and could be easily sent back. Now, families are increasingly arriving from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti, fleeing drought brought on by climate change as well as oppressive regimes.

    It reflects a larger trend. UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, estimates 103 million people are displaced globally — more than 1% of the world’s population.

    “We are finding ourselves in a unique moment and we do have to understand it’s not a domestic issue, but a regional and global one,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, head of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which helps migrants and refugees in the U.S.

    The number of illegal U.S.-Mexico border crossings has been declining since new rules were put into place by the Biden administration on May 11, but it’s not clear yet whether the administration’s approach will be effective in the long term or whether it can survive legal challenges and a possible administration change in 2024.

    Under the new rules, migrants are barred from asking for asylum if they cross through another country on their way to the U.S. without seeking protection there or fail to make an appointment to come to the U.S. through a new government app. If caught crossing illegally, they are barred from returning for five years and face criminal charges if they do.

    But up to 30,000 Venezuela, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans per month will be allowed into the U.S. to work legally if they come with sponsors. And as many as 100,000 immigrants from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Colombia will be allowed in if they have family members who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.

    The leaders of Mexico and several other nations had boycotted the June summit in Los Angeles over a decision to exclude authoritarian leaders. Still, it ended with a signed pact and set of principles that included legal pathways to enter countries, aid to communities most affected by migration, more humane border management and coordinated emergency responses.

    Administration officials then set to work on new immigration rules that would take effect once Title 42 ended, with new directives that aim to expand legal pathways for entry while cracking down on illegal crossings, intertwined with actions by Guatemala, Ecuador and Colombia. They negotiated with Mexico. Canada and Spain to take in migrants who would otherwise be bound for the U.S.

    Guatemala and Colombia will open regional hubs where people can go to make claims, with as many as 100 opening regionally. But Colombia and Guatemala fear the hubs might draw millions to their shores, and other nations are reluctant to sign on to host hubs for that reason.

    Meanwhile, many migrants remain in limbo. Last week, advocates said the new migrant app was having major problems and that people were unable to get the OK to cross – some who desperately needed to get into the U.S., who were sexually assaulted and beaten by their captors over the border.

    ”Understand that what the people who are terrified to return to their home countries who are seeking asylum, they want to do this the right way so badly that they wait for an app that does not work,” said Priscilla Orta, an immigration attorney at Project Corazon. “And that is a lottery for their lives.”

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  • Exceptional rains in drought-struck northern Italy kill 6, cancel Formula One Grand Prix

    Exceptional rains in drought-struck northern Italy kill 6, cancel Formula One Grand Prix

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    ROME — Exceptional rains Wednesday in a drought-struck region of northern Italy swelled rivers over their banks, killing at least six people, forcing the evacuation of thousands and prompting officials to warn that Italy needs a national plan to combat climate change-induced flooding.

    The heavy rains and floods also forced Formula One to cancel this weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix to not overtax emergency crews that were already stretched thin in responding to the emergency.

    Days of rainstorms stretched across a broad swath of northern Italy and the Balkans, where “apocalyptic” floods, landslides and evacuations were also reported in Croatia, Bosnia and Slovenia.

    The president of Emilia-Romagna, Stefano Bonaccini, said six people were killed and others unaccounted for in flooding that forced the evacuation of thousands of people.

    Italian Civil Protection Minister Nello Musemeci called for a new nationwide hydraulic engineering plan to adapt to the impact of increasing incidents of floods and landslides. At a briefing, he noted that an average of 200 millimeters (7.9 inches) of rain had fallen in 36 hours in the region, with some areas registering 500 millimeters (19.7 inches) in that period.

    “If you consider that this region averages 1,000 millimeters (39.3 inches) of rain in a year, you realize the impact that these rains have had in these hours,” Musemeci said.

    Citing the November landslide in Ischia, which killed a dozen people, Musemeci said that Italy is increasingly experiencing Africa-style tropical weather, with long periods of drought punctuated by intense rainfall that can’t be absorbed by the soil.

    “Nothing will ever be the same again … and what has happened in these hours is evidence of that,” Musemeci said. “When soil remains dry for a long time, instead of increasing its absorption capacity, it ends up cementing and allowing rainfall to continue flowing over the surface and causing absolutely unimaginable damage.”

    The mayor of the city of Cesena, Enzo Lattuca, posted a video early Wednesday on Facebook to warn that continued downpours in the Emilia-Romagna region could flood the Savio river and smaller tributaries for a second day. He urged residents to move to upper floors of their homes and avoid low-lying areas and riverbanks. He announced the closure to traffic of some bridges and streets after rivers of mud sloshed through town and into basements and storefronts.

    Museumeci said that 5,000 people had been evacuated, 50,000 were without electricity, and more than 100,000 were without cellphone or landline use.

    The deputy chief of the Civil Protection agency, Titti Postiglione, said that rescue operations for those needing emergency evacuations were particularly difficult given so many roads and routes were flooded and phone service interrupted. Speaking on Sky TG24, she noted that the affected flood zone covered a broad swath of four provinces which, until the heavy rains, had been parched by a prolonged drought.

    Some regional train routes remained suspended Wednesday around Bologna and Ravenna, with severe delays elsewhere, the Italian state railway said.

    Premier Giorgia Meloni, who was traveling to the G-7 meeting in Japan, said the government was monitoring the situation and was prepared to approve emergency aid.

    In the Balkans, the swollen Una river flooded parts of northern Croatia and northwestern Bosnia, where authorities announced a state of emergency. The mayor of the town of Bosanska Krupa in Bosnia said that hundreds of homes had been flooded.

    “We have an apocalypse,” Amin Halitovic told regional N1 network. “We can no longer count the flooded buildings. It’s never been like this.”

    Dozens of landslides were reported in eastern Slovenia, many of which endangered homes and infrastructure.

    In Croatia, hundreds of soldiers and rescue teams continued bringing food and other necessities to people in flood-hit areas who have been isolated in their homes. No casualties have been reported so far.

    ___

    A previous version of this story was corrected to show that Meloni was en route to Japan, not coming home.

    ___

    Jovana Gec contributed from Belgrade, Serbia.

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  • Rain-swollen rivers flood some towns in north Italy; Venice prepares to raise mobile dike in lagoon

    Rain-swollen rivers flood some towns in north Italy; Venice prepares to raise mobile dike in lagoon

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    ROME — Rivers swollen by days of downpours flooded some towns in northern Italy on Tuesday, forcing some residents to rooftops, while in Venice, authorities prepared to activate a mobile barrier in the lagoon in hopes of sparing the city from a rare May high-tide flooding.

    After the Savio River overflowed its banks in the town of Cesena, in the heart of the Emilia-Romagna region, some residents of heavily flooded streets took to rooftops to await rescue by helicopters, Italian firefighters said. An older man died in his flooded home in the countryside outside of Cesena, while his wife managed to make it to safety, Italian state radio said early Wednesday.

    Some rescues were especially dramatic. In Cesena, neighbors swam across the fast-moving waters of a flooded street to take a young girl from her mother’s arms. One rescuer held the child above the floodwaters until she could be passed into the arms of other rescuers. Other residents helped the mother also to safety.

    In a pair of interventions, firefighters rescued a family with a four-month-old baby and a disabled man in the province of Pesaro-Urbino. Elsewhere in the deluged north, parents and their two young daughters were plucked to safety by a firefighter helicopters, rescuer said.

    The nearly 100,000 residents of the town were told to avoid the temptation to view the raging waters and not to stay on ground floors if they lived near the river.

    “Use prudence, don’t be curious, so disaster doesn’t turn into tragedy,” Mayor Enzo Lattuca urged in remarks on Rai state TV.

    In all, some 900 people in flooded areas of northern Italy were evacuated by late Tuesday night, some taking shelter gyms or schools, the radio report said.

    In the tourist town of Ravenna in northeast Italy, authorities urged residents to move to upper stories of buildings to ride out the storm. In Riccione, a beach town on the Adriatic Sea, the mayor warned people to stay home as some took to rubber dinghies to navigate streets.

    In Venice, the barrier system, known by its acronym MOSES, and recalling the Biblical account of the Red Sea parting, will be lifted Tuesday night for the first time ever in May. It is nearly 20 years to the day when construction on the project, which is still not officially completed, began.

    Firefighters in Riccione, in the northern region of Emilia-Romagna, were deployed to rescue people from flooded homes and businesses. By Tuesday afternoon, firefighters had carried out around 40 rescues in the province of Rimini, parts of which are on the Adriatic coast. Reinforcements for the rescuers were moved in from the cities of Forli’-Cesena, Ferrara and Bologna.

    In the area between Ancona, a major Adriatic port, and Pesaro-Urbino, two towns popular with tourists, firefighters carried out 80 interventions for local flooding, fallen trees and mudslides and rescued motorists in difficulty, the corps said in a tweet. Pesaro is an Adriatic beach town in the Marche region.

    In Modena, a small city famed for gastronomical products, authorities said they would close local bridges to traffic on Tuesday evening as a precaution against rising river levels.

    Elsewhere, in the town of Senigallia, the Misa River’s waters were receding, local officials said.

    Meteorologists say Italy can expect several days of heavy rain, pummeling the north which had been suffering a shortfall of precipitation for weeks this spring.

    Schools in areas bracing fearing flooding were closed.

    Train travel was halted on the Bologna-Ancona land the Ravenna-Faenza routes, Italian media said.

    Earlier this month, a day and a half of nonstop rain caused flooding in Italy’s populous Emilia-Romagna region, leaving at least two people dead as riverbeds left dry by drought overflowed their banks.

    The intense rainfalls came as Italy had been bracing for a second year of drought, which has depleted its largest river, the Po. The river supports agriculture in the vast Po River Valley before emptying into the Adriatic Sea east of Bologna.

    While northeast Italy was hardest hit by the downpours, flooding also caused damage in the south. On the island of Sicily, rescuers responded to flooding, fallen trees and other problems in the countryside between Palermo and Trapani. By Tuesday morning, the weather there was improving, firefighters said.

    ___

    A previous version of this story was corrected to show that bridge traffic in Modena will be closed Tuesday, not Friday.

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  • Rain-swollen rivers flood some towns in north Italy; Venice prepares to raise mobile dike in lagoon

    Rain-swollen rivers flood some towns in north Italy; Venice prepares to raise mobile dike in lagoon

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    ROME — Rivers swollen by days of downpours flooded some towns in northern Italy on Tuesday, while in Venice, authorities were preparing to activate a mobile barrier in the lagoon in hopes of sparing the city from high-tide flooding, which would be rare in May.

    In the tourist town of Ravenna in northeast Italy, authorities urged residents to move to upper stories of buildings to ride out the storm. In Riccione, a beach town on the Adriatic Sea, the mayor warned people to stay home as some took to rubber dinghies to navigate streets.

    In Venice, the barrier system, known by its acronym MOSES, and recalling the Biblical account of the Red Sea parting, will be lifted Tuesday night for the first time ever in May. It is nearly 20 years to the day when construction on the project, which is still not officially completed, began.

    Firefighters in Riccione, in the northern region of Emilia-Romagna, were deployed to rescue people from flooded homes and businesses. By Tuesday afternoon, firefighters had carried out around 40 rescues in the province of Rimini, parts of which are on the Adriatic coast. Reinforcements for the rescuers were moved in from the cities of Forli’-Cesena, Ferrara and Bologna.

    In the area between Ancona, a major Adriatic port, and Pesaro-Urbino, two towns popular with tourists, firefighters carried out 80 interventions for local flooding, fallen trees and mudslides and rescued motorists in difficulty, the corps said in a tweet.

    Pesaro, an Adriatic beach town in the region of Marche, reported flooding, while in Cesena, a city in the neighboring region of Emilia-Romagna, the Savio River overflowed its banks and inundated streets.

    In Modena, a small city famed for gastronomical products, authorities said they would close local bridges to traffic on Tuesday evening as a precaution against rising river levels.

    Elsewhere, in the town of Senigallia, the Misa River’s waters were receding, local officials said.

    Meteorologists say Italy can expect several days of heavy rain, pummeling the north which had been suffering a shortfall of precipitation for weeks this spring.

    Schools in areas bracing fearing flooding were closed.

    Train travel was halted on the Bologna-Ancona land the Ravenna-Faenza routes, Italian media said.

    Earlier this month, a day and a half of nonstop rain caused flooding in Italy’s populous Emilia-Romagna region, leaving at least two people dead as riverbeds left dry by drought overflowed their banks.

    The intense rainfalls came as Italy had been bracing for a second year of drought, which has depleted its largest river, the Po. The river supports agriculture in the vast Po River Valley before emptying into the Adriatic Sea east of Bologna.

    ___

    This story has been corrected to show that bridge traffic in Modena will be closed Tuesday, not Friday.

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  • Argentina’s Fernandez seeks dollar relief from Brazil’s Lula

    Argentina’s Fernandez seeks dollar relief from Brazil’s Lula

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    BRASILIA, Brazil — Argentine President Alberto Fernández and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, vowed Tuesday to keep working to come up with a mechanism that would allow them to avoid using the U.S. dollar in trade between the neighboring nations.

    Argentina’s economy is looking particularly fragile after a run on the peso in the financial markets caused a sharp devaluation of the local currency late last month as well as a drain of U.S. dollars from central bank reserves in part due to a devastating drought that has slashed exports.

    There was lots of anticipation Tuesday that the two countries would unveil a mechanism allowing Argentine firms to continue trading with Brazil without draining precious dollars from the country’s reserves. Yet after a nearly four-hour meeting the two presidents made clear they were still fine tuning the details.

    “The meeting was long, difficult and we will carry out many more meetings,” Lula said alongside Fernández as the two left-leaning presidents spoke to the press. “I made a commitment to my friend Alberto Fernández that I will do every and any sacrifice so we can help Argentina in this difficult moment.”

    The proposed plan involves a line of credit to finance Brazilian companies that export to Argentina with the intention of avoiding use of the dollar, said the finance ministry’s executive secretary, Gabriel Galípolo.

    On Tuesday morning, Finance Minster Fernando Haddad told reporters the two governments are studying possible guarantees in order for Brazil’s government to provide such financing.

    “They’ve made the decision to help make sure that Brazilian companies continue exporting to Argentina and they had asked us to do some homework, which we have already done, and have to do with the necessary guarantees,” Fernández said, adding that Economy Ministry officials will be meeting with their Brazilian counterparts next week to fine tune the details.

    “Now what we have to do is find these points of agreement … to get those credits operating that guarantee the production of Brazilian companies that export to Argentina,” the Argentine president said.

    Brazil is Argentina’s largest trade partner and the deal could afford Argentina some breathing room at a time when it is suffering from a shortage of dollars.

    Argentina struck a deal with China that allows its companies to pay for Chinese imports with yuan. Lula, for his part, hailed an agreement between Brazil and China to use the yuan in their bilateral commerce while in Shanghai last month, while also taking swipes at the dominance of the dollar in international trade and at the International Monetary Fund.

    “We aren’t having a discussion to help Argentina,” Lula said. “We need to help Brazilians who export to Argentina and finance Brazilian exports, just like China does with Chinese products.”

    Lula also said he was in talks with China to change the regulation of BRICS — the group of countries made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — to assist countries who are not part of the group, including Argentina.

    Argentina’s Economy Minister Sergio Massa has said his country is renegotiating aspects of its agreement signed with the IMF in 2022 to restructure some $44 billion in debt taken on by the center-right government of Fernández’s predecessor, Mauricio Macri.

    “We’re renegotiating the program we committed to with the IMF … because the conditions have indeed changed,” Fernández said, referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the drought. Lula said Brazil would also negotiate with the IMF on behalf of Argentina

    Fernández’s visit to Brazil comes weeks after he announced he will not seek reelection in the election this October. He was joined in Brasilia by Massa and Argentina’s ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Scioli, both of whom are considered possible contenders for the presidency.

    ___

    Politi reported from Buenos Aires.

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  • Argentina’s Fernandez seeks dollar relief from Brazil’s Lula

    Argentina’s Fernandez seeks dollar relief from Brazil’s Lula

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    BRASILIA, Brazil — Argentine President Alberto Fernández and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, vowed Tuesday to keep working to come up with a mechanism that would allow them to avoid using the U.S. dollar in trade between the neighboring nations.

    Argentina’s economy is looking particularly fragile after a run on the peso in the financial markets caused a sharp devaluation of the local currency late last month as well as a drain of U.S. dollars from central bank reserves in part due to a devastating drought that has slashed exports.

    There was lots of anticipation Tuesday that the two countries would unveil a mechanism allowing Argentine firms to continue trading with Brazil without draining precious dollars from the country’s reserves. Yet after a nearly four-hour meeting the two presidents made clear they were still fine tuning the details.

    “The meeting was long, difficult and we will carry out many more meetings,” Lula said alongside Fernández as the two left-leaning presidents spoke to the press. “I made a commitment to my friend Alberto Fernández that I will do every and any sacrifice so we can help Argentina in this difficult moment.”

    The proposed plan involves a line of credit to finance Brazilian companies that export to Argentina with the intention of avoiding use of the dollar, said the finance ministry’s executive secretary, Gabriel Galípolo.

    On Tuesday morning, Finance Minster Fernando Haddad told reporters the two governments are studying possible guarantees in order for Brazil’s government to provide such financing.

    “They’ve made the decision to help make sure that Brazilian companies continue exporting to Argentina and they had asked us to do some homework, which we have already done, and have to do with the necessary guarantees,” Fernández said, adding that Economy Ministry officials will be meeting with their Brazilian counterparts next week to fine tune the details.

    “Now what we have to do is find these points of agreement … to get those credits operating that guarantee the production of Brazilian companies that export to Argentina,” the Argentine president said.

    Brazil is Argentina’s largest trade partner and the deal could afford Argentina some breathing room at a time when it is suffering from a shortage of dollars.

    Argentina struck a deal with China that allows its companies to pay for Chinese imports with yuan. Lula, for his part, hailed an agreement between Brazil and China to use the yuan in their bilateral commerce while in Shanghai last month, while also taking swipes at the dominance of the dollar in international trade and at the International Monetary Fund.

    “We aren’t having a discussion to help Argentina,” Lula said. “We need to help Brazilians who export to Argentina and finance Brazilian exports, just like China does with Chinese products.”

    Lula also said he was in talks with China to change the regulation of BRICS — the group of countries made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — to assist countries who are not part of the group, including Argentina.

    Argentina’s Economy Minister Sergio Massa has said his country is renegotiating aspects of its agreement signed with the IMF in 2022 to restructure some $44 billion in debt taken on by the center-right government of Fernández’s predecessor, Mauricio Macri.

    “We’re renegotiating the program we committed to with the IMF … because the conditions have indeed changed,” Fernández said, referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the drought. Lula said Brazil would also negotiate with the IMF on behalf of Argentina

    Fernández’s visit to Brazil comes weeks after he announced he will not seek reelection in the election this October. He was joined in Brasilia by Massa and Argentina’s ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Scioli, both of whom are considered possible contenders for the presidency.

    ___

    Politi reported from Buenos Aires.

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