Fresh water News & Breaking Stories

British teenager missing in Tenerife, search teams hopeful for good news. Mother calls disappearance a nightmare. Intense search ongoing.

Researchers at the University of Surrey have developed a "living paint" called Green Living Paint, which uses a bacterium that captures carbon dioxide and produces oxygen through photosynthesis. The bacterium, Chroococcidiopsis cubana, is an extremophile that requires little water for survival. The biocoating made from this bacterium can reduce water consumption and has potential applications as a bioreactor or biosensor.

Saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico is threatening drinking water supplies for 900,000 residents in Louisiana. Governor John Bel Edwards has declared an emergency and plans to request federal aid. The Mississippi River's low water levels have allowed the saltwater to intrude, and officials are working to mitigate the impacts and ensure safe drinking water. The saltwater wedge has already traveled 15 miles inland in just seven days, and without significant rainfall, an underwater levee will be overtopped, requiring freshwater to be transported by barge to water treatment plants.

Lake Tahoe has the third highest concentration of microplastics in the world, according to a study published in the journal Nature. Researchers found traces of microplastics in all of the 38 lakes and reservoirs they tested from six continents. The levels of microplastics in Lake Tahoe, which is less densely populated and has no sewage flowing into it, were higher than those in the ocean's garbage patches. The researchers are unsure how the plastics got into the freshwater lakes and are also examining the effects of the microplastics on the surrounding ecosystems.

Intense heat waves worsen climate change, droughts, and wildfires worldwide.