As Lake Mead approaches its lowest recorded water level since it was first filled, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has approved a deal with the federal government to retain water in the reservoir and safeguard electricity production at Hoover Dam.
Under this arrangement, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will pay Metropolitan up to $65 million (at a rate of $325 per acre-foot) to leave as much as 200,000 acre-feet of its Colorado River supply inside Lake Mead this year. The financial backing for this regional conservation effort stems from the Lower Colorado River Basin System Conservation and Efficiency Program, which was established under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Federal Wastewater Report Tracks Drug Trends
The Office of National Drug Control Policy has released its first-ever wastewater monitoring newsletter, offering near real-time insights into illegal substance use across roughly 18% of the U.S. population.
Titled Wastewater Analytics: A Powerful Window into Shifting Drug Use Trends, the project analyzes samples from more than 100 counties to detect over 500 substances, making it the largest American surveillance effort of its kind to date.
Lawsuit Filed After Fatal Manhole Fall
The family of a 56-year-old woman has filed a lawsuit against a utility in New York City following her fatal drop into an uncovered 10-foot-deep manhole in midtown Manhattan. According to the complaint, the woman was heading to her job as an overnight cleaner on May 18 when she exited her vehicle near East 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue and stepped directly into the open shaft, which lacked any warning signage, lights or barricades.
The utility noted in its response to the lawsuit that surveillance video appears to show a multi-axle truck driving over the manhole and dislodging its cover roughly 12 minutes before the woman arrived.
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