Free Republic

Federal and state officials are racing to address an assault on the nation’s water supply that they believe is the work of Iranian hackers.In 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration proposed creating stronger cybersecurity guidelines to better safeguard the nation’s water supply from hackers.The steps were modest, but necessary, officials said at the time: Many municipalities lacked even basic protections, and the computers that monitor and adjust water quality, including chemical-treatment levels, were easy-to-find targets for a would-be intruder.The E.P.A. rescinded the order, however, after Republican-led states and industry groups sued to block its enforcement. They argued...

A notorious Iran-linked hacker group was likely behind the recent attacks on dozens of water systems across the US — and the shadowy cyber-soldiers may not be done with their assault, experts warned. The self-proclaimed “Cyberav3ngers” group appeared to carry out the attacks which hit seven states in recent months, according to cybersecurity company Tenable, which told The Post the devious group began posting on the dark web about plans to hit the US within weeks of war breaking out with Iran. “We listened or observed them kind of declaring that they were going to start targeting US Water infrastructure...

Romania blew up a rock outcrop on Aug 3 to help redirect vital cooling water from the drought-hit Danube river to its sole working nuclear reactor, an unprecedented measure underlining the scale of an energy crunch across the region. In neighbouring Hungary, authorities said they might be able to eke out two more days of power from their only atomic plant, which has been hit by falling levels in the Danube that it also relies on as a coolant. Heat and drought have lowered river levels across large parts of Europe, raising concerns about water supplies, river transport and power...

Disneyland guests in Anaheim, California, were sent into a frenzy Tuesday after restaurants and restrooms were forced to close due to a water pressure issue affecting the city. City officials told KTLA 5, ABC 7, and CBS LA that staff members at the park reported problems drawing from groundwater wells causing a drop in water pressure around 6 p.m. PT. Other establishments in the city stated that they had little to no water pressure available at the time. Parkgoers visiting at the time of the water complication told KTLA that employees were standing outside of bathrooms to inform visitors that...

A Baltimore daughter who inherited her late dad’s home claims she has been threatened with having her water cut off as she took on a $228,000 water bill she says belongs to her entire neighborhood, reports say. Kristina Moore was left mystified when she spotted a note plastered on the front door of her childhood home in April warning her that her water could be switched off if the hefty debt wasn’t paid within 45 days, WBFF reported. Moore has been footed with the bill as the 37-home neighborhood, which is part of the Springwood Estates Homeowners Association, has just...

U.S. — In a powerful showing of solidarity with the algae discoloring the newly-renovated Reflecting Pool, liberals across the nation have begun adding green pond scum to their drinking water. Democrats are proudly guzzling the verdant potable, a small act of daily rebellion against the tyranny of President Trump. The trend gained momentum after activists began posting videos of themselves drinking murky green water under the hashtag #StandWithTheScum. Influencers competed to demonstrate their commitment by consuming increasingly opaque beverages. "Take that, Donald," said local liberal woman Amy Gunther as she videoed herself gulping down another glass of algae. "Team...

Data centers have become the chic new enemy among activists. Critics claim the centers are using inordinate amounts of electricity and water to power artificial intelligence, inspiring protesters to take to the streets and Democratic lawmakers to head to Albany to stymie their development. However, some experts say the anti-data center push is more of a moral panic than an empirical one, often based on speculative and sometimes bunk projections. It seems that data centers are the boogeyman onto which larger fears about the impact of AI are being projected. “The estimates of future data-center development may be overestimated by...

The Brief A judge who approved a search warrant that led to the arrest of a Henderson County resident over a Facebook post concerning Trinidad's water supply says he was misled by the Trinidad Police Department. Judge R. Scott McKee sent a letter to outgoing Trinidad Police Chief Charles Gregory that questions "the accuracy, completeness, and reliability of information presented" by his officers when he approved the warrant. The woman arrested has since filed a lawsuit against the city after her charges were dropped, while the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is investigating the city's water supply. SNIP

Jennifer Combs says she never set out to become the face of a fight over free speech, dirty water and small-town power. She says she was simply trying to help people in Trinidad, Texas, report problems with their water. Some residents had complained about discoloration, sediment, odors and health concerns. So Combs used her Southern Belle Watch Facebook page to collect reports and send them to the state. Then, according to Combs, the situation took a turn that still sounds hard to believe. She says police came to her home and arrested her on a felony warrant over a Facebook...

Felt cute this morning hit the modeling software, ESRI, and thought why not solve Corpus Christi and Austin water supply issues forever for under $7 billion and a Capex return of 24 months in it's base config. The Japanese built past tense ABWR reactors in 39 months from ground breaking till first critical. Here is my summary report to the Texas Water Dev Board. Should I present it next time I am standing in their office in Austin. ## EXECUTIVE BRIEFING & PROJECT PROPOSAL To: The Board of Directors, Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) Project Title: The Texas Multi-Energy Hydronic...

California health officials discovered evidence of measles in routine wastewater testing as the state faces a sharp resurgence of the disease. The Merced County Department of Public Health reported the finding, and while no confirmed clinical cases have been identified in the county, officials said it could indicate undetected circulation. The state has confirmed infections climbing to 74 cases across seven counties, the highest annual total California has recorded in seven years. Health officials said the jump is already far above last year’s numbers, with just 25 cases reported in all of 2025, underscoring how quickly the virus has regained...

Karell Reader’s heart sank when she saw acres of apple trees piled up on her neighbor’s Watsonville farm last month. Her neighbor used to sell apples to California cider empire S. Martinelli & Company, but he was forced to bulldoze dozens of apple trees after the company canceled his contracts. For farmers in Pajaro Valley, a fertile region between Monterey and Santa Cruz, growing and selling Newtown pippin apples to Martinelli’s had been a lifeline for over a century. But now, apple farmers like Reader’s neighbor are scrambling to find solutions after the 158-year-old company blindsided them by canceling their...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stole the show at a recent congressional hearing with two jars of brown water. Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) explained that the dirty water had come from Morgan County, Ga., where a Meta data center is allegedly tainting the water of local residents. It was an image perfectly suited to driving the intensifying opposition to data centers in that it was photogenic, easy to understand — and misleading. According to reporting in the New York Times last year, the water problem has affected four homes in the vicinity of the data center, not the entire county, as AOC implied. It...

Napa Valley stands as a crown jewel of American agriculture, its sun-drenched hills and meticulously tended vines producing some of the world’s most celebrated wines. Yet beneath this prestige lies a growing crisis: the region is pumping groundwater at unsustainable levels, even as regulators pile on costs that make viability increasingly difficult. Experts warn that without meaningful change, Napa’s wine industry risks a slow wither, not from some abstract climate apocalypse, but from a toxic mix of poor resource management and self-defeating government intervention. This overpumping is no temporary hiccup. For years, Napa County has missed its own groundwater sustainability...

We are often best defined not by the company we keep, but by our enemies. Having the right—left—enemies tends to be a very good thing indeed, as it’s a reliable indicator we’re doing the right things with the right people and for the right reasons. It’s not always easy, however, to know the motives of people, or nations, when we’re dealing with issues of technology and/or public policy. One such issue is the proliferation of data centers, necessary for the burgeoning AI revolution, but controversial for that and other reasons. Among them is the amount of water and power they...

An artificial intelligence data center was running up a water bill for the ages, and local residents were the ones to point out the problem. In November, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Microsoft had a new “superfactory” named Fairwater spanning over 1 million square feet outside of Atlanta. Chief Technical Officer Mark Russinovich explained why the site is so massive. “To make improvements in the capabilities of the AI, you need to have larger and larger infrastructure to train it,” he said in a statement. The site developer, Quality Technology Services, purchased the plot in 2022 for $154 million. Ironically, Microsoft...

Georgia residents were left outraged when they discovered a massive data center had been guzzling up nearly 30 million gallons of water without paying for it. The issue began last year when residents in the affluent subdivision of Annelise Park in Fayetteville noticed their water pressure was unusually low, Politico reports. When the county utility then investigated the problem, officials discovered that developer Quality Technology Services (QTS) had installed two industrial-scale water hookups to the approximately 6.2 million square foot data center campus - located about 20 miles south of downtown Atlanta. One of the water connections appeared to have...

A 12-year-old Georgia boy was left heartbroken after his therapy pig was allegedly killed by three ghoulish neighbors – who were found with the dead animal in aprons and gloves beside a boiling pot of water. Garrett Cox, who has ADHD and autism, is now struggling to cope after Bootsy, his 400-pound emotional support pig, was savagely shot dead after wandering from her pen and off the family’s Hoschton property, about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta, last week, according to multiple reports. “I miss her so much,” the young boy told WSB-TV about the award-winning pig, while clutching the ribbons...

This winter, the Upper Colorado Basin saw some of the lowest snow totals in recorded history. As a result, federal officials made a decision to limit water releases from Lake Powell downstream in the coming months. Officials say that will result in substantial drops in Lake Mead's elevation. "All we’re seeing are depletions,” Kyle Roerink, advocate with the Great Basin Water Network, said. “We are dealing with changing snowpacks, changing runoff patterns, increasing evaporation rates, drier soils, and other natural phenomena that are depleting our bank accounts and our savings accounts," he said. Water managers face an encroaching deadline for...

The sound you can’t hear might just save your house. It sounds like something out of a sci-fi blockbuster, but firefighters in California are firing up a fascinating new way to fight flames — with sound waves. The San Bernardino County Fire Department recently showed off a futuristic system that detects and extinguishes flames without water or chemicals. Instead, it uses powerful — but completely silent — sound vibrations to snuff out the fire itself. The red-hot technology, inspired by NASA experiments and developed by Sonic Fire Tech, works by first spotting flames with infrared sensors and AI. Once a...