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PODCAST

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News

AquaDiary is a science podcast about the hidden stories, strange mysteries, and real-world risks lurking in our water. Hosted by environmental scientist Ally Berry, each episode breaks down fascinating water-related events — from toxic algae blooms and disappearing lakes to environmental headlines, hydrology, contamination, and bizarre aquatic phenomena — in a way that’s gripping, understandable, and actually relevant. If you like science, environmental mysteries, water disasters, lake science, or

science natural sciences

All Episodes

00:29:05

Atmospheric Rivers, El Nino, and Climate Change:...

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/10/02

There's a river in the sky carrying up to 15x the flow of the Mississippi River. You've heard the term atmospheric river in the news — this episode is the explanation nobody gave you.In this episode, environmental scientist Ally breaks down what atmospheric rivers actually are, how scientists measure and rate them on a scale from beneficial to catastrophic, why the West Coast depends on them for its water supply while also being devastated by them, what El Nino might change about that in

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00:19:25

Why Did Nepal Flood? Glaciology of a Changing Himalaya.

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/09/18

How does a mountain collapse cause a flood when there is almost no rain?In August 2026, a rock-and-ice avalanche collapsed from the northern face of Langtang Lirung in Nepal, sending an enormous volume of material down the Himalayan valley and generating a seismic signal equivalent to a magnitude 5.2 earthquake. In this episode, we examine the glaciology, geology, hydrology, and remote-sensing evidence behind the event, including how hanging glaciers and fractured bedrock fail.Sources:34 sources are

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00:46:49

How Is Algae Managed in Drinking Water? Rochester, NY...

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/09/04

What happens when algae show up in the water that eventually becomes your drinking water?In this episode of AquaDiary, we go behind the scenes again with Rochester, NY to find out how the city monitors for algae, where and how they collect samples, what they're looking for in those samples, and how they ensure algae toxins never become a drinking water concern.Ask me a question or work with me: aquadiary.podcast@gmail.comMerch available and speaking event details on www.aquadiary.orgSubstack

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00:26:15

Is Fluoride Lowering Your IQ? I Read the Studies So...

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/08/21

Fluoride is under a federal microscope right now. RFK Jr. told the CDC to drop its fluoridation recommendation, Utah already banned it, and the EPA fast-tracked a new toxicity review. So, is your tap water lowering your IQ?I spent a while reading the actual primary sources both sides cite so you don't have to.Short version: the studies finding an IQ effect are real and well-designed. So are the studies finding none. They're mostly answering different questions. Dose and timing turn out to

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00:23:39

120 Homes, 40 Years, One Radioactive Story: Niagara...

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/08/14

Radioactive material has been found in the yards of over 120 homes in the Town of Niagara, NY, and four families have been relocated. But is this just a soil problem, or could it reach the water too?In this episode, I break down what's actually been found, why officials reportedly knew about radioactive hotspots in this area for nearly 40 years, and what the peer-reviewed science says about whether thorium contamination can migrate into groundwater.Questions this episode answers:What is

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01:05:43

PFAS, Algae, and Lake Foam: What Issues Are We Seeing...

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/08/07

There's a beach on one of the cleanest lakes in America with foam sitting on the shoreline, and it just tested over 70x higher for PFAS than the lake water two feet away. In this episode I sit down with Rick Smith of Global Aquatic Research to unpack what's actually happening across the Finger Lakes right now: the PFAS-in-foam research out of Canandaigua Lake and what it means as the project expands, why harmful algal blooms are starting earlier and lasting longer, and what we know about

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01:00:10

Full Transparency: Water Treatment Tour in Rochester, NY

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/07/31

Rochester, New York has been voted the best-tasting water in New York State twice. In this episode, I go inside the Hemlock Filtration Plant with the Rochester Water Bureau, for a complete walkthrough of how drinking water treatment actually works.This is the most in-depth water treatment plant tour I've filmed on this show. We walk through the entire process step by step, including pH Adjustment, coagulation, filtration, disinfection, corrosion control, and fluoridation. Beyond the treatment

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00:32:35

Smoke on the Water: How Canada's Wildfires Change Lakes

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/07/24

In 2023, Canada's wildfires turned the sky over New York the color of a traffic cone. In July 2026, it's happening again.Everyone covers the smoke in our lungs. Almost nobody covers what that same smoke does to our drinking water and lakes. This episode traces the whole chain: the light-blocking, algae-fertilizing double effect of ash on a lake surface, the "lake that turns to tea" carbon browning problem, the neurotoxin that works its way up the food chain into the fish on your

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00:48:44

Lead, Tested: Inside the Rochester, NY Water Bureau

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/07/10

Rochester, NY has thousands of lead water service lines and a plan to replace all of them by 2030, years ahead of the federal deadline, at virtually cost to residents.How did they do it? And is the water in Rochester, NY safe to drink?In this episode, I go inside the Rochester Water Bureau's in-house lab to see exactly how lead testing works, down to the part-per-billion level. Then I sit down with the Director of the Water Bureau and the Manager of Water Production to talk about how

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00:26:21

Reflecting Pool Algae Pt. 2: A Silver Bullet...

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/07/03

Last week's reflecting pool video hit 400,000 views on YouTube. The most common question in the comments: is there actually a fix for algae? Copper sulfate. Silver. Hydrogen peroxide. Ultrasound. Aeration. I went through every tool, and gave you an honest verdict on each one.Is there a silver bullet for algae? What actually kills a harmful algal bloom? What are cyanobacteria toxins and how dangerous are they? How do you tell if a bloom is toxic just by looking at it? What do lake managers

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00:24:26

$16 Million, Dead Ducks, and Algae: The Reflecting...

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/06/26

Why did the Reflecting Pool get an algae bloom? Why did thepaint peel off? Is the Reflecting Pool safe? What killed the ducks? Why did the $16 million renovation fail?I'm an environmental scientist and work professionally inlake and algae management, and this is my professional breakdown of what actually happened, why it was completely predictable, and what the science says about the decisions that were made, including the species identification thatmay have been inconclusive before workers

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00:30:30

Microplastics in Your Water: What Scientists ACTUALLY...

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/06/19

Microplastics have been found in 83% of tap water samples tested worldwide, and yes, that includes yours. But here's what almost no one covering this topic will actually say: as of 2026, peer-reviewed science does not yet have a definitive answer on what that means for your health. I'm an environmental scientist, and this episode gives you the honest version; the research, the real gaps, and the practical steps that are actually supported by evidence.We cover what microplastics are and why

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00:34:00

Micron Is Coming to Clay, NY. What Does That Mean for...

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/06/12

Micron Technology is building the largest semiconductor fabrication complex in U.S. history in Clay, New York, and its wastewater will carry ( mostly unregulated) PFAS, the "forever chemicals," into a river system that connects to drinking water for half a million people. I'm an environmental scientist, and today we're doing the math the press releases aren't doing: what a $100 billion megafab and a projected 60% population boom in Onondaga County actually means for Central New York's water

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00:17:29

PFAS & Poisoned Water: Hoosick Falls, NY

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/06/05

In 2014, a man in a small New York town did something almost no one does: he tested his own tap water. What he found, PFOA, a “forever chemical,” at hundreds of times the level regulators consider safe, would expose a national scandal and take roughly 18 months to be officially acknowledged. This is the story of Hoosick Falls, the frying-pan chemistry that poisoned a town’s drinking water, and why the same invisible contaminant may be sitting in your tap right now.I’m Ally, an environmental

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00:18:02

Update: City Tracks Me Down. I Drink Radioactive Water

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/05/29

A few weeks ago I was at a conference when someone from the City of Rochester's water bureau found me in person to ask for a follow-up deep dive into their water supply. On the drive home, I stopped in Saratoga Springs, and tried the water. I later learned that peer-reviewed science has found it contains radium isotopes and radon gas. The state tests the popular one. Not all of them. I want to solve that issue.This general update episode covers where the show is going this summer, the Onondaga Lake

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00:31:15

Onondaga Lake: Sacred Site, Founder of Democracies,...

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/05/22

The scientists who worked on this cleanup all signed NDAs and wouldn't speak with me. And mercury is still being found.In April 2026, routine marina renovations at Onondaga Lake uncovered mercury in sediment nobody had ever tested, in a lake declared cleaned up. The DEC says the origin is "unknown." The Onondaga Nation says they've been ignored for twenty years. And the experts who know the most about what's really in that lake cannot legally speak about it.This episode covers

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00:38:52

Love Canal: They Called Her Hysterical

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/05/15

21,800 tons of toxic chemical waste buried under a neighborhood and a school. Hundreds of families in Love Canal had no idea. This is the story of America's most infamous environmental disaster, and the woman whose anger created federal law.Lois Gibbs was a 27-year-old housewife when she discovered her children were being poisoned by groundwater contamination seeping up through the soil beneath their home. State officials dismissed her community health survey as "useless housewife

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00:49:46

The Dark Secrets of NY's Best Tasting Water:...

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/05/08

Rochester was voted the best-tasting municipal water in New York State. Then they found a body in the reservoir.In March 2024, a maintenance worker discovered a man's body in Rochester's Highland Park Reservoir. It had been there for 24 days while water continued flowing to tens of thousands of taps. The water tested safe, but the story of how this was possible opens up something much larger about a city drinking from two of the most protected lakes in the country while simultaneously

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00:39:44

Billion Dollar Water Scam? Bottled Water vs. Tap Water

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/05/01

Bottled water is less regulated, less safe, and less transparent than your tap — and the industry spent billions making sure you never found out.In this episode of AquaDiary, environmental scientist Ally breaks down the science, the scandals, and the corporate playbook behind the bottled water industry. From FDA loopholes and hidden contamination to Nestlé pumping 130 million gallons for $200 a year while Flint had no clean water. This is the episode the bottled water industry doesn't want you

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00:33:33

The Lead Pipe Problem Is Worse Than We Thought

AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News ·

2026/04/24

Lead pipes and lead poisonings aren't problems we've solved. They're under streets across the country right now, and new evidence suggests the problem is significantly larger than official data ever indicated.In this episode, environmental scientist Ally breaks down the full story of lead in American drinking water: the aging infrastructure nobody wants to pay to fix, the chemistry that keeps most of us safe and exactly what destroys it, and the cities across New York and the northeast

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