Columbus' explosive growth could someday strain our water supply without more planning, warns a new Alliance for the Great Lakes report.

Why it matters: Residents, data centers, farms and manufacturers such as Intel are all tapping the same supply — and if it can't keep up, that could result in higher bills, shortages or restrictions.

• Groundwater extraction is already causing our city to slowly sink, we recently reported.

State of play: Our local supply is currently sufficient. But more infrastructure investments and water recycling strategies will be necessary to maintain it into the future, a state-led study concluded earlier this year.

• The Central Ohio Water Advisory Council, housed within the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC), is coming up with a plan for the 15-county region.
• Ohio was also the first Midwest state to join the WateReuse Association last year, to begin exploring water recycling solutions.

Zoom in: Columbus' drinking water comes mostly from three reservoirs — Griggs and O'Shaughnessy, on the Scioto River, and Hoover, on Big Walnut Creek. The rest is pumped from aquifers in southern Franklin County.

• Three water treatment plants pump an average of 145 million gallons daily.
• Columbus is annexing the land around Hoover to protect it.
• It's also building a fourth facility, a $1.6 billion water treatment plant in southwestern Delaware County, to meet increasing demand. It should be online in about five years.

Between the lines: Intel and data centers — which typically evaporate water to cool machinery — are big factors, as is residential growth.

• Dan Diorio, the Data Center Coalition's vice president of state policy, tells Axios the industry continues to "innovate" to reduce its footprint.

The big picture: The Great Lakes report illustrates how Central Ohio is a microcosm of a larger challenge throughout the Midwest.

• It calls for stronger groundwater protections and more transparency on data center consumption, which is largely considered proprietary.
• It also notes that climate change will make future management more challenging.

What they're saying: "I call our water resources our 'liquid gold' here in Central Ohio," says Edwina Teye, MORPC's senior water and natural resources program manager.

• "There's a lot of work going on, a lot of collaboration, to maintain the integrity of our water resources."

What's next: A water advisory council strategic plan is expected next year, Teye tells Axios.

📺 Nexstar Media Group, owners of WCMH-TV, has agreed to buy rival Tegna, owner of WBNS-TV, 97.1 The Fan and other Ohio properties. (Dispatch)

🏫 Gordon Gee, Ohio State president from 1990-1997 and 2007-2013, will return to campus as a consultant for the next year. (WCMH-TV)

🦁 Hunan Lion, a popular Chinese restaurant, has reopened after closing two years ago due to fire damage. (614 Magazine)

🐟 Rural Action, an environmental nonprofit, is bringing aquatic life back to Ohio waterways polluted by acid mine drainage. (Ohio Capital Journal)

It's National Radio Day, an occasion meant to celebrate the medium and its cultural impact.

Yes, but: That impact is diminishing.

• It's been more than a year since beloved indie rock station CD92.9 finally went off the air after years of tumult.
• The nationally recognized station introduced a generation of Columbus listeners to indie music, helped bring touring acts to town and ran the Big Room Bar in the Brewery District.
• The station's closure left a hole in the Columbus radio space that hasn't been filled — and may never be.

State of play: There are still a few local and independent radio stations remaining in the Columbus market:

🎙 WOSU Public Radio operates local NPR station 89.7, classical music channel 101.1 WOSA and a radio network including Coshocton, Granville, Mansfield, Marion and Portsmouth.

🏫 90.5 WCBE is operated by Columbus City Schools, and still plays a variety of indie and classical music.

🤝 92.7 and 98.3 WCRS is a volunteer-operated community station playing music, public affairs and activist programming.

🎷 98.5 WSAX is a 24/7 jazz station operated by the Columbus Jazz Alliance.

🌎 91.9 WGRN is a progressive-oriented channel operated by the Central Ohio Green Education Fund.

The concept of public media itself is under attack and facing $1.1 billion in nationwide cuts after Congress rescinded Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) funding.

Driving the news: For hundreds of stations with available data, CPB grants made up about 10.3% of U.S. public TV stations' overall funding as of fiscal 2023, and 4.1% for radio stations.

How it works: That's based on data manually collected from station websites by Alex Curley, a former NPR staffer who has been tracking public media financing on his blog, Semipublic.

• Curley's dataset is extensive, but incomplete.
• For the included maps, Axios averaged stations with matching affiliations in the same city to reduce visual clutter.

Caveat: Public media stations can also receive other forms of federal grants, plus corporate sponsorships and donations from (ahem) viewers like you.

Yes, but: "CPB grants make up the majority of federal funding for most public media entities," Curley writes.

👋 Alissa here, happy to report that Star the eagle's recovery story had a happy ending.

• I enjoyed a front-row view of her release at Scioto Audubon Metro Park on Monday.
• I hope you enjoy this clip of her soaring toward the sky!

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