On November 8th, 2018, power lines fell on a dry grass at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains north of Sacramento, igniting the deadliest fire in California’s history. The powerful winds have passed through paradise and several other small towns in the fire-dry forest, killing 85 people, destroying 18,000 structures and causing more than $16 billion in damage.
Among the fire victims were the city’s water system, poisoned by toxins in the smoke. “Every time a house burns, it’s an open line to the atmosphere,” said Kevin Phillips, former mayor and district manager of the Paradise Irrigation District, which provides drinking water to more than 9,000 customers. “You’re squirting water [of lines that supply homes] At full speed and ultimately [the system] to suppress it. This creates a vacuum effect, causing contaminants to return to the system and smoke to inhale. “Smoke and other materials from plastics, including burning wood, PVC water pipes, contain benzene and other carcinogens. A year after the fire, testing revealed benzene levels 80 times the legal limit for some drinking water samples.
The road to healthy water supply was long, and the system had to be flushed, tested and pipes changed. However, this August, after seven years of work and $40 million in spending, the town’s new water system was finished, and all toxic substances were washed away.
The floods in Asheville washed away large water pipes and buried the damaged backup pipes 25 feet underground.
From fires to floods, droughts, extreme heat and sea level rise, climate change is taking serious costs to drinking water supplies around the world. This change was most affected by the already stressed or fragile local government water systems. And as the effects of such climates get worse, they are forcing expensive fixes – if the fix is ​​present at all.
“Climate change has had a major impact on the availability of water resources in terms of quality and quantity,” said Alexandra Campbell Ferrari, executive director of the Center for Water Safety and Cooperation. “We’re not really working on the challenges. Ultimately, we’re not ready to deal with the floods, droughts and pollution we continue to face.”
More than half of the US population drinks water captured and filtered by forest areas. However, wild fires, which are increasing in strength, frequency and duration, are increasingly contaminating the surface water supply of these basins with excess nutrients, including dissolved carbon, heavy metals, and nitrogen and phosphorus, with burning trees and other forest materials. When fire burns homes, towns, plastic pipes, and other humanity material Contaminates the water system. And after a fire, landslides often occur, washing sediments, debris and other contaminants into the surface water, exacerbating water quality issues.
A 2018 camp fire in Paradise, California has burned homes. When a house burns, plastic pipes and other human materials contaminate the water system.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Floods pose a major threat to drinking water systems around the world as the climate warms and the atmosphere retains more moisture. Last September, Hurricane Helen cleaned the US East Coast, causing 14 inches of rain to rain over three days in Asheville, North Carolina. Thousands of years of flooding have wiped out the homes, businesses and infrastructure of mountain communities, including urban water systems.
flood Was washed away A large caliber pipe that transports water from the treatment plant to the rest of the system and has a backup pipe buried 25 feet underground. Both the small 1,000-mile pipes in Asheville, as well as those that carried water to businesses and homes, were suffering major damage.
The wreckage was even more impressive as it happened in a system built in 2004. “I thought they were making the best they could by the means they had at the time,” said Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer. I said New York Times last year. “I don’t know how we can build a system that can withstand a 1,000-year flood situation, as we’ve experienced. If you had all the money in the world, you could probably do it. If you’re a city with a budget of $250 million a year, you can’t.”
“The wastewater systems are not designed for this changing climate. They were designed for older climates that no longer exist.”
This issue is exacerbated in countries with no or minimal water infrastructure. The recent extreme flood events in Pakistan, Niger and Chad have flooded sewerage and toilets. The pathogen was washed in drinking water, resulting in diarrhea and cholera outbreaks. Chad, which was already suffering from a food crisis, also suffered polluted floods. It was destroyed Just like field crops, it’s a food store. In southern Brazil, floods in the spring of 2024 contributed to the increase. Leptospirosis In an urban environment with inadequate sanitation systems.
High-strength stormwater can also wash toxic chemicals from fertilization fields, industrial sites, and roads to rivers and reservoirs. Pollutants complicate the water treatment process as the system overflows, equipment collapses, clogs and more disinfectant is needed. Climate change is expected to damage many of these facilities as many sewage and water treatment plants are being built along rivers and lowlands in Asheville. These challenges increase the risk of contamination quickly and in the long term.
“The wastewater system is not designed for this changing climate.” Sri Vedakaram said. “They were designed for an older climate that probably doesn’t exist anymore.”
A “boiled water” advisory was set up in Old Fort, North Carolina, after Hurricane Helen flooded a local water treatment plant last October.
Robert Willett / News & Observers via the AP
The wells are also at risk. Tests after Hurricane Helen showed that E. coli Contaminated coliform group 40% A private well on Helen’s road. Research shows that floods and heavy rain can cause human feces and other contaminants from leaky purification systems and penetrate public and private wells. Approximately 53 million people in the United States rely on private wells that are not federally regulated and are not subject to forced treatment of contaminants.
Droughts have become more frequent and severe due to climate change, but they can also affect water quality. When water levels are low, organic materials such as decomposed leaves and other vegetation are concentrated in the surface water source, spurring the therapeutic plants to use more disinfectants, usually chlorine. However, organic materials can react with chlorine to produce two families of toxic disinfectant byproducts (DBPs), trihalomethanes and haloacetic acid. The utility faces a A balanced act: Too little chlorine will allow opportunistic pathogens to survive. Too much chlorine can cause harmful DBP to accumulate in drinking water. recently analysis Even at levels below the US and European Union’s regulatory restrictions, we have found some evidence that trihalomethane increases the risk of bladder and colorectal cancer over decades of consumption. Haloacetic acid is also considered a potential carcinogen.
In Mozambique, drought has led to a lack of clean water, leading to an increase in waterborne diseases like cholera.
Globally, rural areas lacking advanced water treatment systems are also suffering. In Nampura, Mozambique’s province, climate-related droughts have reduced rivers, shallow boreholes and wells. A lack of clean water has contributed to cases of elevated tropical diseases such as genital schistosomiasis and lymphoid filariasis. According to In addition to waterborne diseases such as cholera and diarrhea, doctors with no boundaries. Solution: Dig deeper and better covered wells.
The frequency and intensity of rainwater contaminated by fertilizer runoff and extreme rainfall combined with warm water temperatures has also increased. Harmful algae flowers In freshwater. After a massive algae bloom on Lake Erie in the summer of 2014, residents of Toledo, Ohio were warned not to drink tap water due to the cyanotoxin produced by thick green algae. Exposure to these naturally occurring compounds can cause serious illness and death by swimming or drinking affected water.
Experts say there is an increased risk of algae blooming and drinking water. “Blooms is starting early,” said Sean Corson, director of NOAA’s National Center for Coastal Marine Sciences. I said Internal climate news. “They’ve been going on for a long time. Those peaks are big. So some measures have made them worse.”
Water was collected from Lake Erie in July 2015 while the algae bloomed.
Eric Albrecht / The Columbus Dispatch via AP
Seawater threatens drinking water supply as river volumes decrease. The Mississippi River has experienced drought over the past two years due to lack of precipitation and excessive heat. Low river levels allow salt water to move further upstream from the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to contaminate New Orleans drinking water.
“It’s been a very low river these days,” said Mark “Hobbo” Kognevich, who is working on water issues as a district representative for the Parish of Plaquemins, at the mouth of Mississippi. “Seawater is rising, so freshwater comes down, while it moves upstream,” Cognevich said saltwater invasion has become more frequent in recent years. Last year, parish officials delivered bottled water to residents, and the utility occasionally transported reverse osmosis filters, or trucks of desalination units, supplementing water treatment until a new plant in Bell Chasse with reverse osmosis capabilities was completed.
Paradise California has learned rigorous lessons on how to prepare to deal with the increased risk of fires to the water system.
Utilities across the US are working on a variety of aspects to adapt to changing water paintings. In Paradise, to deal with the increased risk of fires, Phillips said the cities have learned tough lessons on how to better prepare. “We put concrete meter boxes everywhere and recover the heat,” he said. “We use brass meters, we don’t have plastic meters anymore. And since every home is equipped with a reflux device, if the house burns out, there’s no more opportunity for vacuum effects.”
According to the recent Report Legal reform is an important part of adapting to the impact of climate on water systems with the Pacific Institute, the Center for Water Security and Cooperation, and Digdeep, which promotes clean water initiatives in underserved communities.
“Until our law reflects some instruction manual that we need to think about how we manage our water resources,” said Ferrari, Water Security Centre, which includes protecting minimum river flow and aquifer levels, reducing the amount of contamination entered the water, and prioritizing equitable access to drinking water. “Laws create a driving force for change.”
