{"id":57754,"date":"2021-05-10T08:36:51","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T13:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=57754"},"modified":"2021-05-10T08:36:51","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T13:36:51","slug":"wildfires-are-contaminating-drinking-water-systems-and-its-more-widespread-than-people-realize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=57754","title":{"rendered":"Wildfires Are Contaminating Drinking Water Systems, and It\u2019s More Widespread Than People Realize"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Wildfires Are Contaminating Drinking Water Systems, and It\u2019s More Widespread Than People Realize<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Wildfires<\/div>\n
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Fire in one part of a community can contaminate the water system used by other residents, as Santa Rosa, California, discovered after the Tubbs Fire. Justin Sullivan \/ Getty Images<\/div>\n
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More than\u00a058,000<\/a>\u00a0fires scorched the United States last year, and 2021 is on track to be even\u00a0drier<\/a>. What many people don’t realize is that these wildfires can do lasting damage beyond the reach of the flames \u2013 they can contaminate entire drinking water systems with carcinogens that last for months after the blaze. That water flows to homes, contaminating the plumbing, too.<\/p>\n

Over the past four years, wildfires have contaminated drinking water distribution networks and building plumbing for more than 240,000 people.<\/p>\n

Small water systems serving housing developments, mobile home parks, businesses and small towns have been particularly hard-hit. Most didn’t realize their water was unsafe until weeks to months after the fire.<\/p>\n

The problem starts when wildfire smoke gets into the system or\u00a0plastic in water systems heats up<\/a>. Heating can cause plastics to release harmful chemicals, like benzene, which can contaminate drinking water and permeate the system.<\/p>\n

As an\u00a0environmental engineer<\/a>, I and my colleagues work with communities recovering from wildfires and other natural disasters. Last year, at least seven water systems were found to be contaminated, suggesting drinking water contamination may be a more widespread problem than people realize.<\/p>\n

Our\u00a0new study<\/a>\u00a0identifies critical issues that households and businesses should consider after a wildfire. Failing to address them can harm people’s health \u2013 mental, physical and financial.<\/p>\n

Wildfires make drinking water unsafe<\/strong><\/p>\n

When wildfires\u00a0damage<\/a> water distribution pipes, wells and the plumbing in homes and other buildings, they can create immediate health risks…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wildfires Are Contaminating Drinking Water Systems, and It\u2019s More Widespread Than People Realize Fire in one part of a community can contaminate the water system used by other residents, as Santa Rosa, California, discovered after the Tubbs Fire. Justin Sullivan \/ Getty Images More than\u00a058,000\u00a0fires scorched the United States last year, and 2021 is on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[31209,2749,31208,866,4849],"class_list":["post-57754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-andrew-j-whelton","tag-drinking-water","tag-the-converstation","tag-water","tag-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57755,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57754\/revisions\/57755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}