Untreated Wastewater Flooding Presents Unique Challenges
Recent hurricanes and tropical storms have resulted in a unique problem – the overflow of millions of gallons of untreated wastewater into areas surrounding treatment facilities, including into nearby bodies of water. Unfortunately, this is part of a larger, even crappier problem!
Explanation for Untreated Wastewater Flooding
The problem seems to boil down to two primary factors – aging water infrastructure and the increase in volatile weather caused by global warming. While there is not much we can do about the latter, the infrastructure problem is something that can be mitigated, albeit not easily.
There are literally thousands of municipal water and wastewater systems that are in dire need of repair but that do not have the funding necessary to implement the needed upgrades. This, unfortunately, is everyone’s problem because we all rely on these systems not only for emergency preparedness but also to exist comfortably in our day-to-day lives.
Here are three examples of what some municipalities are dealing with in this regard:
- A wastewater treatment facility in Ashland, WI, has experienced 20 instances of untreated wastewater flooding in the last five years alone.
- The municipality of Menlo Park, CA, estimates that it needs to invest over $90 million to repair and upgrade its infrastructure.
- The Delaware Aqueduct in New York, which provides roughly 50% of NYC’s drinking water, requires $1.2 billion to correct issues that have resulted in millions of gallons of water leaking every single day.
As you can see, this problem is much more ominous than the release of untreated wastewater alone. This is not a problem that will simply go away if ignored; the degradation of the nation’s water and wastewater infrastructure will continue until addressed.
While we wait on infrastructure upgrades, it might be a good idea to incorporate things like drinking water shortages, and the impact of untreated wastewater leakage on health and mobility, into emergency drill scenarios.
