Aging infrastructure, factories, farms, municipal treatment systems, emerging contaminants, and algal blooms all impact the quality of our drinking water and can make us very sick. Here are some significant recent events that illustrate just how toxic our drinking water can become.
1. Elk River Chemical Spill
Back in 2014, in Charleston, West Virginia, a storage-tank failure allowed the industrial chemical MCHM (a coal-cleaning chemical) to enter the Elk River, just upstream of a water intake! Because of this, 300,000 people lost access to potable water for days, and MCHM is toxic to aquatic species, resulting in damage to the Elk River and surrounding water systems.
This revealed vulnerabilities in chemical storage regulations and water-source protection that still haven’t been fully addressed, meaning this could happen again at any time.
2. Delaware River Latex Chemical Spill
In 2023, a factory spilled butyl acrylate and other compounds into a creek that feeds the Delaware River. Hundreds of thousands of people were put on bottled water advisories, and this is another instance of an industrial accident dumping a toxic chemical into a sensitive water system that damaged the ecosystem and harmed human life for hundreds of miles around.
3. Hurricane Matthew Flooding and Hog Waste Lagoons
Another huge threat to our drinking water is hurricanes. When Hurricane Matthew hit, it unexpectedly flooded the hog waste lagoons. So all of the animal waste that was sitting in poorly managed ponds that the hog farmers called lagoons spilled into private Wells and other water systems, such as creeks, lakes, and rivers. This contaminated drinking water with bacteria, nitrates, antibiotics, and other contaminants from animal waste.
The same thing happened in 1999 when Hurricane Floyd contaminated the rivers of North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. This time it was our own public sewer systems that overflowed along with agricultural runoff and industrial contaminants. This was directly caused by the flooding that damaged the infrastructure and wastewater facilities.
4. Mississippi Water-System Collapse
In 2022, in Jackson, Mississippi, the water system collapsed, illustrating the fragility of our aging municipal water systems. The entire city lost access to safe drinking water, and everyone had to use long-term boiling to kill the bacteria in their water. The water system collapsed under pressure from floodwaters. That means that any heavy rainstorm could take out our water systems all over the country!
5. Mid-Atlantic PFAS Contamination Alerts
Emerging contaminants are a major threat to our drinking water; in this case, PFAS are involved. Back in 2021, in Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia, PFA from firefighting foam used up military bases and also from other industrial sources flooded local drinking water and created a drinking water hazard. It was this case in particular that drove the development of new EPA standards, but very few municipal water treatment facilities have found a way to deal with PFAS, as they are so difficult to remove from water.
6. Tropical Storm Irene
It doesn’t take a hurricane to severely impact our drinking water. In 2011, tropical storm Irene hit the northeast US, specifically the states of Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. The record river flooding overwhelmed treatment systems, and sediment, sewage, and agricultural runoff again devastated local water sources.
7. Coal Ash Contamination
Call power plants reduce a ton of waste. Some of this waste is coal that they store in coal-Ash ponds. In Appalachia, specifically Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia, these unlined ash storage sites are having major failures and contaminating the water with arsenic and heavy metals. This has been happening more and more, especially since 2005. This has led to regulations on coal combustion waste, but it has not solved the problem. If you live near any of these cold Ash ponds, the drinking water most likely contains elevated levels of arsenic and heavy metals.
8. New Jersey Lead Crisis
Finally, we had to go to New York and New Jersey in 2019. The aging infrastructure under the city, from old lead pipes, led to a crisis. The corrosion-control failures and deteriorating pipes led to a massive lead release, forcing thousands of residents to drink bottled water. This remains a massive issue for old cities with lead pipes beneath them. They have tried to coat them with chemicals and other measures to stop them from leaking heavy metals, but the fact remains that if you live in a city or town with old pipes, there will be levels of lead and other heavy metals in your drinking water that are potentially hazardous to your health.
