How Climate Change Puts the Safety of Drinking Water at RiskWildfires, floods, intense heat, droughts, and other extreme events fueled by climat...
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network
Wildfires, floods, intense heat, droughts, and other extreme events fueled by climate change are threatening water systems in the U.S. and around the globe. Experts warn of the increasing threat of contamination and the need to improve infrastructure to keep drinking water safe.
By Jim Robbins • February 27, 2025
On November 8, 2018, a power line dropped into dry grass in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, north of Sacramento, and ignited the deadliest fire in California’s history. Powerful winds swept flames through Paradise and several other small towns in the tinder-dry forest, killing 85 people, destroying 18,000 structures, and causing more than $16 billion in damage.
Among the fire victims was the city’s water system, poisoned by the toxins in smoke. “Every time a home burns, it’s an open line to the atmosphere,” said Kevin Phillips, a former town manager and the district manager for the Paradise Irrigation District, which provides drinking water to more than 9,000 customers. “You are squirting water out [of lines that supply homes] at full speed and eventually [the system] depressurizes. That creates a vacuum effect and sucks in smoke with contaminants back into the system.” Smoke from burning trees, plastics — including PVC water pipes — and other materials contain benzene and other carcinogens. A year after the fire, testing revealed levels of benzene 80 times higher than the legal limit in some drinking water samples.
The road back to a healthy water supply has been long, requiring many rounds of flushing the system, testing, and replacing pipes. But this August, after seven years of work and expenditures of $40 million, the town’s new water system will be finished and all toxic substances flushed.
Flooding in Asheville washed away large water pipes and damaged backup pipes buried 25 feet underground.
From fires to floods, droughts, extreme heat, and sea level rise, climate change is taking a growing and serious toll on drinking water supplies around the world. The changes hit hardest in places with already stressed, or fragile, municipal water systems. And as such climate impacts worsen, they are forcing expensive fixes — if fixes exist at all.
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“Climate change is having a significant impact on the availability of our water resources from a quality and quantity perspective,” said Alexandra Campbell Ferrari, executive director of the Center for Water Security and Cooperation. “We are not really addressing the challenges. Ultimately, we’ll be unprepared to address the floods and drought and pollution that we will continue to be faced with.”
More than half of the U.S. population drinks water that’s captured and filtered by forested lands. But with wildland fires growing in intensity, frequency, and duration, surface water supplies in those watersheds are increasingly contaminated with dissolved carbon, heavy metals, and excessive nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorous, from burning trees and other forest materials. When fires burn houses and towns, plastic pipes and other human-made materials pollute the water system. And after the fires, mudslides often occur, washing sediment, debris, and other contaminants into surface water, compounding water quality problems.
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https://e360.yale.edu/features/climate-change-drinking-waterTaxonomy
- Climate Change