Polluted Water From Camp Fire Is Poisoning Paradise, Calif.

Published on by in Case Studies

Polluted Water From Camp Fire Is Poisoning Paradise, Calif.

Weeks after the Camp Fire roared through Butte County last November, devouring entire towns, officials made an alarming find: The Paradise drinking water is now laced with benzene, a volatile compound linked to cancer.

Water officials say they believe the extreme heat of the firestorm created a “toxic cocktail” of gases in burning homes that got sucked into the water pipes when the system depressurized from use by residents and firefighters.

Despite a long history of destructive wildfires sweeping through California, water experts said what happened in Paradise has been detected only once before — during the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa last year. The contamination in Paradise, however, is more widespread than anyone could have predicted, they said.

“It is jaw dropping,” said Dan Newton of the state Water Resources Control Board. “This is such a huge scale. None of us were prepared for this.”

The water contamination represents yet another unexpected and costly headache for California, a drought-prone state where water is a precious commodity and where seemingly endless natural and human-made disasters are draining resources. So far, the expected cleanup and insurance costs of the Paradise fire exceed $2 billion. Through FEMA, federal taxpayers are expected to pick up the cost of municipal repairs.

Experts who have rushed in to assess the problem say the water district may be able to clean pipes to some homes later this year, but it will take two years and up to $300 million before all hillside residents can safely drink, cook or bathe in the water from their taps.

The health hazard is real, they say. Benzene is both a natural and human-made compound used as a building block for industrial products such as plastic, lubricants, rubber, detergent and pesticide. It also is found in crude oil, gasoline and cigarette smoke.

It has been connected to various physical ailments, according to federal warnings, including skin and eye irritation, and vomiting from short-term exposure. Long-term exposure has been linked to anemia and leukemia.

One noted water systems engineer said solving the benzene-contamination problem is the most scientifically complex task he has ever seen. The contamination is both in the water, moving around, and in the pores of some pipes.

“You have to be a detective to figure out what is going on,” said environmental engineer Andrew Whelton of Purdue University, who deals with water system emergencies. “They have contaminated water moving around. They have very limited data.”

As climate change makes wildfires bigger and hotter, and as more houses are built in fire zones, water contamination could happen again, some say.

Paradise and Santa Rosa may only be warm-up acts.

‘Holy crap, we need help’

For now, the vast majority of Paradise’s former 27,000 residents are gone, forced off the hillside when 90 percent of structures were consumed in the fire. But an estimated 1,500 have moved back in to the few surviving houses.

Water officials have issued them a warning: Do not drink tap water. Do not cook with it. Do not brush your teeth with it or bathe in it. If you shower, use warm water, not hot, and make it quick.

The agency has set up a water distribution center in a local parking lot, giving cases of free bottled water daily to residents.

The task of dealing with the most of contamination falls to a small century-old water company called the Paradise Irrigation District. Run by a board of town residents, it maintains a 172-mile system of water mains and service lines, fed by a reservoir on the hill above the town.

SOURCE TO FULL ARTICLE ABOUT BENZENE CONTAMINATION IN PARADISE CALIFORNIA

Media

Taxonomy