Contaminated drinking water is a growing concern for cities facing wildfires
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As fires continue to burn across Los Angeles, several utilities have declared their drinking water unsafe until extensive testing can prove otherwise. A warmer, drier climate means wildfires are getting worse, and encroaching on cities — with devastating impact. Toxic chemicals from those burns can get into damaged drinking water systems, and even filtering or boiling won’t help, experts say.
Last week, Pasadena Water and Power issued a “Do Not Drink” notice to about a third of its customers for the first time since it began distributing water more than a century ago. With at least one burned pump, several damaged storage tanks, and burned homes, they knew there was a chance toxic chemicals had entered their pipes.
“Out of the abundance of caution, you kind of have to assume the worst," said Stacie Takeguchi, chief assistant general manager for the utility. This week, they lifted the notice for most of the area after testing. Why urban fires are a risk to drinking water.
When large fires burn in towns and cities, rather than forests and grasslands, infrastructure can be heavily damaged. When drinking water systems are damaged in a fire, “we can have ash, smoke, soot, other debris and gases get sucked into the water piping network,” said Andrew Whelton, a Purdue University engineering professor who researches water contamination in communities hit by fire.
Those elements can be particularly toxic because chemically engineered synthetics in building materials and households are heating, burning and releasing particles and gases, he said. Some of those chemicals are harmful even at low concentrations, experts say.
