 | | Hotels and office buildings line the Riverwalk in downtown Chicago. Photo © J. Carl Ganter/Circle of Blue |
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| Countless buildings across the country have experienced extended idle periods and unexpected transformations during the global health crisis. Hotels, offices, restaurants, churches, and college campuses are vacant or operating at drastically reduced capacity. Retired buildings, meanwhile, are being pressed into service. Hospitals in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Phoenix that closed months or years ago have been rebooted to serve the swelling ranks of individuals stricken with Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
Building closures have obvious repercussions for local economies and social connections. Politicians want to lift stay-home orders and reopen public and private spaces as soon as the health risks from Covid-19 are manageable.
But before the all-clear signal is flashed, one hidden risk should not be overlooked, plumbing experts say. Prolonged closures can degrade water quality within buildings and introduce into the water harmful pathogens like Legionella bacteria and chemical contaminants such as lead. Certifying a building as fit for reopening means clearing the plumbing system, they say. |
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The volume of Covid-19 news can be overwhelming. We've started a live blog, updated throughout the day, to help you sort through it. It's a library for how water, sanitation, and hygiene connect to the pandemic, both in the US and globally.
Featured Covid-19 + water coverage from this week include: - Testing for the Coronavirus in Sea Spray near the U.S.-Mexico Border
- Idled Buildings Pose Water Quality Risk
- Industry Survey Indicates Revenue Challenges for U.S. Water Utilities
- House Bill Would Ban Water Shutoffs, Require Water Service Reconnection
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Unrelenting conflict is hindering Libya’s efforts to combat the new coronavirus.
In Tripoli, the country’s largest city and capital, the situation has been especially dire over the past week, after an attack on a water pumping station cut supply for more than two million people. |
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What's Up With Water - April 13, 2020
For the news you need to start the week, tune into “What’s Up With Water” fresh on Monday’s on iTunes, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and SoundCloud.
This week's episode features coverage on Jordan, where aid groups are bracing for a potential coronavirus outbreak in Za’atari camp, which houses nearly 80,000 Syrian refugees.
For news in the United States, we look at local governments, some of which are flouting federal rules to minimize flood damage in buildings.
Additional coverage from the U.S. looks at California, where state regulators granted a key permit necessary to proceed with the largest dam removal project in U.S. history.
Finally, this week's featured Circle of Blue story looks at how the pandemic is changing water use in the United States, and the financial repercussions for water utilities and their customers. You can listen to the latest edition of What's Up With Water, as well as all past editions, by downloading the podcasts on iTunes, following Circle of Blue on Spotify, following on iHeart Radio, and subscribing on SoundCloud. |
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| From Circle of Blue's Archives: |
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 | | Rectangular cooling towers sit beneath water towers on top of a New York City building. Photo courtesy of Flickr/Creative Commons user Ted McGrath |
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| Bacteria responsible for the deadliest waterborne disease in the United States are frequent residents of the cooling towers that are a part of heating and air conditioning systems in apartments, hospitals, nursing homes, hotels, and other large buildings, according to a study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Legionnaires’ disease, the pneumonia-like illness spread by Legionella bacteria, sickens thousands annually in the United States and kills hundreds. Cooling towers, because they can disperse contaminated droplets over many miles, are implicated in numerous outbreaks of the disease. |
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