 | | Cooling units perch atop a building in New York City. The prolonged shutdown of commercial districts in cities nationwide has increased the risk of water contamination in large buildings, researchers say. Photo © J. Carl Ganter/Circle of Blue |
|
| The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its building reopening guidance last Thursday, after being alerted to a critical error by Circle of Blue. The Environmental Protection Agency updated its document following a separate inquiry from this organization.
The CDC and the EPA incorrectly stated the proper temperature setting for water heaters in offices, hotels, restaurants, schools, and other large buildings with complex plumbing systems.
The errors, now corrected, put people at risk of contracting Legionnaires’ disease, plumbing experts said. Legionnaires’ disease is a deadly respiratory illness that is spread by inhaling contaminated droplets from cooling towers, showers, fountains, hot tubs, and other water fixtures that create airborne particles. |
|
 | | A water tank on the Navajo Nation. Photo courtesy of Flickr/Creative Commons user CEBImagery |
|
As Pandemic Magnifies Navajo Nation Water Deficit, Coronavirus Funding Questions Arise
The Navajo Nation, one of the U.S. populations hardest hit by Covid-19, will receive at least $600 million in emergency funding from the CARES Act to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s an enormous amount of money for the tribe, amounting to about half of the Navajo Nation’s $1.3 billion budget for 2020. But the country’s second-most populous tribal nation might not be authorized to use the funds for one of its greatest needs, which is clean water.
Speaking via Facebook Live on May 19, Jonathan Nez, president of the Navajo Nation, reiterated the depth of the tribe’s clean-water challenge, noting that 30 to 40 percent of people living on the reservation do not have running water. Then he made a promise.
“We’re going to be addressing that through the $600 million dollars,” Nez said, referring to the lack of running water in so many homes.
Nez suggested that half of the CARES Act money — some $300 million — be spent on water projects. Certainly, such an expenditure would be an enormous benefit to the tribe. But legal experts are less confident that the funds can be put toward the Navajo Nation’s chronic water infrastructure deficit. |
|
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: |
|
The first case of Covid-19 has been confirmed in one of the world’s largest refugee camps, in Bangladesh, which has been preparing for months for the arrival of the illness.
One infected person is an ethnic Rohingya housed inside the camps. The other is a resident living nearby. Both are now in an isolation center. Within the camps, aid workers are rushing to contain the spread of the virus amid crowded conditions.
The Rohingya refugee camps are located in an area of southern Bangladesh known as Cox’s Bazar. They are home to more than one million Rohingya who fled a military crackdown in neighboring Myanmar starting in 2017.
The camps are more tightly packed than many of the world’s largest cities, and face a chronic shortage of adequate water, healthcare, and sanitation systems. The basic directives for preventing the spread of the virus, including social distancing and handwashing, are nearly impossible in many places. |
|
What's Up With Water - May 18, 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 Bangladesh, where the new coronavirus is appearing in the world’s largest refugee settlement, raising concerns about the virus spreading quickly in crowded and unsanitary conditions.
Additional international reporting looks at Kenya, where damaged pipes have disrupted water supplies to the capital city of Nairobi.
For news in the United States, the federal agency that regulates the country’s commercial nuclear sector is seeking a rule change that would ease restrictions on the disposal of certain types of nuclear waste.
Finally, this week's featured Circle of Blue story reports on the deadly consequences of stagnant water in buildings gone dormant during Covid-19 shutdowns. 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. |
|
| From Circle of Blue's Archives: |
|
 | | Water from the Oroville Dam auxiliary spillway has eroded the roadway just below the spillway. Photo courtesty of Kelly M. Grow/ California Department of Water Resources |
|
| The near-failure of the auxiliary spillway at Oroville Dam and the ongoing emergency operations to contain flood waters in California’s second-largest reservoir and shore up its eroding outlet are a tale of caution for the nation’s aging dam fleet.
“I think it should give many people reason to step back and take a hard look at things, including California,” wrote Martin McCann, director of the National Performance of Dams Program at Stanford University, in an email to Circle of Blue.
The Oroville emergency is unfolding in a state with a dam safety program widely regarded as the nation’s strongest. McCann agreed that California’s efforts to prevent a partial collapse of Oroville’s auxiliary spillway should be a wakeup call for other states with less vigilant dam regulation. Alabama, for instance, has no state dam oversight at all.
Two-thirds of U.S. dams are privately owned and often owners do not have funds for maintenance or repair, according to Lori Spragens, executive director of the Association of State Dam Safety Officials. Most U.S. dams are more than 50 years old and an unknown number are not built to current safety standards. The association estimates that $US 18.7 billion is needed to repair high-hazard, state-regulated dams. High-hazard dams could kill people if they failed. |
|
|
|
