 | | Hurricane Laura, which made landfall on August 27, toppled the 100,000-gallon water tower in Holly Beach, Louisiana. Photo courtesy of Cameron Parish Waterworks District 10. |
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| Hurricane Laura made landfall in southwestern Louisiana on August 27 with wind speeds around 150 miles per hour. The Category 4 storm was one of the strongest on record to strike the state. Nearly three weeks after the storm, more than 30 water systems in the state are still not operating. |
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 | | Concerned about contaminants in her tap water, California resident Florencia Ramos has been purchasing drinking water for herself and her family for more than a decade. Photo by Gary Kazanjian for Ensia. |
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| Across the U.S., drinking water systems serving millions of people fail to meet state and federal safety standards. Millions more Americans may be drinking unsafe water without anyone knowing because limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are too high, the contaminants it contains are unregulated, or their drinking water source is too small to fit under EPA regulations.
This story was co-published with Ensia, a solutions-focused nonprofit media outlet reporting on our changing planet.
Editor’s note: This story is the first in a nine-month investigation of drinking water contamination across the U.S. The series is supported by funding from Park Foundation and Water Foundation. |
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 | | The CZU Lightning Complex Fire burned through the forests of Santa Cruz County, California. The fire damaged water infrastructure for San Lorenzo Valley Water District. Photo courtesy of Carly Blanchard/SLVWD. |
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| The American West is in flames, ablaze in one of the region’s worst fire episodes in the last hundred years. As they tear through forests and developed areas, fires in California, Oregon, and Washington have destroyed water infrastructure and released chemical contaminants. |
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Tensions are rising again between Armenia and Azerbaijan after an escalation at the border killed at least 16 service members in July. The decades-long conflict has left water supply networks in disrepair and exacerbated water shortages for civilians in both countries. |
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What's Up With Water - September 14, 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 an intergovernmental environmental watchdog that says that it has found evidence that waste pits in Alberta, Canada are contaminating groundwater.
For news in the United States, two lawsuits filed in federal court claim that the Environmental Protection Agency is failing to enforce a landmark agreement to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.
This week's featured story from Circle of Blue reports on fires in the American West, which is ablaze in one of the region’s worst fire episodes in the last century. 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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 | | Homes in Paradise didn’t just burn. They were obliterated, leveled to their foundations. Four months after the fire, most residential properties are still in disarray. Photo © Brett Walton/Circle of Blue. |
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| Beneath the blast furnace heat that incinerated buildings and vehicles above ground in Paradise, California, an intricate network of drinking water pipes below the surface became so contaminated with toxic chemicals that many are unusable.
Contamination in water pipes adds an entirely new dimension to the nation’s wildfire menace. No town water system has ever lost nearly all of its customers, which are its source of revenue, and attempted such a feat of investigation, outreach, and rehabilitation from fire with so few resources. It is a new chapter in the history of disaster recovery in America — one that easily could be repeated as fire seasons lengthen in the West, more acres are consumed, and communities expand into wildland areas that are susceptible to burning. |
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