Was your area burning up this summer, or were you in a place that received torrential rains? Severe weather has struck many parts of the country this year. “Climate change” is a phrase often misused by people without a basic understanding of what drives it, what affects it, and what it, in turn, affects. For operators or leaders of small water systems, here are some tips on how to minimize the potential effects that climate change will have on your system as well as an explanation of some basic principles of climate change and examples of how climate change affects the weather.
Weather-related disasters in the U.S. have been more severe than usual the past few years, and their consequences for water and wastewater systems more harmful. Some examples:
- Texas’ wildfire season began in November 2010. So far, 21,000 fires have destroyed more than 1,500 homes and burned 3.5 million acres (an area bigger than Connecticut). Water used to fight these fires is water that cannot be used by farmers, ranchers, industry and other customers.
- In Arizona, the Wallow Fire burned more than 469,000 acres in May.
- Houston ordered mandatory water conservation this year after experiencing 700 main breaks a day. Increased heat led to increased water demand, and as the ground dried out during the summer drought and water demand surged, water mains popped at record rates.
- At least two Texas towns—Kemp and Robert Lee—found they were nearly without drinking water. Kemp’s system was under a boil order after main breaks and heavy usage drained its tank.
- The O.C. Fisher reservoir at San Angelo, Texas, dried up completely.
- In Colorado, the 2002 Heyman Fire baked the ground into an impervious layer. Runoff increased to the Cheesman and Strontia Springs Reservoirs, carrying a huge amount of sediment, which contained minerals, volatile organic compounds, total organic carbons and mercury. It is estimated that it will take at least 25 years to overcome the effects of this one fire.
- Then there’s the other extreme—getting too much precipitation too quickly. On August 28, Rutledge, Vt., water plant operator Michael Garofano was attempting to make sure his city’s water supply was secure in the face of flooding caused by Hurricane Irene. His family believes that a bank collapsed, spilling Garofano and his son into Mendon Brook. Garofano drowned, and his son’s body has still not been found. The hurricane was expected to hit the usual areas—the coasts—but it turned out to have a big impact on an inland state with its rains, which caused flooding.
What Is Climate Change?
Climate may be defined as “average” or “expected” weather. Climate encompasses the status of the all of Earth’s systems, including the atmosphere, land, oceans, snow, ice and living things (plants, animals and people) that all affect weather patterns. The sun produces energy, about a third of which is reflected by the atmosphere, clouds and the Earth’s surface. The other two-thirds are absorbed by the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere.
Many things affect the amount of energy absorbed by the Earth. For instance, natural processes in the climate system, like changes in ocean currents or particulates emitted by erupting volcanoes, are beyond our control. Human activities that change the Earth (such as cutting down forests, planting trees, or creating large subdivisions) or change the atmosphere (such as burning fossil fuels or using aerosol chemicals) also affect the amount of energy absorbed by the Earth. These activities are within our control. Most scientists believe that human activities are the major driving force for climate changes that have occurred over the past 50 years.
The Earth’s atmosphere acts as a greenhouse roof does, retaining heat, regulating the temperature of the Earth and allowing life to flourish. Human activities have increased the level of “greenhouse gases” (such as water vapor and carbon dioxide). These greenhouse gases come from burning fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil to power cars, factories, power plants, homes, offices, and schools. Cutting down trees, generating waste, and farming also produce greenhouse gases, which capture more of the sun’s heat and raise the mean temperature of the Earth.
Either Too Much or Too Little Can Stress Your System
Climate change is expected to encourage wildfires by extending the length of the summer fire season. Longer periods of hot weather could stress trees and make them more susceptible to wildfires, insect damage, and disease. Climate change has likely already increased the size and number of forest fires, insect outbreaks, and tree deaths, particularly in Alaska and the West. The area burned in Western U.S. forests from 1987 to 2003 is almost seven times larger than the area burned from 1970 to 1986. In the last 30 years, the length of the wildfire season in the West has increased by 78 days. The ash carried in runoff can adversely affect your watershed by the amount of sedimentation deposited in reservoirs and can affect water quality and treatment with the contaminants carried in the sedimentation.
But burning isn’t the only problem attributable to climate change in Texas. January through July 2011 was record-dry for New Mexico and the South climate region (Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas). July in that South region was the warmest single calendar month on record for any climate region in the U.S. This drought created enormous demands on scarce water resources for irrigation and drinking consumption.
According to scientists, the increased temperature of the Earth melts the polar ice caps and glaciers that have been around for centuries. This ice, which used to help reflect some of the sun’s energy, is disappearing at a rapid rate. The impacts from climate change are expected to be particularly noticeable to people who live, work, and engage in recreational activities along the coast. Average global sea levels rose during the 20th century and are expected to continue to rise at an increasing rate. Tropical storms are projected to become more intense as well. The East Coast and Gulf Coast are particularly vulnerable to rises in sea levels and storm surges because the land is relatively low and also subsiding in many places. Alaska is also at risk, with extreme changes in local sea levels caused by a combination of geologic and climate-related factors. Events such as Hurricane Katrina show that Americans can feel the effects of extreme weather events in a severe way. In areas where climate change leads to increased extreme weather, like heat or storms, some people, including the poor, the elderly, and the disabled, are greatly affected.
Protecting Your System With These Resources
The first step in protecting your system is making sure your employees know how valuable they are, not just in terms of the system and serving customers, but to their own families, friends, and communities. Train them in safe responses to emergencies, and provide them with the tools they need to protect themselves while they are in hazardous situations.
The Environmental Protection Agency has developed the Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (CREAT) so you can evaluate options that will best protect your system from extreme weather occurring in your specific area. You can find more information at http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/climate/creat.cfm [1]. CREAT provides libraries of drinking water and wastewater utility assets (like water resources, treatment plants, or pump stations) that could be impacted by climate change, possible climate change-related threats (such as flooding, drought, water quality), and adaptive measures that can be implemented to reduce the potential impacts of climate change. The tool guides users through identifying threats based on regional differences in climate change projections and designing adaptation plans based on the types of threats being considered. After you complete the assessment, CREAT provides a series of risk-reduction and cost reports that will allow you to evaluate adaptation options as part of your system’s long-term planning.
The EPA has also developed the Climate-Ready Water Utilities Toolbox, which contains information from basic climate science through integration of mitigation and adaptation into long-term planning; it can be accessed at www.epa.gov/safewater/watersecurity/climate/toolbox.html [2]. You can use this toolbox to view publications and reports on climate change impacts, get strategies to protect your system, and be alerted to training and seminars happening in your area.
And to evaluate how well your efforts have protected your system, you may want to use the Tabletop Exercise Tool for Water Systems at http://yosemite.epa.gov/ow/SReg.nsf/description/TTX_Tool [3]. The updated tool contains 15 scenarios that address an all-hazards approach to emergency preparedness and response, including natural hazards and human-caused incidents, and potential impacts of climate change on the water sector. (The original version of this tool came out in 2005.)
Check out the latest issue (2011 issue 4) of RCAP’s Rural Matters magazine, found at www.rcap.org/RMissues [4]. Olga Morales, of Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC, the Western RCAP), has served on the EPA’s Climate-Ready Water Utilities Working Group. The final report of this group, “Climate Ready Water Utilities,” outlines the possible effects of climate change on water utilities, proposes solutions for dealing with them, and encourages water utilities to become “climate-ready.” The report can be found at http://water.epa.gov/drink/ndwac/climatechange/upload/CRWU-NDWAC-Final-Report-12-09-10-2.pdf [5].
As always, RCAP can help you with questions and guidance on climate change, its effects, and how to prepare. To contact the RCAP regional affiliate in your state, visit www.rcap.org/regions [6].