Is it Malpractice or Just Old-Fashioned Ignorance?
Not a day goes by without an article on your news feed that decries a Megadrought in the West, the Colorado River Going Dry, Groundwater Depleted or Contaminated, Wildfires in the West, or Impacts to Infrastructure from Sea Level Rise. While a creative headline is designed to catch the eye, the underlying theme cannot be ignored. The reliability and security of the nation’s wide supply are of critical concern.
Water security is another way of saying steps and protocols to ensure the prevention of an interruption in supply. Interruptions can come in the form of water quality disruptions (contamination of raw water and potable water supplies) or water quantity disruptions (disruption of source, collection, treatment, or delivery of water).
Since 9/11 billions of dollars have been spent on counter-terrorism funding for protecting and hardening public and private water infrastructure. In 2001, the civilian budget in homeland security was estimated to be $15.9 billion. After 9/11, that annual budget increased to $71 billion. Costs to protect critical infrastructure have exceeded $315 billion, with a sizable junk attributable to critical water infrastructure.
The nation has taken steps to protect against the threat of terrorism to critical water infrastructure. Politics and media have stood in the way of America addressing the larger threat: Climate change impacts to the nation’s water supply. First, we need to get past the false narrative that it’s is a left or right issue. Anyone in the water industry knows it is neither, it is a malpractice issue. To ignore it is malpractice – or just ignorance.
For a moment, forget the cause of climate change. I know, that’s a hard one. But throw it aside. Focus on the impacts. Everyone who is involved in water supply issues knows the impacts are real. They must be understood and planned for.
To understand the costs is to understand the impacts of climate change on critical water infrastructure such as:
· Variability in Supply;
· Variability in Quality of the Supply;
· Increase in Demands; and
· Physical alterations to Infrastructure: Sea Level Rise and Wildfire
Fact: In the Western-US milder winters are becoming the norm. The result impacts the demand-side of water usage: 1) Up to 80% of water is used for agriculture – longer growing seasons equal more crop demand for water, and 2) electrical demands increase for such things as air-conditioning and water pumping. On the supply side, milder winters result in less snowpack (water) or more of that water coming in the form of rain. Where we once relied on nature’s natural reservoir – mountain snowpack – to run off slowly, now more precipitation falls as rain, lost to use without more reservoir storage.
Fact: Heat is energy: As the atmosphere warms, the amount of energy and water in the atmosphere increases. Storms are more erratic and powerful. Where once gentle soaking rains could be relied on, now damaging flood and sediment-laden runoff compound the supply-side equation.
Perhaps in no other field are the impacts of a rapidly changing climate more evident than in water supply planning. This is just a sample of what must be considered when discussing water.
Watch for:
Part 2: How have the Law and Engineering Adapted to the Changing Waterscape?
and
Part 3: Wall Street, the Banking Community, and Real Estate Industry Can Rest Assured… or Not