Extreme weather could threaten half of U.S. drinking water systems
Climate Connections

Extreme weather could threaten half of U.S. drinking water systems

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 20, 20261 min
  • Documentary
  • Science

Flooding, wildfires, extreme heat, and rising seas can damage water infrastructure and disrupt treatment and supply. Learn more at https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/

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I'm Dr. Anthony Leiserwitz and this is Climate Connections.

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water will come out.

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0:00

I'm Dr. Anthony Leiserwitz and this is Climate Connections. In the U.S., most people take for granted that when they turn on the tap, clean drinking water will come out. But climate change poses threats to municipal drinking water systems.

0:17

This isn't just a problem in the West with drought. It's a problem across the country and every location and utility needs to understand how their specific hazards are changing. Zia Lyle, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of North Carolina, analyzed

0:31

water utilities across the U.S. She found that by 2050, worsening climate hazards could affect system reliability for about half of them. Wildfires that can burn parts of the system, or extreme heat that can just degrade different pipes or storage capacity pumps.

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