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Will Climate Change Increase the Presence of Pathogens in Drinking Water?

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As storms grow more severe and temperatures climb, contamination of groundwater by animal and human waste could be on the rise as well.

Water poured into a clear glass.
Water poured into a clear glass.

By Kari Lydersen (@karilydersen1), writer, ensia (CC BY-ND 3.0).

Editor’s note: This story is part of a nine-month investigation of drinking water contamination across the U.S. The series is supported by funding from the Park Foundation and Water Foundation. View related stories here.

Many people assume that the water that flows from our taps is free of harmful microorganisms. But each year thousands of Americans in rural areas, small towns and even some cities are sickened by living pathogens that can flourish in untreated or inadequately treated water from private wells and municipal systems.

An increase in heavy precipitation with climate change means the risk of drinking water contamination by bacteria, viruses and other microbes could also increase, especially in places where reliance on groundwater, proximity to agricultural operations and certain types of geology increase vulnerability.

Bacteria like E. coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter, and viruses like hepatitis, norovirus and rotavirus, are all found in drinking water contaminated with human and animal fecal waste. These can cause gastrointestinal and other ailments. For some that’s a matter of discomfort, but for children, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems, this can be dangerous, debilitating and even deadly.

“We’ve known for years that extreme [weather] events can cause risk for waterborne outbreaks — in developing countries, but also in developed countries,” says epidemiologist Elsio Wunder Jr., an expert in water sanitation at the Yale School of Public Health.

Pathogens in U.S. public drinking water systems cause upwards of 4 million digestive tract illnesses each year. A 2017 study by Florida State University assistant professor of geography Christopher Uejio and colleagues predicted an increase in such illnesses in children under age 5 in relation to climate change, noting the impact on “small rural” municipalities that distribute untreated groundwater in their systems.

Multiple studies have documented the risk of precipitation-driven drinking water contamination in Wisconsin, a state especially susceptible because of its livestock operations and geology. A 2010 report by Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, associate professor of pediatrics Patrick Drayna and colleagues found that visits to a Wisconsin pediatric hospital for gastrointestinal symptoms increased an estimated 11% four days after rainfall.

Rainwater courses through lagoons of manure or manure spread on fields as fertilizer, picking up pathogens and carrying them into groundwater as it seeps down into the soil. The porous dolomite that underlies parts of Wisconsin and surrounding states allows pathogen-laden rainwater to make its way into the aquifers that feed wells and municipal water systems. Human fecal pathogens can also make their way from septic systems into drinking water supplies as rainwater permeates.

“Groundwater was rainfall, it just takes a while to get there,” explains Mark Borchardt, a microbiologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), who reported in 2019 that 60% of wells in northeastern Wisconsin’s Kewaunee County were contaminated with microbes found in fecal waste. “Rainfall has chemistries that detach microorganisms. When it touches a pathogen attached to a soil particle, the pathogen can be released and move on.”

In northern climates, frozen ground makes it less likely that pathogens can get into groundwater in winter. But warmer winters expected with climate change likely mean that ground will be frozen less of the time and that precipitation will fall as rain instead of snow, increasing the chances for pathogens to move.

Meanwhile drought — also expected to increase with climate change — can increase the risk of pathogen contamination as well.

“At the most basic level, drought can leave people without easy access to water, and they have to get water from a less-safe source,” says Jeni Miller, executive director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance. “And with less water in the aquifers, [pathogens] become more concentrated,” meaning someone could get a higher dose of pathogens from drinking water from aquifer-fed wells, and the pathogens may be more likely to cause illness when ingested.

Source Matters

Private wells often pose the greatest risk of sickness from pathogen contamination, since there are typically no requirements for testing or treating wells, and it is usually up to an individual homeowner to discover or deal with contamination. More than 13 million households nationwide get their drinking water from such wells.

Well contamination has been a problem in not only the Midwest but in Appalachia and other regions as well, often in areas where residents lack the funds for testing or comprehensive maintenance. The organization Appalachian Voices in 2009 cited a USDA study, saying it found “over 50 percent of the private drinking water wells in the Appalachian area of Kentucky are contaminated with disease-carrying pathogens” because of poorly managed “straight” sewage pipes that contaminate surface water. A 2017 report by University of Tennessee registered nurse and then–doctoral student Erin Arcipowski and colleagues reported that pathogenic contamination of drinking water is a serious issue in low-income rural areas of Appalachia. The researchers noted that some residents lack funds for maintaining wells and might rely on “expensive bottled water from a remote convenience store” if they don’t have drinkable water at home. The study found E. coli or fecal coliform bacteria in 15 of 16 sites where water was used for drinking or recreation.

Municipal water systems that tap groundwater can also be at risk, since there are no federal mandates that groundwater be treated before distribution, according to Borchardt. About 95,000 such systems nationwide do not disinfect their water, and about 85,000 people in Wisconsin are served by systems that do not disinfect.

Federal law does require disinfection of drinking water drawn from surface sources, so there is seemingly less risk people will get sick from these systems. But treatment systems can malfunction when heavy rain makes the water more turbid (cloudy).

Parasite illustration.
Parasite illustration.

In 1993 the city of Milwaukee suffered an outbreak of Cryptosporidium, a tiny parasite, that sickened more than 400,000 people with diarrhea and killed 69. A water treatment plant had inadequately treated turbid water that may have been contaminated with the parasite by agricultural or human waste carried into Lake Michigan by rain and snow melt. Between 2009 and 2017, contaminated drinking water caused 339 cases of Cryptosporidium nationwide, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pipes can be a problem, too. If the distribution systems that deliver drinking water contain cracks, pathogen-laden rainwater or groundwater can infiltrate them. If pipes carrying sewage are nearby and are also leaking, rainwater can help move pathogens from sewage into drinking water.

“When pipes leak, they don’t just leak out, they also leak in,” Borchardt notes.

Groundwater was a suspected source of contamination by the “brain-eating” amoeba Naegleria fowleri in Louisiana in recent years, which is typically deadly if it enters the nose. If groundwater tapped for drinking water is not disinfected or if disinfection systems fail, Naegleria may be present in tap water. Naegleria-contaminated groundwater can also enter water systems when pipes break.  There was also an outbreak in Texas this fall, and because Naegleria thrives in warm temperatures, it may become an increasing problem with climate change.

Reducing Risk

Governments and individuals can take a number of measures to reduce the risk of pathogens in drinking water. State or local governments can impose stricter controls on manure storage and spreading, including buffers and setbacks from residences.

“We currently have industrial-scale ranching and raising animals for meat and eggs, producing industrial-size pools of animal waste,” says Miller. “We need to reduce all those things that threaten our water supply as much as possible.”

Widespread testing can help identify contamination before people get sick. And municipalities that aren’t disinfecting their water can do so with UV light or other systems. Individuals can also install treatment systems for their own well water.

“More people are installing treatment systems in their homes, but systems are quite expensive, it could be several thousand dollars and requires regular maintenance which we people are not always very good at,” says Scott Laeser, water program director of the advocacy group Clean Wisconsin. “Ultimately we need to be focused on preventing pollution from contaminating our groundwater.”

Karen Levy, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington, has long studied waterborne disease. She said that while increased rains could mean more contamination risk in the U.S., it’s important people have faith in public drinking water systems, building the will to maintain and protect those systems, rather than turning to expensive and environmentally destructive bottled water.

“It’s really important to not scare people away from drinking water,” Levy said.

Meanwhile the risk of drinking water contamination is just one more reason, scientists agree, that people and governments must do all they can to curb climate change.

“All of the climate models show an increase in the frequency of extreme events, this means at both ends, more droughts and more floods,” says Jonathan Patz, director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The bottom line is it should be a multi-pronged, multi-level approach where not only do we have to anticipate heavy rainfall events that are expected with climate change, but instead of building systems for what we’re used to now, our water systems need to be much stronger.”

6 ways environmental advocates can change climate concern into action

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Valley of Heroes, Tjentište , Bosnia and Herzegovina. Photo by Nikola Majksner on Unsplash.
Valley of Heroes, Tjentište , Bosnia and Herzegovina. Photo by Nikola Majksner on Unsplash.

Many Americans are ready for meaningful progress on climate change — so how can they make it happen?

By Karin Kirk, Geologist and science writer, ensia (CC BY-ND 3.0)

This piece is part of Carbon Zero, a collection of stories around transitioning to a carbon-neutral world.

August 25, 2020 — In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Americans have not forgotten about climate change. In fact, our recognition of the problem is at or near all-time highs, according to research from Yale and George Mason universities. Polling data from the universities from April 2020 revealed that 61% of registered voters accept that humans are changing the climate, and most support policies like a carbon tax or a fee-and-dividend program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

It’s impressive that the public commitment to act on climate change remains steadfast in the face of new challenges. But the flip side is that only 13% of registered voters have urged an elected official to address the problem. They may be primed for action, but we have yet to fully step into that role. So what’s the best way to do that?

What follows is an inexhaustive list of concrete ideas and tools individuals can use to boost civic engagement on climate change — steps that experts say can translate data like those from Yale and George Mason into meaningful progress, right now.

1. Learn where the public is already aligned with policies that address climate change

“Know thy audience,” the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication recommends, noting that public opinion is a major influence on public policy. Delving into the data, there’s strong bipartisan agreement on many elements of climate policy, especially for renewable energy. Yale, Utah State University, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, have created climate opinion maps that plot climate beliefs and energy policy preferences down to the scale of individual counties and congressional districts. The same institutions have assembled customizable fact sheets that summarize climate opinions for adults by state, county and congressional district.

These tools allow people to find angles that are likely to resonate within a given community. Policymakers may appreciate knowing where most of their constituents are already on board.

2. Build racial and social justice into climate solutions

Research on pollution inequity is increasingly able to quantify how Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) bear the brunt of the pollution burden, while the people whose lifestyles cause the most pollution are shielded from its ill effects. For example, according to a 2019 study in PNAS, “Blacks and Hispanics on average bear a ‘pollution burden’ of 56% and 63% excess exposure, respectively, relative to the exposure caused by their consumption.” This imbalance likely partly explains why Hispanics/Latinos and African Americans tend to be more concerned about climate change than white people. Environmental organizations, such as Earthjustice, 350.org, Sierra Club and others, are recognizing that racial and social justice are an integral part of the push for climate solutions.

Environmental activist Leah Thomas proposes several starting points in her article, “Why Every Environmentalist Should Be Anti-Racist.” She encourages environmental advocates to “hold themselves accountable and do the inner anti-racism work to achieve both climate and social justice.” Listening and learning how environmental injustices are affecting BIPOC communities is important, writes Jocelyn L. Travis, an organizing manager for the Sierra Club: “People know what they need. They just need to be heard.” BIPOC-led organizations can be one source for solutions that help those communities specifically.

3. Dig into energy production

Science has long told us that burning fossil fuel is the primary cause of anthropogenic climate change and reducing fossil fuel use, the most potent solution to the problem. Finding out where an individual’s energy comes from is an important piece to the puzzle.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s state energy profiles show energy production and consumption and energy sources for electricity generation in all 50 states. Meanwhile, Stanford University professor of civil and environmental engineering Mark Jacobson has developed fact sheets about state-by-state opportunities for renewable energy.

Total consumption is the heat content of energy consumed by all end-use sectors, including energy losses associated with the generation, transmission, and distribution of the electricity flowing within and across state lines. Source: State Energy Data System (SEDS).

Judy Dorsey is president and principal engineer at the Brendle Group, a consulting firm that helps communities plan climate action. She recommends that people who want to reduce their climate impact look at their energy provider’s “resource plan,” which is the mix of energy sources the company intends to use in the future. This information is usually available on the company’s website. “If the utility is municipality-owned, then there would be opportunities for public input,” she says. If the company is investor-owned, people can “look for roundtables or other ways to get involved,” Dorsey advises.

Some utilities allow an option to buy into an energy portfolio that’s greener than their general portfolio. If a utility does not offer a low-carbon electricity product, customers can ask it to do so. Corporations are greening up their energy use, too, and consumers and investors can support companies that have proven track records for purchasing renewable energy.

4. Follow the money

Public policy researchers have found connections between money in politics and inaction on curbing pollution. For example, the fossil fuel industry exerts considerable financial resources to influence elections and reward policymakers who vote against environmental policy measures. Furthermore, a look at lobbying and campaign donations in federal politics shows that the fossil fuel industry outspends the renewable energy industry by more than 13 to 1.

The financial ties of elected officials and candidates are easy to track; the Follow the Money database allows users to research state and local politicians. Similarly, the Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets is a tool to explore contributions to federal campaigns and lobbying information. Here are some examples of how climate advocates can use Open Secrets:

  • Find House and Senate candidates with the largest fossil fuel funding; the oil and gas industry has donated more than US$70 million (and counting; the tally increased by over US$10 million while this article was being edited) to national-level candidates in 2020.
  • Dig into key electoral races and see where fossil fuel funding may be tilting the balance. In the Colorado senate race, for example, the database compares the funding for Cory Gardner and John Hickenlooper, showing stark differences in fossil fuel ties.

Advocates can use such information in conversations with voters, letters to the editor and public meetings and with the public officials themselves.

5. Get to know elected officials

Brittany Webster, program manager of public affairs at the American Geophysical Union (AGU), credits public engagement for “forward movement” of climate policy in Congress. Webster says the arena for climate change has shifted from debating the science to exploring what to do about it. But still, “they’re not talking enough about solutions,” she says.

Webster advises people to “look at the consequences and impacts to your community.” For people in Florida, for example, climate change is “literally seeping into their back yard,” she says. Taking a local focus and carrying it forward to lawmakers is “how you start the conversation,” says Webster.

Cities are increasingly making bold plans for climate action. “Many cities have an energy and climate task force,” says Dorsey. “Look to see if your city has a climate and energy plan, and ask about joining their volunteer advisory board.” Climate change can be part of planning for development, transportation, utilities, food systems and water resources in every community. Currently, given the global pandemic, some city meetings are being conducted online, making attendance easier for some.

If a particular city has not yet begun climate planning, nearby localities may have, giving examples and strategies that could work elsewhere. The Wisconsin Clean Energy Toolkit contains resources for communities seeking to transition to renewables.

“Raising your voice” is another strategy, said Andrew Valainis, executive director of the Montana Renewable Energy Association, in a recent policy webinar. “Advocates are really important,” he said. “If you’re not up there raising your voice, then all the legislators hear is the opposite opinion.” Groups like Citizens’ Climate Lobby or regional advocacy organizations offer opportunities for people to get involved.

Local environmental groups track state and local politics and send alerts when action is needed, such as those around key bills, opportunities for hearings or public service commission meetings where people can share their ideas. It might seem like one voice is too small to matter, but, Valainis said in the webinar, “It’s really important. It makes a big difference.”

At the national level, Webster advises that constituents call their senators’ and representatives’ D.C. offices instead of the local office to connect. “Identify yourself as a constituent,” she says, and ask for the email address of the staffer working on the issue you want to discuss. Then write to the staffer and ask to set up a phone call. “You’re working to build a relationship,” Webster says. Advocates can use the first meeting to share their story about why tackling climate change matters, using a local angle when possible. Webster suggests asking for support of specific measures because a concrete and tangible “ask” is likely easier to act on than an open-ended request.

AGU offers advice about how to effectively talk to policymakers.

6. Hit the campaign trail

Voting for candidates who will aggressively pursue climate policy is one way to bring about change, but involvement can go further than that. Campaigns all around the country look for people to help with phone and text banking, organizing, and getting out the vote. “If you don’t help, who will,” writes Larry Walker, an educational consultant who works with historically Black colleges and universities, in an article detailing the benefits of campaign volunteering. Interested individuals can find their local campaign office or join national groups like the Environmental Voter Project. Individuals often feel powerless in the face of devastating environmental news. But no one is powerless, and no one is alone. There are dozens of avenues for engagement. Many can be pursued from home. And every action puts a dent in the problem.

When People Turn to Nature to Solve Human Problems, Sometimes Nature Benefits, Too

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Bioinspired solutions can be good not only for people, but also for the organisms offering the inspiration.

By Rachel Crowell, ensia (CC BY-ND 3.0)

Elephant photo by elCarito on Unsplash
Photo by elCarito on Unsplash

August 18, 2020 — African bush elephants can break through fences and destroy crops or large trees — including iconic and endangered ones. These missteps could be deadly to the elephants as people who see them as a dangerous nuisance demand they be killed.

However, a natural and non-lethal elephant deterrent exists: African honeybees. Elephants are scared by the sight, sound and even smell of the bees and their hives­­­. Farmers and conservation organizations such as Save the Elephants have installed hives along key fence lines. But the bees’ food and water requirements can make the hives costly to maintain.

What if, wondered Mark Wright, an insect ecologist and integrated pest management expert at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, you could design something that would mimic the pheromones emitted by alarmed honeybees, thereby also deterring elephants? Wright is developing a blend of substances found in honeybee alarm pheromones that could produce that effect.

Wright says he’s still perfecting the mixture — which uses synthetic versions of the compounds rather than extracting them from bees — so it can evoke a “consistent and gentle” deterrence response. “You don’t want 50 elephants storming around and crashing into things,” he says. However, if the blend isn’t bothersome enough, the elephants won’t leave.

Innovators have been using nature as a role model for decades. Sometimes the invention just benefits people. But, as in the case of Wright’s bee-inspired elephant repellent, sometimes nature can benefit, too.

Possible Payback

So-called “bioinspired design” often starts with identifying plants or animals that excel in certain functions, says Marc Weissburg, co-director of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Center for Biologically Inspired Design. For instance, pitcher plant rims are wildly slippery, earthworms’ bendy bodies make them top-notch burrowers, and tammar wallabies’ leg tendons are optimized to power their repeated hopping.

Next, researchers and designers investigate problems the observed capability might solve. This approach does not always include an aim to benefit nature, too. “People are just getting their minds wrapped around how to approach this from the standpoint of intentionally designing something, using biology, for a specific [human-benefiting] purpose,” Wright says.

In such instances, innovations can still end up indirectly helping the organisms that inspired them, however. Take Werewool. The startup is working on using proteins found in jellyfish, coral and other organisms to create fibers with certain properties (such as color, fluorescence or stretch) built into them, according to co-founder and CEO Chui-Lian Lee. Werewool researchers have created a prototype of a coral-inspired, dye-free fiber that’s naturally colorful and fluorescent.

Since the fibers aren’t yet available commercially, it’s too soon to measure their impact. However, Lee and her colleagues say they are designing their products with the goal of reducing fashion-related pollution, including the release of microplastics, harmful dyes and finishing products into waterways. That could ultimately lead full circle to reducing harm to coral and jellyfish.

Baked In

In the case of ECOncrete, the links between nature-inspired innovations and benefits for nature are baked in from the start. The company manufactures artificial tidepools, seawalls and other products inspired by structures found in the natural world. These products, which are used to provide structure in coastal, marine and urban environments, are designed to be hospitable to specific ocean organisms, says Shimrit Perkol-Finkel, a marine ecologist and co-founder and CEO of the company. The structures provide storm buffering and help limit coastal erosion, helping communities avoid or reduce flooding and other storm damage.

Perkol-Finkel says that ECOncrete’s proprietary concrete mixture makes structures stronger and more durable than those made from traditional concrete, which benefits humans. She says that the structures have complex surfaces with textures and other design elements that are made to mimic natural features that are hospitable to certain species for which natural habitat is shrinking. This complexity is also less hospitable to invasive species, enabling these structures to increase biodiversity while discouraging the presence of nuisance organisms.

“We design for the marine life,” Perkol-Finkel says. “That was the goal.”

Clear and Direct Benefits

At least one organization has found the perceived limited direct benefit to organisms to be a deterrent to focusing on nature-inspired design. San Diego Zoo Global (SDZG), a nonprofit that operates the San Diego Zoo and related facilities, once had its own center for bioinspiration. The center closed after SDZG pivoted its focus from being inspired by nature to benefiting nature directly.

Nevertheless, interest remains strong in using nature’s inspiration to create the innovations of tomorrow. And for at least some, those creations will also benefit nature in return.

Editor’s note: Rachel Crowell wrote this story as a participant in the Ensia Mentor Program. The mentor for the project was Hillary Rosner. In line with Ensia’s ethics statement, we disclose that Ensia editor in chief Mary Hoff in another capacity recently wrote a piece for AskNature about coral proteins. Rachel Crowell included both in this story with no input from Ensia staff, and the circumstance is purely coincidental.