Access to safe drinking water is one of the aspects of modern American life that most of us take for granted, but a clean water crisis this summer in Jackson, Mississippi has raised the specter of future boil water notices as the country’s water system infrastructure continues to age.
WBUR reported that residents in Jackson were boiling their drinking water after a breakdown at a local water treatment plant left the community without clean running water.
“For a month, residents of Jackson, Mississippi went without clean running water. The city's mayor says the problem's decades in the making. That makes Jackson a lesson for the entire country,” said WBUR. “Jackson is just one of many American communities relying on a century old water supply system.”
In August, ABC News reported, historic flooding in Mississippi damaged a major pump at the O.B. Curtis Water Plant, the main water treatment facility for Jackson, leaving some 150,000 residents without clean water.
“Residents were forced to line up on streets and highways throughout the city to pick up water at distribution sites because of the shortage,” said ABC News.
What went wrong?
"This is due to decades, decades and decades, of possibly 30 years or more of deferred maintenance, a lack of capital improvements made to the system, a lack of a human capital, a workforce plan that accounted for the challenges that our water treatment facility suffers from," Jackson mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba told "ABC News Prime.”
Help is on the way with the EPA announcing last December that Mississippi would receive nearly $75 million for water infrastructure projects, but the Jackson mayor estimated that the cost to fix the issue in his city alone is at least $1 billion.
"Even if somebody could wave a magic wand and Congress, by some miracle, were to pass a bill that would give Jackson $1 billion to completely overhaul its infrastructure for water and sewer, we'd be right back in this situation five, 10, 20 years down the road because we haven't fixed those underlying structural problems," Manny Teodoro, associate professor at the LaFollette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told ABC News.
While crumbling water system infrastructure could certainly lead your area to have a lack of safe drinking water, there are other emergencies that can cause clean water issues.
“After an emergency such as a water main break, hurricane, or flood, your tap water may not be available or safe to use,” says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “In these situations, it’s important to know how to prevent illness from unsafe water.”
The CDC says after an emergency or disaster:
The CDC says that if you do not have safe bottled water, you should boil your water to make it safe to drink.
“Boiling is the surest method to kill disease-causing germs, including viruses, bacteria, and parasites,” says the CDC, but notes that if the water has fuel, toxic chemicals, or radioactive materials in it, boiling or disinfecting the water will not make it safe.
The CDC says three main things to keep in mind when boiling your water to make it safe to use:
If you do not have the means to boil your water you can make small quantities of water safe to drink by using chemical disinfectant, such as unscented household chlorine bleach, iodine, or chlorine dioxide tablets.
“Disinfectants can kill most harmful or disease-causing viruses and bacteria, but most disinfectants* are not as effective as boiling for killing more resistant germs, such as the parasites Cryptosporidium and Giardia,” says the CDC.
Bleach comes in different concentrations. Check the label of the bleach you are using to find its concentration before you start to disinfect water. Typically, unscented household liquid chlorine bleach in the United States will be between 5 percent and 9 percent sodium hypochlorite
Make sure to follow the instructions on the bleach label for disinfecting drinking water.
If your local health officials issue a boil water advisory, you should use bottled water or boil tap water.
“This is because a boil water advisory means your community’s water has, or could have, germs that can make you sick,” says the CDC.
Advisories may include information about preparing food, drinks, or ice; dishwashing; and hygiene, such as brushing teeth and bathing.
Boil water advisories usually include this advice:
Other things to keep in mind, according to the CDC, during a boil water advisory:
Handwashing
Bathing and showering
Brushing teeth
Washing dishes
o The water reaches a final rinse temperature of at least 150 degrees Fahrenheit (66°Celsius), or
o The dishwater has a sanitizing cycle.
o Wash and rinse the dishes as you normally would using hot water.
o In a separate basin, add 1 teaspoon of unscented household liquid bleach for each gallon of warm water.
o Soak the rinsed dishes in the water for at least one minute.
o Let the dishes air dry completely before using again.
Laundry
Cleaning
o Bottled water,
o Boiled water, or
o Water that has been disinfected with bleach.
Caring for pets
Caring for your garden and houseplants