Plumbing problems at the dam holding back the second-largest reservoir in the U.S. are spurring concerns about future water delivery issues to Southwestern states supplied by the Colorado River.
The rain and snow storms that have pummeled California for weeks have taken nearly two dozen lives and caused billions of dollars in damages to public and private property.
The flip side, however, is that they dropped immense amounts of water on a state that has suffered through severe drought for several years. At one point this month, an astonishing 160,000 cubic feet of water – 1.2 million gallons – was flowing through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta every second. That’s enough water to fill a reservoir the size of Folsom Lake, about 1 million acre-feet, in three days and doesn’t count water falling on other regions, such as Southern California.
Yan Yu Lin and her seven-year-old daughter live in a tight studio in San Francisco’s Chinatown, in a century-old building where 60 or so residents on each floor share a bathroom.
Along the back wall of the room is a plastic potty – the kind designed for toilet training toddlers. The shared bathrooms are out of order so often, so rank and unhygienic, that Lin has her daughter use the plastic potty instead. “It’s safer,” she said.
Two months after a wildfire burned through Paradise, Calif., in 2018, Kevin Phillips, then a manager for town’s irrigation district, walked from one destroyed home to another.
Stagnant plumbing systems in emptied commercial buildings could put returning employees at risk of Legionnaires’ and other illnesses.
When small businesses are closed it means appliances haven’t been running inside; a problem that could be putting customer’s health at risk but also damaging the plumbing.
Something you may not be thinking about during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is what you’re flushing down the toilet. Plumbers say a lack of supplies is causing some major backups.
A lack of toilet paper means a lot of people have been putting other things down their toilets. The experts at Bill Howe Plumbing say that is a terrible idea.
With toilet paper flying off the shelves, some people are scrambling for alternatives. Turns out, you should really think twice about what you’re putting down there.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
