PVC Water Mains: Not A Source of Benzene From Wildfire Events
In the past few years, North America has experienced a series of catastrophic wildfires. Some of these fires have severely impacted water infrastructure, destroying above-ground appurtenances like water meters and hydrants as well as shallow-bury water service lines. As a result of wildfires, at least two California utilities have encountered water-quality issues in their water systems. The problems were caused by back-flow of contaminants through damaged service lines into water mains. The City of Santa Rosa published a report shortly after its wildfire event. The paper outlined the water-quality problems but was not complete in its analysis. This left a knowledge gap that opened the door for speculation and misinformation — the result was the publication of several articles that could politely be described as “not very accurate.” In March 2020, AWWA’s Opflow printed an article entitled, “Smoke and Water Don’t Mix,” that described research performed by the U.S. EPA and Califor...