Environmental
Climate Change Imperils Some Wastewater
Treatment Plants – And Their Workers
By Thomas Renner
“As more and more climate disasters happen, water utilities are at the frontlines of addressing these challenges. Workers need to be adequately prepared to work longer hours under challenging conditions to fix a broken main or leaking sewage or address flooding in the utility building.”
Climate change is being felt all around the world , even in some areas that escape attention. Water treatment plants might be under the radar for many scientists, but the impact on this critical piece of community infrastructure is widespread, enduring, and costly to remedy. “Wastewater systems are not designed for this changing climate,’’ said Sri Vedachalam, Director for water equity and climate resilience at Corvias Infrastructure Solutions, LLC. “They were designed for an older climate that probably doesn’t exist anymore.” Falls are common at water treatment plants, and plants struggling to adjust to climate change are even more perilous. The family of Maryland woman, Trina Cunningham, knows the danger all too well. The Baltimore city employee drowned inside a wastewater treatment plant in June 2019 when she fell through a grate walkway. “My wife going to work for a day should not have been a grave mistake,’’ her wife, Towanda Grant-Cunningham, told WBAL-TV when the family filed a lawsuit in 2021.
~Sri Vedachalam, Director for water equity and climate resilience at Corvias Infrastructure Solutions, LLC
Photo credit: Jenn Bakker Breathtakingmomentsphotography.com
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Spring 2024
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