One of the modern world’s miracles is clean drinking water. Before the first world figured out germ theory and methods for purifying water on a mass scale, water could be deadly, for it teemed with bacteria and parasites. Because aging pipes failed, these contaminants entered the Potomac last month. The situation was exacerbated when human error exposed over 6 million people to deadly E. coli. The question, then, is whether the human error was bad luck or DEI luck?
The Potomac is one of the largest rivers in America, with over 6 million people living within its watershed. Around 486 million gallons are drawn from it daily to provide water in the D.C. area. According to Wikipedia, it provides “about 78 percent of the region's total water usage,” an amount that “includes approximately 80 percent of the drinking water consumed by the region's estimated 6.1 million residents.”
Despite its importance to D.C.’s residents, the river has always had issues. Population and agricultural growth turned it into a stinky mess by the end of the 19th century. During the 1960s, the government embarked on a serious program to clean up the river, so new sewage treatment plants were built and old ones upgraded during the 1970s and into the 1980s—in other words, 40 to 50 years ago, which is several lifetimes in terms of infrastructure aging. Moreover, the actual sewage pipes, built in the early 1960s, were not (and have not been) updated.
In January, those aging pipes finally gave way:
A massive pipe that moves millions of gallons of sewage has ruptured and sent wastewater flowing into the Potomac River northwest of Washington, D.C., polluting it ahead of a major winter storm that has repair crews scrambling...
Join the conversation as a VIP Member