Climate Change And Drinking Water: Report Indicates Hurricane Irene Polluted New York's Catskills Watershed

Over one year later, parts of the East Coast are still recovering from Hurricane Irene, the Category 1 hurricane that first hit the outer banks of North Carolina and made its way up the coast, tempering into a tropical storm by the time it reached New York. Forty-nine people died as a direct result of the hurricane, which racked up anestimated $15.8 billion in total damage.But truly lasting devastation could come from the effects of hurricanes like Irene on watersheds which contribute to drinking water supplies.

A recent study from Yale University, published in Geophysical Research Letters, indicates that the water quality of lakes and coastal systems "would be altered if hurricanes intensify in a warming world," according to a press release. Co-authors Bryan Yoon, a doctoral student, and Peter A. Raymond, an ecosystem ecology professor, recorded amounts of dissolved organic matter in the Catskill watershed, which provides the majority of New York City's drinking water.

While dissolved organic matter is not necessarily a bad thing, it can be detrimental to the aquatic environment in excessive amounts, the study found. The matter can bind to metal pollutants and carry them, interfere with ultraviolet processes and aquatic metabolism and can even lead to the formation of carcinogenic disinfection by-products in chlorination.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/26/climate-change-drinking-water-irene_n_1917117.html?utm_hp_ref=extreme-weather