Weekly Wave: How Might Coronavirus Affect Arizona's Water?

At the WRRC, we have been fielding questions related to the safety of Arizona's water supply during coronavirus - specifically, is drinking water safe? To date, coronavirus has not been reported in municipal water supplies anywhere in the U.S. This is not surprising, given that modern drinking water treatment is specifically designed to inactivate viruses. Water municipalities, including Tucson Water, have been releasing information to the public on the safety of their water supplies. For a sampling, here is information from Tucson, Philadelphia, and Boston. Similarly, there have not been any reports of the novel coronavirus in groundwater, nor has the virus been shown to spread through treated wastewater. We do stress, however, that research into all of these areas is ongoing, and the WRRC will use the Weekly Wave to keep you updated.

 

We would also like to advise our readers to rely on reputable sources of information on coronavirus in water, as a few disreputable websites are already reporting erroneous information. Some websites of use to you would be the Water Environment Federation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

 

All of us at the WRRC send our best wishes to our Weekly Wave readers, and hope that you are all safe and healthy.