Could Low-Flow Create High Risk? EPA Taps Drexel to Study Water Quality Impact of Conservation Practices
As public awareness of the need for water conservation, and new water-saving technology, have become increasingly effective at stemming excess water use, new questions are surfacing about how our plumbing, which was built to handle a regular flow of water, might now be a risk factor for bacterial and chemical contamination. In hopes of preventing future public health crises related to the systems that carry and treat our water, the Environmental Protection Agency is tasking a team of researchers, led by Drexel University, with a $2 million project to bring together existing and new experimental data on building plumbing—the stretch of pipes that takes water from main to tap—into a risk assessment tool that can guide new water use and safety regulations.