“About 860 billion gallons of wastewater overflow escapes overwhelmed sewer systems in the United States every year, and 3.5 million people get sick from swimming, boating, fishing, and other activities that bring them in contact with contaminated water, according to the environmental group American Rivers. The novel coronavirus can persist in human feces for up to 47 days, and environmental accountability organizations now say that sewer spills are putting drinking water supplies at risk.
“COVID-19 dramatically increases the public health consequences of these combined sewage overflows,” said Kyla Bennett, a former New England water enforcement official for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in a statement. “Our aging water infrastructure represents a growing public health vulnerability as these sewage spills become more common.””
