Experts Say Climate Change Is Already Affecting Philadelphia Area’s Water Supply

March 10, 2011 9:34 AM

(Photo by Michelle Durham)

Filed under

Environment, Heard On, Local, News, Philadelphia, Politics, Watch + Listen

Election Returns

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - EPA officials held a seminar today for local environmentalists, state and local governments, and others interested in the threat to our area’s drinking water.

Climate changes are already affecting the Delaware River Basin, according to Penn State meteorology professor Ray Najjar (above).

Najjar says over the last 100 years the basin has warmed by a couple of degrees, and the amount of precipitation we get is directly tied to human caused climate change.

“If we continue to emit carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases continue to rise, we’re going to see more severe warming, precipitation increases, reduced snow melt,” Najjar said.

And this means that water resources will become precious.

“You can have all the water in the world, but if it’s not quality water it doesn’t provide a potable water supply,” said EPA regional administrator Shawn Garvin, who then listed some of the things that are damaging the region’s water supply: “The runoff of fertilizers, what’s coming out of our air, people dumping stuff into their storm drains.”

He says we all have a personal responsibility to protect our water supply.

Reported by Michelle Durham, KYW Newsradio 1060.

MOST VIEWED GALLERIES

PHOTOS: Best Female Musicians Of The 2000s

PHOTOS: Celebrity Infidelity Scandals

PHOTOS: Celebrity Birthdays: May

PHOTOS: Top 20 Most Hated Hollywood Celebrities

PHOTOS: Spring Fashion Trends As Told By Celebrities

Experts Say Climate Change Is Already Affecting Philadelphia Areas Water Supply

Ray Najjar

To clarify: what I said was that warming is leading to reduced snow cover, not reduced snow melt, and that the precipitation increases we have seen are consistent with those expected from increased greenhouse gases.
bottomline

Whew! I’m glad he didn’t slip and tell us we need to reduce the worlds’ population, a real genuine answer to environmental issues. Instead, just more guilt and expensive bandages, eventually to be overwhelmed by the facts of life. If the EPA advocated a good war, my respect for them would grow a tad, just so long as I wasn‘t one of the sacrificial lambs.
thomas

retitle this article “Experts Attempt to Get More Grants at the Government Trough”
play nice

“… we’re going to see more severe warming, precipitation increases, reduced snow melt,” and at the EPA 2+2=5 because due to warmer temps there will be more rain and more snow which won’t melt because of lower temps.

RSR

swing and a miss…

play nice

More Chicken Little Logic
“If the climate continues to warm, we should expect an increase in heavy snow events for a few decades, until the climate grows so warm that we pass the point where it’s too warm for it to snow heavily.”

This past winter was the 39th coldest in 116 years.

Whatever the future, adaptation trumps suicide.