Flood risks threaten many water, sewage treatment plants across the US: report

Rising flood risks are posing a threat to many water and sewage treatment plants across the country. 

Risk analysis firm First Street Foundation took a climate model, applying it to 5,500 wastewater treatment plants – often near water bodies where they discharge – and then examined the potential for those flooding now and in 30 years, according to the Associated Press. 

The agency said it then determined the quarter of plants that are currently most at risk and where the situation would worsen over time. 

A handful of metro areas were reportedly found to have an especially large proportion of sewage treatment centers at risk, should a mega flood occur now. 

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Those areas include South Bend-Elkhart-Mishawaka, bridging Indiana and Michigan; Charleston-Huntington-Ashland, bridging West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky; Madison-Janesville-Beloit in Wisconsin and Syracuse-Auburn, New York.

When storms drop inches of rain into lakes and rivers, water and debris can clog wastewater systems, and service can be disrupted.

Drinking water treatment plants are also at potential risk. Notably, water treatment plants are frequently near the water bodies from which they draw, and aging water pipes add to the problem. 

While larger cities can fund new projects partially by raising customer rates, smaller communities have to find other funding sources to avoid driving up costs, American Water Works Association manager of energy and environmental policy Adam Carpenter told the Associated Press. 

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Notably, federal spending packages devote billions to upgrading U.S. water systems. 

However, the money is often just a fraction of the cost to address these risks, with other issues – like lead pipes – demanding urgent attention. There are a total of 9.2 million lead pipes across the country, according to a recent report from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Research published last year in the journal Nature Climate Change found that population growth and climate change could be drivers of a 26% rise in flood risk in the U.S. by 2050. 

The authors said that, just three years ago, the country saw an "average annual loss" of $32 billion from flooding but warned that it could rise to $41 billion in 27 years.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that as of August 8, there had been 15 confirmed weather- and climate-related disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion. 

Recent calculations of expected precipitation in every county across the contiguous U.S. suggest that one in nine residents of lower 48 states is at significant risk of downpours that deliver at least 50% more rain per hour than local pipes, channels and culverts might be able to drain, according to The New York Times.

"The data is startling, and it should be a wake-up call," Chad Berginnis, the executive director of the nonprofit Association of State Floodplain Managers, told the paper earlier this summer.

Fox News' Melissa Rudy and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

A's broadcaster rips team's owner, calls impending move to Las Vegas 'not professional'

If the Oakland A's are anything like the Baltimore Orioles, they'd certainly send down some sort of punishment to one of their broadcasters.

Amaury Pi-Gonzalez, the team's Spanish-language radio broadcaster unleashed on team owner John Fisher and criticized the team's eventual move to Las Vegas.

Pi-Gonzalez seemed to insinuate that Fisher is public enemy number one in the Bay Area.

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"If you tell the fans right now that Mr. Fisher is selling next week," he said in an interview with SFGate, "there’ll be a parade in Oakland."

Pi-Gonzalez, like most A's fans, is also pretty ticked off about the organization's plans to leave the city.

"I don’t want the team to leave. I want the team to stay," he said.

But he took it a step further by criticizing just about everyone involved.

It certainly was not an easy process for the team to find a spot in Vegas, as they had trouble finding the site for their future ballpark. There were conflicting words between Oakland officials and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred about whether there were efforts by the city to keep the team in the Bay Area.

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"I think this could have been handled in a more professional way. And it hasn’t," the broadcaster said. "I blame both the city of Oakland, and I blame the A’s. I don’t have any connections with the city, I’m not into the politics of this, but I know that they were negotiating, and all of a sudden the A’s said, ‘No, we’re leaving for Vegas.’ Then they bought some 40 acres there. . . . Then two weeks later, ‘No, we’re not going to buy that. We’re going to go to the 9 acres.’ It looks to me like it was done in haste. I don’t know. I don’t see the plan. The plan is to leave Oakland, I know that. . . . They did tell me we’re going to play here next year again. That’s the only thing they told me.

"I’ve been following this just like everybody. . . . If you really analyze the way they’ve done this, they first announce, OK, they’re going to move. So they get like, 40 acres and then they drop that because, no, we have 9 acres. So it doesn’t make sense to me. For years, you plan something. They had the Howard Terminal in Oakland. They planned for years to design that park. Now they move to another town, they buy land to build a park there, and then they drop that land, they go to another [plot].

It’s just, to me, it’s not professional the way they’ve been doing this."

The A's entered Friday with a 33-82 record, which puts them on pace for a 46-116 season. That would be the most losses in a single season since the Detroit Tigers lost 117 in 2003, and the fifth-most defeats in MLB history.

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