Media Contact
Adam Allington
Concerns about the Seine River’s cleanliness have caused delays in some Olympic swimming events in Paris despite a $1.5 billion cleanup effort.
Brian Rahm
Director of the New York State Water Resources Institute
Brian Rahm, a biological and environmental engineering expert at Cornell University, says Paris’ ancient infrastructure and climate change will continue to muddy the waters.
Rahm says:
“Infrastructure and management investments, which France has made, can help prevent and mitigate some of this contamination. In fact, France is not alone in needing to continually make significant investment to keep up with maintenance of aging infrastructure and development of new infrastructure as populations shift and new risks emerge.
“That said, heavy precipitation events such as those recently experienced in France, are difficult to mitigate in highly developed watersheds. Climate change will intensify this problem by causing more rain to fall during shorter time intervals.
“Infrastructure and management practices that worked under the normal conditions of the past may be overwhelmed and ineffective now and in the future. The reality is that we often don't have good solutions for dealing with extreme precipitation at this scale. This is perhaps a reminder that, in a changing climate, we are increasingly at the mercy of nature. Even $1.5 billion is not enough to change that.”
