Bigger and more-frequent wildfires threaten water supplies across the US

The Independent reports how wildfires contaminate the rivers and reservoirs that supply US drinking water, using Las Vegas, New Mexico, Glenwood Springs and Fort Collins as cases, and it states plainly that climate change has driven bigger and more frequent fires. Its one weakness is the opening: it says studies show contamination can last more than a decade, while the only study it describes found impacts lasting up to eight years.

1. Uses figures that mislead

   Minor

   “new studies show that contamination could remain for more than a decade”

   Why this matters

   The words "more than a decade" give the reader a duration in the opening sentence and present it as what "new studies show".

   The impression it gives

   A reader takes it that research has measured wildfire contamination of water supplies lasting more than ten years.

   The context

   The only study the article describes, the University of Colorado Boulder work led by Carli Brucker, found that impacts can last up to eight years. No study in the article supports "more than a decade". The Las Vegas, New Mexico, case runs about four years so far. The lede's figure goes beyond the evidence the article itself gives.

   How we know

   • Elsewhere in the article“Their study found that the impacts can last up to eight years.”