8.7.4: Water Quality

In general, residential tap water is safe to drink in the U.S. This is primarily because of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) first signed into law in 1974 and then amended in the 80s and 90s, which empowered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set standards for over 90 hazardous contaminants (Drinking Water Standards and Regulations, 2022). The EPA oversees local and municipal agencies, which are often tasked with regular testing of their own water supplies, and enforcing those standards. Problems with clean water are closely related to the management of sewage, industrial and farming waste, and storm runoff that brings oil and other pollutants into the water from busy streets. Drinking water sources in cities often originate in more rural areas, from large rivers and lakes or from underground aquifers. Agricultural runoff or industrial waste often makes its way into the surface water sources - sometimes at amounts that cannot be treated effectively. Similarly, groundwater aquifers can be contaminated by leakage from landfills, mines, or fracking (a technique used to mine for natural gas). Private wells are not under the oversight of local authorities or the EPA, and can also be subject to contamination by the same sources. Thus, water quality issues can affect both urban and rural areas. Unfortunately, contamination often happens in low-income areas that have limited resources, and the culprit is often only discovered after residents get sick. Compared to wealthier areas, the responses to contaminated water crises in poor communities have been bungled at best, and at worst - negligent or intentionally slowed.

Perhaps one of the most well-known examples of environmental justice failures is the Flint, Michigan water crisis that began in April of 2014. The city of Flint was home to a predominantly Black population, and 41% of its residents lived below the poverty line. Control of the city’s finances had recently been taken over by the state due to financial problems. In order to save money, the decision was made to change the source of residents’ drinking water from Detroit’s Water and Sewage system to the Flint river. Very soon, complaints arose about the tap water being discolored, smelling and tasting bad, sickening and killing plants and pets, and causing rashes and hair loss in humans. It was discovered that the Flint river water (which was acidic, and not treated correctly) was corroding the old, lead pipes in Flint’s public water supply. Even when the water source was switched back to Detroit’s system a month later, the damage to the pipes had been done, and harmful lead contamination still affected thousands of people in the city. In October of 2015 the county finally declared a state of emergency, and the governor of Michigan declared a state of emergency almost 4 months later. Finally, bottled water, testing kids and filters were delivered to Flint’s people. In the meantime, 90 people had fallen ill with Legionnaires disease, 12 people had died from it, and 30,000 children had been exposed to toxic levels of lead. Whether from exposure to lead and other toxins, post-traumatic stress from the incident or a combination of these factors, standardized testing scores plummeted, and the number of children in special education classes doubled over the next 3 years. But the story of Flint, MI is not new. Similar water contamination crises have happened recently in Newark NJ, Benton Harbor MI, and Jackson MS - all in predominantly Black and Hispanic communities (L. D. Burke & Weill, 2023, Schneider, 2020).