Most people are aware of the situation in Flint, Michigan because of the attention it has been getting in the news and on social media. What many people are not aware of is that this crisis is much more widespread than they may think. Residents in states other than Michigan are also struggling to gain access to clean and safe water due to the lack of funds and the initiative to update and replace decrepit lead service lines. Notable examples of this are the water crises in Tallulah, Louisiana, St. Joseph, Louisiana, and the state of Minnesota.

Tallulah is a very small town in the state of Louisiana with a population of 7,335. In this town 77% of the people are black and 40% of people are living under the poverty line. Within the last few years, this town has had a lack of clean water due to the degraded pipes that run through the town. Tallulah’s 70-year-old water plant had broken down and when they finally got it back up and running again the water that the residents acquired was discolored and had a strange smell. Since 2016 the town has had 4- 5 boil advisories. A boil advisory is a notice meant to let the residents know to boil their water before consuming it because it is likely contaminated. The town of St. Joseph in Louisiana also had a water crisis of their own. This town has a population of 1,176 in which 77% of the people are black. Their community relied on a 90-year-old water system that inevitably broke down. When it did, toxins such as lead and copper seeped into the drinking water. Thankfully, now the water systems in St. Joseph have been replaced and their water is clean, but it took them 10 years to complete this. That is ten whole years that they were forced to live without clean running water in their community. The residents of St. Joseph, like other people living in these conditions, had to resort to buying crates of water bottles to use for drinking and cooking. This water crisis has lead to an unnecessary increase in the consumption of single use plastics. In addition to polluting our oceans, single use plastics are also not cost effective. The people who are forced into buying plastic water bottles are already living in poverty so buying these cases instead of utilizing public water systems is not often economically feasible. Clean water is not only important for the health of the people but also for the sake of protecting the environment.

Residents in Minnesota receive their water mainly through either private wells or public water systems. Because private wells are not regulated by the EPA, owners are not required to report the amount of lead to the department of health; thus increasing the chances of lead contamination. Some poor minority communities do not have access to public water systems and sewer lines and must resort to using contaminated well water, while neighboring white communities are free to enjoy clean public water systems and sewer lines. The US Census American Housing Survey estimates that more than 13 million American households use private wells as their source of drinking water. The most prominent source of lead, not only in Minnesota but in other parts of the country too, are lead service lines or LSLs. An LSL is a lead pipe that connects the water main located in the street with the appliances in the home. “Science and Technology to Ensure the Safety of the Nation’s Drinking Water” was a report done for Obama in 2016 that detailed the water situations across the country. It highlighted the problems with the old water systems and the lead service lines. In Minnesota there are about 100,000 LSLs alone. According to the American Water Works Association, there are approximately “6.1 million lead service lines remain[ing] in the U.S. [which] serve 15 million to 22 million people.” It is not just the service lines made of lead that are dangerous, it is also the ones made of galvanized steel. These service lines can have what is known as a lead gooseneck. Goosenecks are used to account for fluctuations in the pipes due to varying temperatures. Since Flint’s water crisis started with discolored water it is important to take precautionary measures to make sure that this tragedy does not happen again. If we are to improve the quality water for people we must update the water systems, pipes, and eliminate lead goosenecks. We also must increase awareness for the amount of LSLs still out there.

What happened in Flint was a tragedy, but it was also a wake up call. Clean drinking water is a basic human necessity that every person has a right to have access to. Supporting communities in need and pushing for changes in public policy are things we can all do to help make sure that people of all backgrounds have access to this basic human right.

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Ballard, Mark. “New Water System Opens in St. Joseph Tuesday, Ending Year-Long Public Health Emergency.” The Advocate, 13 Mar. 2018, www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_a2e2307e-271a-11e8-b092-bf81763df3c2.html.

Bhandari, Misisipi. “Tallulah Water Crisis Becomes Serious.” The Hawkeye, 4 Feb. 2018, ulmhawkeyeonline.com/22278/news/tallulah-water-crisis-becomes-serious/.

Brinklow, Adam. “City Utility Says There’s No Pesticides in SF Water.” Curbed SF, Curbed SF, 19 Oct. 2018, sf.curbed.com/2018/10/19/17999254/sf-public-utility-commsision-pesticides-water.

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“Lead in Minnesota Water.” Minnesota Health Department , Minnesota Health Department , Feb. 2019, http://www.health.state.mn.us/communities/environment/water/docs/leadreport.pdf.

Philip, Agnel, et al. “63 Million Americans Exposed to Unsafe Drinking Water.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 15 Aug. 2017, www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/08/14/63-million-americans-exposed-unsafe-drinking-water/564278001/.

Pottor , William Taylor, et al. “Crumbling Pipes, Tainted Water Plague Black Communities – Center for Public Integrity.” Center for Public Integrity, 21 Aug. 2017, publicintegrity.org/environment/crumbling-pipes-tainted-water-plague-black-communities/.

Suburbanstats.org. “Current St Joseph, Louisiana Population, Demographics and Stats in 2019, 2018.” SuburbanStats.org, suburbanstats.org/population/louisiana/how-many-people-live-in-st-joseph.

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