Four years after the city of Flint, Michigan began using the heavily polluted Flint River as a drinking water source, resulting in the city’s water crisis, Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Wednesday introduced legislation to ensure such a catastrophe never again occurs in an American city.
“Today marks the four-year anniversary of the crisis in Flint, Michigan, but the reality is water infrastructure around the country has been neglected for decades,” said Ellison in a statement. “Low-income communities and communities of color can’t be expected to thrive when they lack basic necessities like water. We are one of the richest nations in the world: it is time to guarantee clean water as a right for all.”
The Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability (WATER) Act of 2018 would strengthen the country’s neglected public water infrastructure in which aging pipes carry water and neglected sewer systems release 850 billion gallons of untreated sewage into rivers, streams, and lakes—resulting in thousands of cases of water-borne illness each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“We are one of the richest nations in the world: it is time to guarantee clean water as a right for all.” —Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.)The repair efforts included in the bill would create nearly a million jobs, according to Ellison and Khanna, while providing clean water to millions of Americans.
Months after Flint residents began using the local river for their drinking source, tests revealed that E.coli and other disease-causing bacteria were contaminating the water. A year later, dangerous levels of lead were detected in many Flint homes.
Today, the quality of Flint’s water has improved, with the same Virginia Tech experts who warned of the lead contamination declaring last September that lead levels had returned to normal—but still cautioning residents to use water filters.
But many Flint residents say that will never again drink from a tap.
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