Water Crisis In The United States

Water infrastructure is one of the most essential tool to have access to clean water. Many people do not currently consider water crisis to be of real concerns. Water issues has not entered yet into the American mainstream consciousness.
With the lack of interest and sporadic coverage of tragedies like Flint, Michigan, a major infrastructure water crisis saturates in through the United States.

With lead water pipes polluting the drinking water millions of American are currently using, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a report listing nine states had safe levels of lead in their water supply from 2012 to 2015. 18 million Americans live in areas that failed to meet this standard because their water systems contain level of lead above the safety threshold or they are currently living in municipalities that failed to have their water infrastructure tested for lead contamination.
At the end of the spectrum in seven states there are eight water systems with lead levels above 1,000 parts per billion; 25 water infrastructures with lead level above 200 ppb well above 15 ppb threshold of safe level.

In addition of lead many water sources are polluted with trace of chemicals that have not been studied or regulated by the EPA. Many water systems are using rivers loaded with sewage runoff and nitrates from fertilizer.

Other areas like mining operations use water for mineral processing and metal recovery. The amount of water required by a mine varies depending on its size. Water pollution from mines is a major concern, regulations have helped to improved environmental performance.

Old mines have been a major issue in some states, heavy metals from the mines are slowly sinking into the ground contaminating the water supply. The contamination has been a plague for the rural towns near those mines. With poor water infrastructures, people living in those areas are exposed to toxic level of heavy metals. Nothing has been done to remedy this issue.

Each States should be looking at their water infrastructure like Europe did several years ago. We are in dire need to update and improve our infrastructure. It will cost billions of dollars to get it completed but we cannot be watching from a far what is currently happening in Cape Town thinking this will not become us. In some parts of the United States it has already begun, spreading slowly like a silent disease. What would it take for each State to finally start to do something about it before it’s too late?