In a 2014 cost-saving move, the city of Flint, Michigan switched its drinking water supply from Detroit’s water system to the Flint River. Inadequate treatment and testing of this water resulted in major water quality and health issues for Flint residents, many of whom endured skin rashes, hair loss and itchy skin. Officials later admitted that high concentrations of lead in the city’s drinking water were to blame for these health problems. Aging infrastructure and the cost to replace old water pipes and lead solder used in household plumbing was also a factor in this disaster. There is no acceptable level of lead in drinking water. And there are more than 6 million lead service lines - pipes that connect a water main to a building’s plumbing - in the U.S. today. Since this catastrophe, Newark, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore and Milwaukee have all realized their water systems are also contaminated with lead - and there is likely to be many more cities with this problem. One 2016 report found that more than 5,000 U.S. water systems serving roughly 18 million people have violated EPA rules for lead content in drinking water.

Pending Legislation: H.R.3282 - Drinking Water Funding for the Future Act of 2021
Sponsor: Rep. David McKinley (WV)
Status: House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment (Transportation and Infrastructure)
Chair: Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR))