WASHINGTON, DC – Federal officials said Tuesday they’ll take a comprehensive look at the safety of the nation’s water supply in the wake of the Flint water crisis, the drought in the West, flooding in the East and Midwest, and toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie.
Beginning in May,U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will begin meeting with water quality officials, utility managers and others to develop a national action plan on drinking water to be released by year’s end..
In a blog post, Joe Beauvais, deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Water at the EPA, said: “As a country, we can and must do more to make sure that every American has access to safe drinking water.”
Additionally, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology has begun a new study of the science and technology to ensue the safety of the nation’s drinking water, Beauvais said.
Beauvais said the public health catastrophe in Flint, which resulted after the city began drawing drinking water supply after the city began drawing water from the Flint River in 2014, cast a spotlight on infrastructure problems faced in other U.S. cities where drinking water is still delivered to households in lead pipes.
Within weeks, tests on children in Flint showed elevated levels of lead in their blood, a condition that can cause irreversible brain damage, anti-social behavior and a host of other problems.
Lead isn't the only threat to the nation's drinking water, though.
“At the same time, as new technology advances our detection ability, we’re detecting new contaminants in our water from industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and other sources that can pose risks to public health,” Beauvais wrote.
He also noted that climate change, especially extreme weather that has caused droughts and flooding, “are placing added stress on water resources and creating uncertainty in many regions of the country.”

“We need to protect our drinking water sources and the Clean Water Rule is critical to that effort,” Beauvais wrote.
The undertaking comes on the heels of EPA data showing that at least $384 billion in improvements will be needed through 2030 to maintain, upgrade and replace thousands of miles of pipe and thousands of treatment plants, storage tanks and water distribution systems that make up the U.S. water infrastructure.
“And if local and state governments do not lean into these investments and instead defer and delay, rebuilding our water infrastructure will only become more expensive,” Beauvais warned.
The toughest infrastructure challenges are found in low-income, minority communities, including large and midsize cities like Flint, where inadequate revenue and investment have resulted in crumbling water infrastructure, and where citizens often lack the financial resources to get timely and accurate information about their water quality in time to do something about it, Beauvais wrote.
Read the entire blog here.
Image credit: David Salafia via Flickr / Creative Commons