Since the water crisis began several years ago in Flint, Michigan, at least 15 state and local officials have been charged over their involvement with the incident. It's an issue that has caused a tremendous amount of damage, both financially and physically for many people. It brought the issue of clean water to the forefront of many people's minds and we soon learned that there might be similar problems to worry about in other areas of the nation.
Flint might not be the only region that has problems with the water.
One teacher from Detroit, Michigan, Katrina Brown, has launched a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the Mayor and other officials, claiming that students were poisoned by drinking water that was contaminated. Also, that she was the target of harassment and retaliation because she was speaking out against the concerns for the water issues.
Back in 2016, it was revealed that at least 15 school districts in the state of Michigan had tested positive for having concerning levels of lead in their water. One of the samples had shown results that were 100x what's considered to be the 'allowable limit'.
And the problems in California might be even worse. Data from CA has previously indicated that lead poisoning there might be higher for the children in that region than it was for those from Flint, Michigan. Previous blood samples indicated that roughly 13.6 percent of children were shown positive for having lead in their system; kids who were under 6 years old.
In San Diego, a therapy dog that attended one of the public schools there had refused to drink the water that came from the school tap. This was suspicious to the officials and it prompted them to investigate. They uncovered that the water contained polyvinyl chloride thanks to the degrading PVC pipes in their system. Not only that, but they also uncovered that there were alarming amounts of lead in the water, found in both taps and water fountains at schools in both the Los Angeles and San Diego area.
California and Michigan aren't the only ones with problems. . .
Tests from Utah indicate that more than 200 schools there might have problems with their drinking water too, after they were found to have dangerous levels of lead. For roughly 294 schools in Utah that were tested, about 90 percent of them tested positive for having lead issues with the water. For some of the worst samples, they saw results that were 5x greater than federal limits.
At least 9 different schools showed results of 15 micrograms per liter of lead in their water sample.
Only 25 of the schools were found to have water samples that were safe to drink and were considered to be lead-free. Not all of the schools in the state have been tested thus far, not even half of them have been tested. These results are fueling pressure for the school districts to obviously tend to this issue and try to fix the problem.
In New Jersey,
there are also hundreds of schools there as well that have been found to have worrisome levels of lead in the water. According to a recent report from the nonprofit New Jersey Future, it's alleged that roughly 253 schools have been found to have high amounts of lead.
Pennsylvania is yet another region that has also been found to have problems, with Pittsburgh city officials being ordered by the state to immediately seek to lower the amount of lead in their drinking water.
Could Utah, California, Pennsylvania, And Michigan be the only states with problems? Or could there be more schools out there with troublesome drinking water but the issues aren't known yet? Since the Flint, Michigan water issued occurred, it has prompted many regions to take at look at their own water sources, causing many officials to make some necessary updates. However, the problems aren't over yet and perhaps some might not even be aware yet that they have an issue.
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Sources:
http://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2017/08/28/nearly-90-percent-of-utah-schools-tested-have-lead-in-the-drinking-water/
http://www.record-bee.com/article/NQ/20170831/NEWS/170839963
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2017/09/07/teacher-sues-detroit-water/105371540/
http://www.npr.org/2017/09/03/548255845/pittsburgh-faces-hurdles-in-removing-lead-from-drinking-water
https://patch.com/new-jersey/pointpleasant/least-253-n-j-schools-have-high-lead-levels-report-says