{"id":114980,"date":"2022-02-26T11:59:06","date_gmt":"2022-02-26T16:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/?p=114980"},"modified":"2022-02-26T14:57:29","modified_gmt":"2022-02-26T19:57:29","slug":"water-inequality-poor-drinking-water-quality-plagues-some-states-in-the-united-states-more-than-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/water-inequality-poor-drinking-water-quality-plagues-some-states-in-the-united-states-more-than-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Water Inequality: Poor Drinking Water Quality Plagues Some States in the United States More than Others"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Emma Cheriegate, Staff Researcher & Writer at Save the Water\u2122 | February 24th, 2022<\/span><\/p>\n Many Americans hear \u201cwater crisis\u201d and think of one place: Flint, Michigan. Lead contaminated their drinking water supply in 2014. <\/span>However, the contamination issues didn\u2019t stop in Flint.<\/span><\/a> Water pollution, also called water contamination, affects millions of Americans each year. Contamination issues range from infections to full-blown diseases. And contamination doesn\u2019t affect all United States\u2019 regions equally. To understand contamination, we must first understand who is at highest risk and why.<\/span><\/p>\n The Safe Water Drinking Act (SWDA) sets water quality standards for drinking water in the United States. SDWA violation counts track the safety levels in community water supply systems. <\/span>A recent study<\/span><\/a> analyzed recorded violations from 1982 to 2015 throughout the contiguous United States. Texas, Oklahoma, and Idaho topped the list for receiving the most violations.<\/span><\/p>\n Another study<\/span><\/a> looked at SWDA violations between 2014-2018 and in 2020. \u200b\u200bFor SWDA, four states topped the list with the most violations:<\/span><\/p>\n But data trends extend beyond geography. The National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) found that SWDA violations are concentrated in <\/span>rural, minority, and low income communities<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Nationally, rural communities and low-income communities of color face poor water quality.<\/span> Rural communities<\/span><\/a> face a specific issue: organic material in the source water. Organic material includes nitrate. For example, nitrate from farming practices seeps into the groundwater. Often, rural communities rely on groundwater for drinking water.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Moreover, research shows <\/span>a strong correlation<\/span><\/a> between low-income communities and communities of color and poor drinking water quality. <\/span>In addition, race and socioeconomic status<\/span><\/a> correlate with receiving the majority of drinking water violations.\u00a0 Water systems wear down and leak over time. Lack of government spending on water infrastructure <\/span>hits communities of color and low-income communities hardest<\/span><\/a>. Furthermore, low-income communities <\/span>often lack the funds for filtration equipment<\/span><\/a> to fix the issue in their homes.<\/span><\/p>\n Communities of color also deal with long-term lack of investment in infrastructure. For example, <\/span>the water crisis in Newark, New Jersey<\/span><\/a> competes with Flint\u2019s lead levels. Lead levels<\/a> were detected at over three times the EPA\u2019s threshold. Newark is a city that is predominantly Black and Hispanic. In brief, <\/span>poor infrastructure<\/span><\/a> plagues these communities.<\/span><\/p>\n Contaminants in your local water supply can be scary. <\/span>Both governmental agencies<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>the current administration<\/span><\/a> are fighting for water policy improvements. Here are some ways to stay informed about water quality<\/a> in your area:<\/span><\/p>\n By Emma Cheriegate, Staff Researcher & Writer at Save the Water\u2122 | February 24th, 2022 Many Americans…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12892,"featured_media":114982,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[1507,652,632,1925,1921,1382,675,939,811,648],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12892"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114980"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114984,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114980\/revisions\/114984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114980"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=114980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}U.S. States with a History of the Worst Drinking Water Quality<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Who is Most Affected?<\/span><\/h2>\n
What You Can Do<\/span><\/h2>\n
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