“Getting the Lead Out” Transcript
“It’s crazy. It’s like a third-world country.” That’s what Carlos Young said.
“I thought I was going to die.” That’s what Joyce Wilson said.
“Disgusting. They need to fix the problem.” That’s what Mitchell Gerow said.
These voices, from the Michigan news Web site MLive, represent only a few of the thousands of
people who endured the Flint, Michigan, water crisis of 2015 to 2017.
The crisis happened when Michigan changed the way Flint received its water. Because of this
change, lead levels in the city’s water supply skyrocketed. People couldn’t drink the water,
couldn’t bathe with it, couldn’t cook with it. Thousands became ill, and the full health
consequences will continue for decades.
But the problem of lead in America’s water supply goes far beyond Flint. A 2016 investigation
by the news agency Reuters found 3,000 water systems across the United States with lead levels
higher than Flint. Even right here in Madison, local officials recently found elevated lead in the
drinking water at six public schools.
But the health effects are much worse in children—brain damage, learning difficulties,
behavioral problems, ADHD, seizures, and more.
Most troublesome is the fact that these problems are not temporary. As science writer Alexandra
Ossola stated at the time of the Flint crisis, “Lead is toxic. If it makes its way into the still-
developing brains of young children, many of the effects can be permanent.”
The Environmental Protection Agency, working through its branches in every state, is supposed
to test and regulate lead levels, but not enough is being done. Right now, the EPA defines excess
lead in water as 15 parts per billion. When lead gets that high, utility companies are supposed to
enact a treatment plan and get lead levels down.
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