Water Sector News
A snapshot of clean water stories from publications around the country, updated daily!
Forget the wall: Water is the U.S.’s pressing infrastructure issue
As President Donald Trump continues to demand more than $5 billion in taxpayer funding for a border wall, a growing number of voices are calling for such funds to be diverted to a far more pressing issue: water.
The rapidly decaying infrastructure of water systems across the country is bringing dangerous levels of lead and other contaminants into homes, and action needs to be taken to upgrade them.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka highlighted the issue in an open letter to Trump this week in which he urged the president to consider “a true emergency that puts millions of our citizens at risk.”
Besides Newark, more than 20 other New Jersey cities and towns have elevated lead levels in their tap water, as do many other municipalities, said the letter. And while Flint, Mich., is the poster child for poor water management, it’s not the only place suffering a crisis that demands immediate action.