As the Biden administration looks to address inequalities in water quality and access, experts say officials must try to overcome a persistent public distrust in tap water, especially in Black and Hispanic communities.
for several years, she hasn’t been able to stop worrying since going through the trauma of the city’s lead crisis.As the Biden administration looks to spend billions of dollars to address inequalities in water quality and access, officials must try to overcome persistent public distrust of tap water.
Already, 20% of adults nationally say they don’t drink tap water — filtered or not — up from 14% before the Flint crisis, according to a study of federal survey data. The figures are higher among Black adults, with 35% saying they avoid drinking tap, up from 25% before Flint. Among Hispanic adults, the figure rose to 38%, up from 27%.
Though the vast majority of the country’s water systems report that they meet federal health standards, problems such as elevated lead levels and health violations happen more often in lower-income areas that are predominantly Black or Hispanic, Switzer said.Defective plumbing that tinges water brown or creates an odd taste can also turn people away from the faucet. Immigrants from countries with unsafe water might transfer that distrust to water that might be safer in the U.S.
“There’s a legacy of mistrust and a healthy sense of paranoia that has kept us alive for centuries,” said Robert Bullard, a professor at Texas Southern University who has researched and pushed for environmental justice for decades. Monika Davis, who is Black, switched from bottled water to tap when she applied to become one of roughly a dozen residents enlisted by the city as ambassadors in 2019 to show up at events and talk to her neighbors about the safety and benefits of tap water.
Stamps cites the federal health goal of no lead to explain her skepticism, saying none should be in the water.
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