It appears that the Michigan city of Flint may not be the only city that has been ignoring EPA guidelines when testing their water for lead and other harmful chemicals.
According to the Guardian, who reviewed public water testing records for 43 cities east of the Mississippi River, 33 major cities used distortions in their testing methods in the past decade in order to make the results, and their water, appear more palatable than it actually is.
Major cities were first put under suspicion back in 2015 when it was discovered that city officials in Flint had been purposefully mistesting its water in order to keep its lead level below EPA standards. The officials responsible for one of the worst public health disasters in U.S. history are now under criminal investigation.
But now, according to the Guardians’ findings, at least 21 cities used the same water testing methods that the officials in Flint used in order to artificially decrease the amount of lead in the water samples. Another 12 cities used other methods, which were contrary to EPA regulations, to tamper with the water samples.
Some cities even threw out official test samples as illegitimate simply because there was too much lead found in the sample to pass EPA inspections.
Although the Guardian has not released the full list of cities, the website explicitly cited such notable cities as Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Boston, Buffalo, and the entire state of New Hampshire, as places where water samples had been purposefully tampered with.
What the Guardian doesn’t mention is that, if true, each of these cities’ alleged environmental missteps have been happening under the watchful eye of Democratic mayors (and in New Hampshire’s case, a Democratic governor).
For example, Rahm Emanuel, the Democratic mayor of Chicago since 2010, is well-known for his environmental policies. He created hundreds of acres of new parkland in the city and has been a an outspoken advocate for clean, renewable energy and actually won the Sierra Club’s endorsement when he ran for reelection back in 2015. He even hosted a Water Quality Summit back in 2014 where he announced a $50 million project to use green technology to conserve water.
Now, Emanuel's Chicago is listed among the Guardian's top cities with a record of allegedly fudging water testing.
It is amazing that a party so focused on helping the environment and promoting green lifestyles would purposefully allow these environmental atrocities to be committed on their watch. Because of their negligence and hypocrisy, America may soon be facing a man-made health disaster with far-reaching and deadly results.
The full extent of this water-tampering pandemic is not currently known, since only 43 of the 81 cities the Guardian reached out to provided information. We can only hope that the people responsible can be brought to justice so more innocent lives are not affected by lead poisoning.