Protecting Our Drinking Water — Steven Cohen, Columbia University's Earth Institute

As America's population grows, people and businesses continue to settle in places that used to be left alone, damaging some of the natural systems that provide and clean our water.

In addition, as our infrastructure corrodes, our water supply becomes more susceptible to leaks and contamination. Unlike the problem of renewable energy, we do not require transformative technology to address America's water crisis. We have the technology and management capacity to protect our water. We know what contaminates water, we know how to test for poisons, and we know how to keep our water supply safe. We simply need to be willing to pay the capital and annual costs of keeping our water supply safe and we need the political will and vigilance to pay attention and stop taking our water for granted.

The contaminated water supply in Flint, Michigan, was a human-made disaster. We are learning that the problems with Flint's water system were on the agenda of the governor's top advisors and that the Flint City Council never approved of the switchfrom Detroit's water system.

Despite this concern and a clear awareness of the potential danger, Flint's water was permitted to remain toxic. As I wrote in mid-January, there is plenty of blame to go around for allowing Flint's water supply to be contaminated. Federal, state and local officials are at fault. The reason we have federal water quality standards is to ensure that local economic issues, politics, racism or other factors do not control decisions about water supply. But in Flint, decisions on water supply were not subject to effective federal review.

Most state and local officials understand the central importance of a safe, adequate water supply. In New York, we have the positive example of New York City's multibillion dollar investment in a third water tunnel to supplement the century-old system currently in place, as well as the construction of a new water filtration plant in the Bronx. Recently, we saw Governor Andrew Cuomo move aggressively to protect the water supply of the upstate village of Hoosick Falls, as it has become clear that its municipal wells were threatened by the release of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, a chemical used to make Teflon. A local plastics company may have released this chemical near the wells. 

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Taxonomy

• Drinking Water Managment
• Infrastructure
• Water