Ben Pauli (continued)

“Many continue to avoid tap water entirely. But contrary to common belief, this isn’t just because of the trauma of the especially bad experience. It’s because we’ve learned quite a bit here about the limitations of even a well-operated water system, which we’re now told our system is. We know that water in such a system can still be a source of harm at the household level even when it tests well in the system at large. We know that even the removal of every lead service line in the city—a process which is still ongoing, almost 10 years later—will not be enough to vanquish entirely the scourge of lead. 

For that reason, Flint residents have developed a precautionary attitude towards their water, and I think they would justifiably recommend that attitude to people everywhere, not just in communities that have experienced, or could plausibly experience, a system-wide crisis. What the EPA does with the LCR will help to determine whether that precautionary approach will lead people away from public water systems entirely or will give them a means of taking charge of their own water quality and assuaging their own concerns. And on the lead front, maybe the best thing we can do in this regard is to provide people with access to, and education about, point-of-use filtration. In Flint, the promotion of filters clashed in many ways with people’s sensibilities and priorities and largely failed to prevent them from abandoning the tap; but it doesn’t have to be that way. EPA can learn from the mistakes here; it can empower people to take the precautionary step of filtering their own water, should they so choose, and thereby keep them on public water systems at a time when so many are opting out. But that means not only that it must require water utilities to provide filters to all buildings known to be at risk of lead contamination, and support utilities in doing so, it must arm the general public with thoughtfully-devised training and information so that filters are understood, trusted, and used effectively.”