"Small-Town America Has a Serious Drinking-Water Problem"

"In Sanders, Arizona, residents drank uranium-contaminated water for years."

"On a sweltering day last July, a team of scientists stood before a crowded room of people from the tiny town of Sanders, Arizona, and showed them a photo of a dilapidated wooden shack covered by hole-filled tarps. This, the scientists explained, was the town's water source.

Tonya Baloo, a longtime resident and mother of two, did a double take. 'It looked like a Third World country,' she says. 'I was like, "Is this Africa?"'

The researchers' next image—a chart with a flat red line cutting through yellow bars—was even more worrisome. Tommy Rock, a Ph.D. candidate studying water contamination at Northern Arizona University, explained that the red line was the Environmental Protection Agency's threshold for uranium allowed in public water systems: 30 micrograms per liter. The yellow bars represented uranium levels in Sanders' water supply dating back to 2003. They hovered around 50 micrograms per liter.

For more than a decade, the chart showed, people in Sanders had been drinking contaminated water."

Julia Lurie reports for Mother Jones June 6, 2016.

SEE ALSO:

"In U.S. Drinking Water, Many Chemicals Are Regulated — But Many Aren’t" (Washington Post)

"The Battle Over Public Drinking Water Has Just Begun" (Climate Progress)

"More Questions On How Wisconsin Will Protect Lakes, Drinking Water" (Wisconsin State Journal)

"Tainted North Alabama Drinking Water Back Within Safe Levels, New Tests Show" (Birmingham News)

"Report: Las Vegas’ Drinking Water Safe — Even With That Pinch Of Uranium" (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

"Dozens of Portland Schools Had High Lead Levels In Drinking Water; Here Are Some Of The Worst (searchable database)" (Portland Oregonian)