The acclaimed PBS television series, NOVA, presents an episode tonight that details the road to and the effects of the Flint Water Crisis. Entitled “Poisoned Water”, the episode airs May 31 at 9 p.m. EST on most public television stations. “Poisoned Water” covers the science of pipe corrosion and lead poisoning, as well as the critical management errors leading to the disaster. The episode comes to a startling conclusion: drinking water infrastructure across the nation is just as vulnerable as Flint.
The documentary features NEMWI’s Safe Drinking Water Research and Policy Program Director Elin Betanzo, and it describes the role she played in bringing national attention to the Flint Water Crisis.
The Safe Drinking Water Research and Policy Program builds on NEMWI’s long-standing engagement in water quality research, policy analysis, and education and outreach relating to water quality and safe drinking water by expanding its capabilities to the region more broadly. Through the development of scientific, non-partisan, and independent research and policy analysis, the program seeks to use objective data findings to inform and provide technical assistance and education to policy-makers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to support local and regional drinking water policy improvements.
You can read more about the SDWRPP here.
For more information, please contact Elin Betanzo, Director of the Safe Drinking Water Research and Policy Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.