Lead in the Water

When it comes to Wisconsin we tend to be surrounded by a lot of freshwater resources.  These freshwater resources are being used in many ways whether it be used for recreational or personal/public use.  When it comes to our drinking water, living in Wisconsin is something that we take advantage of.  We will most likely never have to worry about a shortage of water within the near future, compared to some of the states in the West when they go through droughts because of warmer temperatures due to climate change. Obviously, Wisconsin is a great place to live when it comes to our water supply.  The only problem is the way our water is being delivered to us.  As we have seen with Flint Michigan our water supply can be contaminated with lead through our delivery system.  Many pipes that were used 50 years ago used contained lead in them and nowadays those lead pipes are garnering more attention.

In a recent study statewide in Wisconsin it was found that 4.5% of children under the age of 6 tested positive for lead poisoning in Wisconsin.  This is mostly because Wisconsin’s pipes are highly outdated, and they tend to contain a fine amount of lead in their pipes in their public water systems.  Milwaukee is affected the most by lead in their pipes because it was found that 8.6% of children under the age of 6 tested positive for lead poisoning.  Now the City of Milwaukee knows this is a problem proposing a $750 million budget to fix this issue.  Even with this amount of money being proposed to help, it would not be able to fix the problem. There would still be a small amount of lead in the pipes even after they would perform such an undertaking.  This is where money and health tend to play a key role in deciding certain problems. The only question, would it be worth it to spend all this money even though we would still see lead in the water but to a smaller degree?

3 thoughts on “Lead in the Water”

  1. This is a tricky problem to solve. I think that Flint should be #1 in fixing the water issue(s) before we talk about Wisconsin. There will be issues all over and Flint has been without clean water the longest so that should a priority number one. Some celebrities are jumping on board and making the Flint issue more aware in pop culture, such as Jaden Smith and his Just Water campaigns.

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