In the wake of the contaminated water crisis in Flint, Michigan, other states began to take a look at their own water systems. And for Kansas, the news isn’t good.
As member station KCUR reports, nearly 70 water systems in Kansas have lead levels above the Environmental Protection Agency's acceptable levels. And those are just the systems that have reported a problem. Many may have tried to game the system to avoid alerting the feds of lead contamination.
The EPA allows a water action level of 15 parts per billion of lead.
We are very concerned about severe under-reporting and gaming of the system by some drinking water suppliers to avoid finding lead problems,” said Erik Olson, a health programs director with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Basically,” he added, “a water system can avoid detecting lead in their water if they’re savvy and understand how the rules work.”