Now there’s no need to go all the way to Mexico for Montezuma’s Revenge… you can get sick from unsafe drinking water right at home in the U.S.
According to a New York Times analysis of federal figures, more than a fifth of U.S. water treatment systems violated the Safe Drinking Water Act in the past five years.
That means that since 2004, 49 million Americans have consumed water with illegal amounts of bacteria, chemicals, and radioactivity right from their taps.
Federal and state regulators knew of each violation, yet less than six percent of the water systems in violation were ever fined or punished.
Studies show that millions of illnesses a year are linked to unsafe drinking water in the U.S. Common contaminants include bacteria found in sewerage, industrial chemicals like arsenic and tetrachloroethylene, and even radioactive contaminants like uranium.
There are 54,700 water systems in the U.S., and violations occurred in every state. The Environmental Protection Agency has ultimate responsibility for enforcing drinking water standards, but the EPA is often reluctant to fine or punish small city or municipal water systems because fines and improvements would ultimately have to be paid by raising local taxes.
Some current and former EPA officials also say off the record that the agency prefers to devote resources to high-profile cases with multi-million dollar settlements. Most unsafe drinking water cases don’t qualify since most of them happened at water systems serving 20,000 users or less.
South of the border, there are a few places in Latin America such as Panama that deliver safe drinking water directly from the tap. But the vast majority of people have for years relied on cheap and readily available bottled water for safe drinking water.
