© 2024 Iowa Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Iowa's Drinking Water: Could Flint Happen Here?

Majicdolphin / Flickr

What happened in Flint, Michigan is only one of several high profile incidents of public health crises arising from drinking water contamination. In fact, according to Siddhartha Roy, who was part of the team that discovered high lead levels in Flint, “There are millions of lead pipes,” and “we have them in virtually every city in the U.S.”

On this edition of River to River, Ben Kieffer talks with Roy and renowned water expert Peter Gleick, president and co-founder of the Pacific Institute, about what happened in Flint and what the rest of the nation can learn from that crisis.

Dana Kolpin, of the U.S. Geological Survey in Iowa City, and Pete Weyer, of the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination at the University of Iowa, also join the conversation to talk about how drinking water supplies in Iowa are susceptible to similar vulnerabilities.

Gleick, Kolpin, and Weyer will be in Des Moines Friday June 17th as part of the Public Policy Center symposium, Iowa's Drinking Water: Could Flint Happen Here? More information on the event can be found here.

Ben Kieffer is the host of IPR's River to River