A recent report published by the Wisconsin State Journal revealed something disturbing—although not all that surprising about environmental practices in Wisconsin.
Although the calendar may say we may are 12 years into the 21st Century and our society continues to make serious advances in health and science, 60 communities throughout the state do not treat their municipal drinking water for viruses or other contaminants.
Personally, I find this fact to be completely shocking given the environmental focus and the consensus to implement effective policy among legislators at the local, state and national level throughout the past several decades.
Certain communities, including Spring Green, Fall River and Rice Lake, do not treat their community water for certain contaminants. While the aggregate population of these three municipalities is roughly 12,000, that is 12,000 lives that could be at stake for gastrointestinal and respiratory illnesses in the future for viruses or other forms of bacteria.
E. coli, bacteria and various viruses make headlines annually at both the state and national level whenever a particular municipality’s drinking water becomes contaminated. Just last October, the city of Mineral Point reported a widespread E. coli outbreak that resulted in city officials installing a chlorine treatment system, costing the city $15,000. The city had not found any widespread contamination in their drinking water supply for years.
Last year, the state legislature revoked a rule that urged communities to test their groundwater for these kinds of contaminants, as an amendment put forth by state Rep. Erik Severson, R-Star Prairie, effectively ended the mandate for communities statewide to disinfect municipal drinking water supply. Now, the Department of Natural Resources suggests that communities use either ultraviolet light or chlorine to kill such things as bacteria and viruses or any other contaminants in a community’s drinking water supply. Sadly, it is only a suggestion because DNR cannot mandate this rule.
In all honesty, this may not be as serious of a problem as the charge led by Erin Brockovich and the Hinkley hexavalent chromium contamination problem or any other notable groundwater contamination cases.
That’s not the point. A small, rural community is obviously different from a metropolitan city such as Madison or Milwaukee. Yet, no matter where an American citizen resides, every person deserves the right to have their officials check groundwater for any sort of contaminants. An individual should have the right to know that a community’s groundwater is consumable and is without viruses.
I implore legislators at the state level to consider drafting legislation that would require communities to test their water supplies for viruses or any other contaminants. Mandating that communities, whether large or small, only have to test for certain types of bacteria is not enough. While I respect the financial reasoning of such lawmakers as Severson, I believe that the safety of human beings is of a greater importance than whether a particular piece of legislation may be deemed to be too expensive.
The state of Wisconsin must control its costs, but it should not do so at the expense of the health and well-being of its citizens. After all, an outbreak can affect a community within a moment’s notice, and a community that has taken the necessary steps to protect its citizens is a more attractive and safer one.
Ethan Safran is a freshman with an undeclared major. Please send feedback to opinion@dailycarinal.com or tweet us at
@dailycardinal.
