Lead in Drinking Water : Post-Flint Media Coverage and Policy Changes in the Northeast-Midwest Region

The Flint water crisis not only endangered the lives of the city’s residents, creating one of the largest public health crises and environmental justice disasters, it also re-awakened the country to poor quality infrastructure and inadequate safeguards protecting drinking water in our homes, schools, and communities. The Northeast-Midwest (NEMW) region is especially affected by this issue due to its many older cities and aging infrastructure. Municipal-level details on the state of the water infrastructure with respect to lead are not readily available, as confirmed by two recently-issued reports by the government watchdog agency, Government Accountability Office (GAO). This report attempts to capture the response to the Flint water crisis in the NEMW region. The report catalogs the severity of the lead crisis in the NEMW cities during 2015-2017 by using a novel, yet established methodology of reviewing news media coverage as a proxy for the severity of drinking water issues related to lead contamination. Additionally, this report presents a comprehensive analysis of post-Flint statewide laws and regulations enacted in the NEMW states to improve water quality, as well as testing, reporting, and notification of lead results, and replacement of infrastructure