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All SWFL Counties Log Tap Water Violations in Nationwide Report

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Photo: Steve Johnson via Flickr Creative Commons
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The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Every county in Southwest Florida has logged at least one violation according to a new report on the nation’s tap water. Some had as many as six.

Those violations mean that more than 45,000 people had tap water running through their home with at least one of 100 contaminants that may harm human health.

After its 2016 report on the lead crisis in Flint, Michigan, the Natural Resources Defense Council turned its attention to other contaminants in American drinking water to find more than 12,000 health-based violations across the country.

The NRDC released its report, “Threats on Tap: Widespread Violations Highlight Need for Investment in Water Infrastructure and Protections” last week.

Report co-author Mae Wu with NRDC  joins the show to explain the NRDC's findings, the relevant history of the 1977 Safe Drinking Water Act and how the NRDC feels the law is being allowed to fail, and what the future holds with threatened cuts to the EPA’s budget

Copyright 2020 WGCU. To see more, visit WGCU.

Matthew Smith is a reporter and producer of WGCU’s Gulf Coast Live.
Julie Glenn is the host of Gulf Coast Live. She has been working in southwest Florida as a freelance writer since 2007, most recently as a regular columnist for the Naples Daily News. She began her broadcasting career in 1993 as a reporter/anchor/producer for a local CBS affiliate in Quincy, Illinois. After also working for the NBC affiliate, she decided to move to Parma, Italy where she earned her Master’s degree in communication from the University of Gastronomic Sciences. Her undergraduate degree in Mass Communication is from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.