PAVILLION, Wyo. – Rhonda and Jeff Locker enjoyed hosting friends and family at their farm home in Pavillion, Wyoming. The 56 year old said she took pride in serving her guests water from the well on their land. “It was the best I’d ever tasted,” Rhonda Locker said. That changed in the early 1990s when […]
GARWOOD, W.Va. – In southern West Virginia, hundreds of unqualified residents must now run their local water systems, which often draw water from abandoned mines. As the state has lost coal-industry jobs, the miners who once ran these systems have abandoned this task to the remaining residents. Environmental Protection Agency data shows that at least […]
BEEBE PLAIN, Vt. – The residents of Beebe Plain in Derby, Vermont, have gotten used to the “boil water” notices that come in the mail. “They send us a post every once in awhile saying that we should be boiling our water,” resident Bonnie Sicard said. “This has been going on pretty much ever since […]
Daily military operations have contaminated the water on and around bases across the United States for decades, affecting service members and their families, as well as the surrounding communities. Veterans and families suffering from years of health problems are speaking out. Lita Hyland is a military wife who lived on three contaminated bases with her […]
ROXBURY TOWNSHIP, N.J. – At first glance, Ledgewood Park in Roxbury Township, New Jersey, is the epitome of a small-town park. The fishing pond is stocked with bluegill and largemouth bass, a basketball court stretches along the gravel parking lot and a pristine-looking stream runs along hiking trails in the woods surrounding the park. The […]
WAUKESHA, Wisc. – The city of Waukesha has a radium problem, and it’s looking to Lake Michigan for a solution. Although talks of drawing water from nearby Lake Michigan began in 2002, Waukesha has struggled with radium contamination since the late 1970s when the Environmental Protection Agency lowered the acceptable limit for radium in public […]
PHOENIX – On June 1, 2015, then Republican North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory held a private meeting with environmental regulators and Duke Energy executives at the Governor’s Mansion. Months before the meeting, state regulators issued Duke a $25 million fine – the largest in state history – for leaks from coal ash ponds into groundwater […]
WALNUT COVE, N.C. – Andree Davis said she tries not to go out in public: She’s afraid of how people will react when they see her. The 67-year-old North Carolina resident has dark spots all over her body. Davis said when she absolutely has to leave her house, she always wears long sleeves and pants – […]
BRADY, Texas – Tony Groves cannot get clean drinking water for his city. Brady, a historic city proudly known as the “heart of Texas,” has the second-most contamination violations in the country from the radium that has seeped into its drinking water for decades, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. And this tiny, rural community […]
HYANNIS, Mass. – When Hyannis officials discovered that unacceptable levels of contaminants from firefighting foam had leaked into the city’s water supply, they took action. Officials immediately provided cases of water to 18,000 residents of the Cape Cod community and spent $6 million to install an activated carbon filtration system. Now, they are cleaning the […]