Forgotten Waters

Forgotten Waters

Over 43 million Americans, approximately 15% of the population, rely on private wells for drinking water. These Americans do not have access t o public water systems and are not protected by the Safe Drinking Water Act. These individuals are instead left with a set of widely differing state laws regulating their drinking water wells. Most of these states do not have any standards related to drinking water quality. Well owners are instead responsible for monitoring and maintaining the safety of their water.

This problem is often characterized as a rural issue: hard to solve because of the large distance to treated water infrastructure. This assumption is wrong. Many homes are located in peri-urban commun ities, close to public water systems. These systems often have been excluded from public water systems due to racial and ethnic discrimina tion and poverty. Using the example of communities surrounding Mebane, North Carolina, this Article argues that approaches to address ing access to safe drinking water must account for this legacy of discrim ination and discusses why the Rural Electrification Act provides a promising model to provide safe drinking water to well dependent populations

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