Iowa's Drinking Water: Could Flint Happen Here?
The Public Policy Center's June symposium, "Iowa's Drinking Water: Could Flint Happen Here?" explored the current state of Iowa’s drinking water and the future challenges confronting water providers in the state to reliably deliver safe drinking water to Iowans. Co-organized by the University of Iowa Public Policy Center and the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination (CHEEC), this all day event included panels of water experts from academia, industry and the public sector, including the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
In light of recent, high profile incidents of public health crises arising from drinking water contamination around the United States, a special focus was placed on whether drinking water supplies in Iowa are susceptible to similar vulnerabilities experienced elsewhere. This included a presentation by Joyce Zhu, a member of the Flint Water Study, who shared first-hand experiences and lessons learned from the public health crisis in Flint, Michigan. Beyond Flint, panel topics addressed other potential threats to the sustainability of Iowa’s drinking water supplies.
The Symposium was accredited for 0.6 CEUs for the renewal of Iowa water treatment and distribution operator licenses.
*Partial support for this symposium has been provided by the Iowa NSF EPSCoR project; this project is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number EPS-1101284. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed during this event are those of the participant(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.