Local, USA

Beyond the Tap

A co-production with Detroit Public Television

The national spotlight is on Flint, Michigan as it struggles in the midst of a water crisis that has been mismanaged by government officials at every level and now threatens more than 90,000 citizens. But the city is not alone. 

In LOCAL, USA: BEYOND THE TAP, WORLD Channel and Detroit Public Television travel to cities and rural towns in Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin to examine the human, economic, and political costs of one of America's greatest threats: our crumbling infrastructure. Regulations that govern water supplies and funds to maintain them have lagged well behind rates of decay, putting residents in less affluent areas at greater risk for lead contamination than wealthier populations with newer, better maintained pipes and systems. Environmentalists, politicians and community activists are working to find solutions, but scenes of aid workers delivering bottled water and children being tested for lead poisoning may not be going away soon. In fact, they may soon be all too common.