Echoes of Flint, as North Carolina water pollution is swept under the rug

Let me tell you about a community who woke up one day to learn their drinking water had been contaminated with toxic chemicals. Families who have been suffering from mysterious illnesses learn that the water they've been drinking day in and day out may be laced with poison. They plead with their Republican governor to do something about the contaminated water, but due to the governor's business ties he finds it easier to simply ignore the public health crisis in their community. Months go by, and these families are still living off bottled water rather than turn on the faucet and risk lasting harm to their families. Meanwhile, instead of holding anyone accountable, the governor's Department of Environmental Quality is simply trying to downplay the water contamination.

You probably think I'm referring to Flint, Michigan, but the community I'm talking about is actually in North Carolina. In fact, hundreds of families in more than a dozen communities across the state received Do Not Drink notices last year telling them their groundwater has been contaminated by toxic chemicals found in leaking Duke Energy coal ash pits nearby. These families have been living off bottled water for nearly a year, but Gov. Pat McCrory -- himself a former Duke Energy employee of nearly 30 years -- has refused to publicly acknowledge the public health crisis. Instead, the McCrory administration decided to simply dilute the water quality standards -- claiming the previously-unsafe levels of contamination are suddenly safe again.

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