The Environmental Protection Agency is pushing a new digital app in the wake of the Flint water crisis to help states ensure the water drawn from local rivers and streams is fit to drink.
“A key part of having safe drinking water is protecting the sources – the streams, rivers and lakes where utilities withdraw water,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said. The Drinking Water Mapping Application to Protect Source Waters, or DWMAPS, “is the latest example of how EPA is using technology and digital tools to better protect public health and the environment.”
The app teaches users about their watershed, to help them understand more about the water and where it is coming from, according to the agency.
“DWMAPS also lets users see if sources of their drinking water are polluted and if there are possible sources of pollution that could affect their communities’ water supply,” the agency added. The app “can even guide users to ways they can get involved in protecting drinking water sources in their community.”
The app’s release follows weeks of scandal where the EPA regional head over the town of Flint, Mich., admitted that the agency kept information from the public about dangerous lead levels in the drinking water for weeks. EPA had been called in after it was found that a state-appointed emergency manager for the struggling factory town had been using water from the contaminated Flint River to supply its drinking water. The acidic level of the river’s water caused lead to leach from pipes, filling residents’ water with dangerously high levels of the metal.
The app specific targets officials such as Gov. Rick Snyder’s emergency manager. “It allows them to identify potential sources of contamination in their locations, find data to support source water assessments and plans to manage potential sources of contamination and evaluate accidental spills and releases,” the EPA said. The app “also integrates drinking water protection activities with other environmental programs at the federal, state and local levels.”
On Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services provided $500,000 in emergency funds to Flint. EPA also began a public awareness campaign in the town, tweeting out several times on Thursday that the agency was in Flint this week testing the water supply.
