Drinking water while black:
In Wake County, some predominantly African-American neighborhoods completely lack access to the municipal water system. As a result, residents are exposed to notably higher quantities of microbial contaminants via well water.
In previous studies, MacDonald Gibson and colleagues identified neighborhoods in Wake County that depend on private wells for drinking water. In many cases, these neighborhoods are home to largely African-American populations, but are surrounded by mostly-white neighborhoods that do have municipal water access.
In the last few years I've learned a great deal about how municipalities function, and what criteria they use when contemplating extending water service to areas outside of the standard town/city limits. It's an expensive process, and figuring out how long it will take to recoup that investment via water service fees (and additional property taxes, if you annex) plays a major role. All that being said, there is a broader moral and historical background that simply must be factored into that equation, because (as we all know) economics has a nasty habit of leaving some people behind. Let's take a stroll down a lane that is likely not part of the average white Southerner's memory roadway:
http://ift.tt/2gojkHS
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