“D.C. is the worst-case scenario,” Elin said. “They made a treatment change but didn’t study its effect on water quality in advance. When they started measuring high lead in the water, they just kept sampling to try to bring down the system average, but in fact they kept measuring lead at higher and higher concentrations. And they didn’t tell the public. Nothing happened until The Washington Post put the story on the front page three years after it started.
