The Untested Waters of Black Lakeside Communities

New research shows lakes in communities of color were three times less likely to be tested for pollutants than lakes in white areas (Photo Credit: Marje, Getty Images Signature). By& Willy Blackmore This article was originally published on& Word In Black. Nothing says that you’ve made it quite like living right by the water. And while it’s most often white people who are living out that fantasy in lakeside communities across the country, there are some waterfront towns with significant Black populations (or otherwise non-white) — but what a new study has found is that the water in such communities is far less likely to be subject to water-quality monitoring. The study, published in the journal& Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, is believed to be the first to look at water-quality monitoring on lakes as an environmental justice issue. On the whole, the researchers found that lakes in white communities were three times more likely to be monitored than those in communities of color (the study looked at all non-white racial groups together, and also compared Hispanic and non-Hispanic communities). “Where we sample can matter as much as what we sample,” Matt Kane, program director of the National Science...