What Lies Upstream

Aired on PBS’s Independent Lens series, this extremely troubling docu-exposé from filmmaker/onscreen investigator Cullen Hoback extrapolates from one pollution scandal to suggest an enormous health risk in the American water supply. In 2014, inhabitants of the Elk River watershed in rural West Virginia found their water tainted by a foul chemical leaking from a ruptured holding tank. After initial quick EPA responses and alarming verdicts from doctors, the regulation that would have supposedly remedied such disasters was stymied by powerful corporate lobbyists and the coal-mining state's conservative mindset that put jobs/big business ahead of any other considerations. What is alarming, according to Hoback, is that West Virginia on the whole actually has a better clean-water record than many other regions of the U.S. Bad science, redacted reports, EPA cover-ups, and bought-off legislators are the rule not the exception—including during the Obama administration—and the subsequent lead-poisoning disaster in Flint, MI, may be just a portent of worse to come. The foregone conclusion here is the appointment of (now disgraced and former) EPA chief Scott Pruitt within the administration of Donald Trump, whose open hostility to the EPA—and by extension, the environment—is mirrored by many state and local conservatives. All of the ingredients are in place for a ticking toxic time bomb of major consequences. Presented in both its full-length version and a 60-minute abridgement, this documentary serving up a powerful health warning is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)