In Deep

Toward the end of our team’s time in Lake Charles, the city made one last push to clean up debris that was still left over from back-to-back hurricanes. No one could have predicted what happened next. In our final episode, we learn how residents are trying to move forward after a year of storms and how their experience could be repeated in other communities nationwide.More: Transcript of this episode

People in Lake Charles expected the federal government to help them rebuild their battered city. That’s what they had been promised. That’s what had happened after previous storms. But this time was different. In this episode, we report on why the federal government kept thousands of storm victims waiting. And why similar neglect could happen anywhere in the nation.More: Transcript of this episode

In a span of nine months, Lake Charles, Louisiana, endured two hurricanes, an ice storm, and a flood. The federal government promised to help the city rebuild. But as time wore on, Lake Charles remained a sea of blue tarps and debris. People like Alexis Sheridan were struggling. Alexis, who was seven months pregnant, resorted to sleeping in a tent. In this episode, we spend time with Alexis and her fiancé as they search for somewhere to live before their baby is born.More: Transcript of this episode

After months of research, In Deep reporters and editors have become fascinated with water infrastructure. But can they convince a Gen Zer to care? In this episode, Todd Melby, Annie Baxter and Dan Ackerman go head to head to persuade Erianna Jiles that she should care about water infrastructure. Who will succeed? We also answer listener questions on lead service lines and bidets!Photo: Erianna Jiles

In the 1990s, lakes and wetlands dried up in Florida’s fast-growing Tampa Bay region. Some attributed the drastic change to drought; others to overpumping of an underground aquifer. A pitched legal battle, known as the Water Wars, played out. Some government-run utilities wanted to keep pumping from the aquifer; others wanted to look for new water sources. Eventually, they began to work together to find multiple sources of drinking water.Guests:Randy and Mark Barthle, Barthle Brothers Ranch ownersHoney Rand, Water Wars authorEileen Hart, Tampa Bay resident and water rights activistKen Herd, Tampa Bay Water, chief science and technical officerRadhika Fox, US Water Alliance, chief executive officerPhoto: Courtesy of Tampa Bay Water

Clean water can get contaminated on its way to your faucet. In America, more than 9 million lead service lines connect city water to individual homes (and apartments), leaving millions of people vulnerable to potentially harmful doses of lead. Retired EPA scientist — and Flint whistleblower — Miguel Del Toral shows us lead pipes unearthed from his property in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood and explains why they're no longer considered safe. And we talk to a Milwaukee father, who stumbled upon this lesson with his young son. → Read APM Reports’ investigation → Read Del Toral’s memorandum on FlintGuests:Miguel Del Toral, EPA scientist (retired)Rick Rabin, Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and HealthTory Lowe, Milwaukee activist (and father of four)Karen Baehler, scholar-in-residence at American University School of Public AffairsPhoto: Lauren Rosenthal | APM Reports

Just how hard is it to keep wastewater out of our drinking water? Super hard. In this episode, we take a look at the lengths one great American city, Chicago, went to in order to keep the source of its drinking water clean. Reverse the flow of the river? Why not? Then we explore the origins of activated sludge — a century-old microbial goo that still cleans up our sewage today. We end with a scientist studying what a city’s wastewater can reveal about the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From history to policy to full-on drama, In Deep dives headfirst into the troubling state of the mysterious networks that keep our water clean and coming out of the tap. We explore when “out of sight, out of mind” could get us in deep doo-doo, because the ugly truth is that these complex systems are just as imperfect as the people who created them. In Deep will plumb the depths of the complex mysteries behind the clean water in our lives. It’s an engrossing tale that mirrors the very development of our present-day human civilizations — and is shockingly just as fallible.