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By Jasmine Laws
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The people most vulnerable to water contamination from the Colorado River are minority and low-income groups, according to a new essay.
The essay comes as part of a series of articles released on December 3 in a report by the Colorado River Research Group titled "Colorado River Insights, 2025: Dancing with Deadpool."
"Key findings include a distinctly segregated pattern in where people of color live, and highly disproportionate access to household drinking water and exposure to pollutants for the basin’s minority populations," the essay authors, Bonnie Colby and Zoey Reed-Spitzer, wrote.
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Newsweek has contacted one of the authors outside of regular working hours via email for comment.
Why It Matters
While millions of Americans are exposed to drinking water containing harmful contaminants nationwide, more research is highlighting that it is often minority groups that are disproportionally impacted by water contamination.
For example, a 2023 study led by researchers from Harvard found communities with higher proportions of Black and Hispanic/Latino residents were more likely to be exposed to harmful levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in their water supplies than people living in other communities.
A 2019 report co-authored by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Coming Clean and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance (EJHA) found that there is unequal access to safe drinking water in America, based most strongly on race.
Another 2023 study found that noncompliant water systems in counties with higher proportions of Black and Hispanic residents took longer to return to Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)-compliant levels.
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What To Know
The authors of the essay noted that water scarcity, pollution and a lack of delivery and treatment infrastructure are factors that "disproportionally affect the basin's Native American, Hispanic and Black populations," which they added were also groups that often have "lower access to resources for mitigation and recovery."
They also said that these groups historically have "not been represented in policy processes" in which key decisions on water access and quality are made.
The authors said that, based on U.S. Census data, those living in areas receiving Colorado River water are mostly white, at 45 percent, 36 percent are Hispanic, 12 percent are listed as "Other," 5 percent are Black and 2 percent are Native American. They also noted that many of the rural regions relying on the Colorado River for water are "predominantly populated by People of Color."
The authors reviewed three factors impacting the quality of the drinking water provided to the communities that rely on Colorado River water: leaky underground storage tanks, lack of green space and incomplete household water access.
They said that leaky underground storage tanks "release toxic materials that contaminate soil and water," while a lack of green space, because of "infrastructure choices," contributes to "air and water pollution," and incomplete household water access "inhibits residents' access to safe drinking water," which they said can threaten health.
Racial minorities were found to have "highly disproportional exposure" to water impacted by these three burdens," the authors wrote, as were areas with lower income.
What People Are Saying
Phil Brown, a professor of sociology and health sciences and director of the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute at Northeastern University, told Newsweek: "The research points out that Native American, Hispanic and Black populations, have lower access to resources for mitigation and recovery, and less power in organizational and institution policies that provide water and monitor and remediate it. These findings on racial and economic inequalities in water access and water quality are well-established across the country. The Flint, Michigan lead contamination crisis is one of the best-known examples where a largely Black population was subject to exceedingly high lead in drinking water because of poor management practices and inadequate governmental monitoring. For another example, many minority populations served by small community water systems have lower compliance with federal water pollution regulations on arsenic and other contaminants."
Peter Hammer, director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights and professor of law at Wayne State University, told Newsweek: "Access to green spaces is a luxury good. Communities with greater resources have more luxury goods. With wealth highly correlated with race, it is not surprising that white communities have more green space, consuming more water. Leaking underground storage tanks are a proxy for environmental justice. Environmental racism is a well-documented phenomenon. Again, it is not surprising that poorer minority communities have greater problems with leaking underground storage tanks, threatening the quality of their water supply. Basic access to clean, safe affordable water is highly racialized in America. Access to clean water requires the investment in and maintenance of substantial public infrastructure. The historic lack of such investment most dramatically impacts native communities.
"There is a centuries-long process in this country where when Native or Hispanic communities have land or resources that white communities want, white communities take the land and resources. This process is subject to environmental constraints. The problems of the Colorado River illustrate that these trends cannot last forever. People may now be trying to negotiate better outcomes, but they are not starting with equal bargaining positions."
What Happens Next
The essay authors said that going forward they hoped the findings would "help in guiding water policy dialogue" in the region to "consider water equity concerns" and that policymakers will "commit to policies that reduce current disproportionate levels of exposure."
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