News Briefs: Untested Tap Water in Puerto Rico Raises Concerns About Lead

Citizens of Puerto Rico generally don’t trust their tap water, according to a new report by NPR, largely due to fears that it’s contaminated with elevated lead levels. Nearly the entire population of the island (97 percent) gets its water from a system that has failed a Lead & Copper Rule requirement in the past few years. To put that figure in perspective, the next worst offender was New Jersey at 35 percent of the population. Puerto Rico’s water authority has piled up the fines and violations for decades, says NPR, for failure to test tap water for bacteria, chemicals