MILWAUKEE—Activists and concerned residents convened recently to discuss what they called an invisible public health crisis and to screen two documentary films. The film highlighted both national and local water quality issues related to the continued use of lead pipes.
Held at the Sherman Phoenix Marketplace and Community Center and hosted by a coalition of community organizations, the one-day event held May 25, consisted of panel discussions and an information table that provided testing kits and brochures.
Robert Miranda, an activist associated with Milwaukee’s Get the Lead Out Coalition, told The Final Call that he has been advocating for safe drinking water for the past 11 years. In reference to the two films, “Something in the Water,” and “Lead and Copper,”
He leveled his criticism toward institutions dominated by politics, special interests, and corporate greed, which he believes hamper the ability to resolve what he sees as manmade environmental hazards more quickly.
“What we just saw (in the films) is a blueprint of corruption and deception, misinformation and a political assault on our communities, all over the country, and Milwaukee is no exception,” Mr. Miranda said.
Presenters and attendees of the forum identified the issue of lead contamination as a public health crisis affecting more than just isolated homes and buildings within marginalized communities, and insisted that local government, corporations, and other parties have contributed as much to the problem as they could to the solution.
Local filmmaker Nateya Taylor, creator of the first documentary presented, “Something in the Water,” told The Final Call that she first became aware of a nexus between crime and lead poisoning in 2019 as a criminal justice undergrad.
She said that people exposed to lead, especially children in their developmental years, are more likely to commit acts of crime and violence after being exposed to such toxins.
“In 2023, when I was partnering with Milwaukee Water Commons, as an artist-in-residence, and I was required to complete a water justice project with them, I decided to do it on lead in water because the topic (was) so prevalent and I wanted to bring more awareness to it,” Ms. Taylor explained.
“Milwaukee is known as one of the most segregated cities in the United States because of the historical practice of “redlining” that excluded Black people from financial resources, economic resources, and home ownership,”
Ms. Taylor continued. “Older homes tend to have lead paint and also have lead pipes and that contributes to how Black people are disproportionately lead-poisoned.”
According to the digital magazine Edge Effects, “In Wisconsin, lead contamination is most severe in the city of Milwaukee, where in 2021, the percentage of children tested with elevated blood lead levels was nearly double the state average.”
And according to a PBS Wisconsin report in April, “So far in 2025, seven buildings in Milwaukee Public Schools have had concerning levels of lead found in them following investigations by the city.”
In response to impassioned demands by local residents, and questions from The Final Call, Milwaukee Water Works, Marketing and Communications Officer, Betsy Vornholt,
Said that the city’s current administration has been long aware of the lead problem and that to date, they have removed thousands of the estimated 75,000 lead service lines and that they expect to remove more within the next 12 years.
“The issue of lead-free drinking water is a high priority for the city’s administration,” Ms. Vornholt told The Final Call in a written statement. “The Mayor and City leadership recognize the critical importance of removing lead service lines to protect public health and prevent childhood lead exposure.
The City has replaced over 10,000 lead service lines as part of an ongoing program aimed at removing approximately 65,000 by 2037.”
“Community engagement is essential to the City’s efforts to eliminate lead exposure,” Ms. Vornholt continued.
Lifelong resident and former five-term Wisconsin State Senator, Judge Lena C. Taylor, who currently serves on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Branch 41, told The Final Call that her entire life has been devoted to public service.
After hearing media reports that the environmental outcomes in Wisconsin were twice as bad as those found after the Flint, Michigan, water crisis, she was compelled to become involved.
“Right at the end of 2015 to the beginning of 2016, that’s when Robert (Miranda) and I began to work on this issue individually, but then ultimately coming together and working on everything from legislative changes that we tried, to meetings to hold people accountable (and) several different steps trying to put things in place, many of which fell on deaf ears,” the former state senator said of the political environment at that time.
“You really have a need to address multiple components and that is not a reality that I see happening, so it’s an education issue, and I’m almost speechless, because it’s not just the pipe, it’s not just the lateral, it’s also in the system, and there’s lead even in the faucets,” She said.
Laterals, or service lines, in city water systems are underground pipes that connect individual properties to municipal water supplies to deliver potable water directly into homes and businesses.
The second film, “Lead and Copper,” currently running on online platforms, and directed by award-winning filmmaker William Hart focused on the notorious water crisis in Flint and other cities such as Newark, N.J., and Washington, D.C., where complaints about toxic municipal water were covered up, downplayed, or ignored for the sake of politics, corporate interests, and money.
“I heard about Flint in 2015, and I thought what was happening was abysmal, anti-constitutional, and absolutely disgusting,” Mr. Hart said.
“I didn’t know how bad it was until Yahoo News sent me there in early 2016 and when I found out that the governor (Rick Snyder) had replaced the city council and the mayor with an unelected state official, and the unconstitutional and anti-democratic process of that, it led to the poisoning of the people in Flint,” Mr. Hart stated bluntly.
“We don’t know all of the effects of lead, but we do know if you’re lead-poisoned, it makes you more irritable, it makes you more impulsive, it can abort a fetus late-term, it can lower your IQ, and that immediately affects the population. If you’re not being affected by lead poisoning, your neighbors are,” he said.
Marcus Muhammad, mayor of the city of Benton Harbor, Michigan, told The Final Call that his success in removing all lead service lines in his city was the direct result of working with others (see Final Call Vol. 43 No. 10).
Mayor Muhammad said that legislation from the former presidential administration sought to eliminate all lead service lines nationwide within 10 years and that the city of Benton Harbor addressed this issue proactively.
He also said that through cooperation, they completed the removal and replacement of all lead service lines not only under budget, but also ahead of schedule and that it could serve as a model for other cities to follow.
“We did it working with two administrations where our first allocation came under the first Trump administration where we received $5.6 million from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and through the Biden Administration, we received $32 million, and from the state government, we received $10 million under the Whitmer administration,” he said, referring to Michigan’s governor.
Mayor Muhammad worked with both Democrats and Republicans. Mayor Muhammad, who is a Muslim, said that after Allah (God), the credit belongs to both administrations and the people of both parties who worked for the greater good.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, in his book, “A Torchlight for America,” wrote about the myriad of challenges facing America, which has the country on its “deathbed,” and that it is up to responsible and caring leadership to resolve these problems without scapegoating the poor and to avoid what he called “grid-lock” politics.
Mayor Muhammad understands that responsibility when it comes to governance. “So, the formula and recipe to address this issue is to have federal, state, and local government working together beyond party lines,” Mayor Marcus Muhammad insisted.
“We know that the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan said in his book, ‘A Torchlight for America,’ that in order for America to survive, partisan politics must die, and that statement was made in 1993, and it still holds true today in 2025,” he said.
Nation of Islam Student Minister William Muhammad of Mosque No. 3 in Milwaukee told The Final Call that he and many others have been active in working to educate the public about the importance of addressing his city’s lead problem.
“As followers of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, we have the role of being what he is, a watchman to sound the alarm,” he said. “We must give the people the proper knowledge they need.”