"America is facing a nationwide drinking water crisis," says the co-author of a new report that finds one in four Americans were served by tap water that was unsafe or not properly monitored in 2015. The report published Tuesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council shows there were 80,000 reported violations of safety regulations like the Safe Drinking Water Act in community water systems serving 77 million people in 2015. About 15% of those violations—affecting 27 million people, or one in 12 Americans—were health-based, for instance contamination from lead, copper, arsenic, or other cancer-causing pollutants. Other violations included failure to report contamination to the public and to properly test water, but almost 90% of the transgressions "were subject to no formal action," the report from the environmental advocacy group states.

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If you live in the United States, there is a nearly one-in-four chance your tap water is either unsafe to drink or has not been properly monitored for contaminants in accordance with federal law, a new study has found.

In 2015, nearly 77 million Americans lived in places where the water systems were in some violation of safety regulations, including the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act, according to the report released on Tuesday from the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York-based environmental advocacy group.

It’s not only that some tap water has high levels of lead, nitrates, arsenic or other pollutants, said Mae Wu, a senior attorney with the council’s health program. It is that too often, a lack of reporting means residents cannot be sure whether their drinking water is contaminated or not.

The issue is not new; tap water safety violations across the United States have been reported again and again and again. The new study is an attempt to tell the big-picture story, Ms. Wu said, as a backdrop to the piecemeal reports coming out of towns and cities across the country.

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According to the AP and ABC News, water filtration giant Brita has recalled over 242,000 children’s filtered water bottles for a catastrophic defect resulting in bottles breaking and creating sharp plastic shards that pose a laceration threat to the child or parent. The affected products include the Children’s 15oz hardsided water bottles. So far there have been more than 3 dozen reports of bottles breaking resulting in the broken shards and fortunately we are not aware of any injuries at this time.

According to ABC News, the bottles being recalled include: “60258-35883 on the Dora the Explorer, 60258-35914 on the Hello Kitty, 60258-35880 on the SpongeBob Square Pants and 60258-35882 on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

If you, or someone you know has one of these products, STOP USE IMMEDIATELY and contact Brita’s customer service department by calling (800) 926-2065 or online at www.brita.com/contact/

Brita has responded swiftly by offering to pre-pay return postage and offer a full refund.

Sources:

http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/2014/BRITA-Recalls-Childrens-Water-Bottles/

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/brita-recalling-childrens-water-bottles-25032799