You Don’t Have a Right to Safe Drinking Water, US Court Rules

美国法院裁定：你没有获得安全饮用水的权利

A volunteer grabs a gallon of water at a water and food distribution drive held by College Hill Baptist Church and the World Central kitchen on March 7, 2021 in Jackson, Mississippi. 2021年3月7日，在密西西比州杰克逊市，一名志愿者在学院山浸信会（College Hill Baptist Church）和世界中央厨房（World Central Kitchen）举办的水和食物分发活动中领取了一加仑水。

On Friday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit against the city of Jackson, Mississippi, which alleged the city knowingly let residents drink lead-contaminated water. The lawsuit, first filed in 2022, says the contamination violated Jacksonians’ constitutional right to bodily integrity. 周五，第五巡回上诉法院维持了对密西西比州杰克逊市的一项诉讼的驳回裁定。该诉讼指控杰克逊市政府明知水质受到铅污染，却仍让居民饮用。该诉讼于2022年首次提起，称这种污染侵犯了杰克逊市民的宪法权利——身体完整权。

Donald Trump-appointed judge Kurt Engelhardt disagreed. “The Constitution does not provide redress for every governmental wrongdoing,” Engelhardt said. “Defendants’ actions allegedly deprived Plaintiffs of clean water and guileless information. These deprivations, while grievous, do not infringe upon any deeply rooted constitutional right.” 由唐纳德·特朗普任命的法官库尔特·恩格尔哈特（Kurt Engelhardt）对此表示反对。恩格尔哈特说：“宪法并不为每一项政府不当行为提供补救措施。被告的行为据称剥夺了原告获得清洁水和真实信息的权利。这些剥夺虽然令人痛心，但并未侵犯任何根深蒂固的宪法权利。”

That may be true in Mississippi—but on the state level in at least nine US states, and in more than a dozen other countries, clean drinking water is in fact a protected right. In countries including Uruguay and South Africa, a right to clean water is enshrined in the constitution. 在密西西比州或许确实如此，但在美国至少九个州以及其他十几个国家，清洁饮用水实际上是一项受保护的权利。在乌拉圭和南非等国家，获得清洁水的权利被写入了宪法。

New York’s state constitution, as of a 2021 amendment, states that “each person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.” So too in Massachusetts, where “the right to clean air and water” has been constitutionally protected since 1972. But according to the Fifth Circuit ruling, the US constitution is too narrow for such a claim. 根据2021年的一项修正案，纽约州宪法规定：“每个人都有权享有清洁的空气和水，以及健康的环境。”马萨诸塞州也是如此，自1972年以来，“享有清洁空气和水的权利”一直受到宪法保护。但根据第五巡回法院的裁决，美国宪法对于此类主张的涵盖范围过于狭窄。

The Jackson plaintiffs alleged that their city government deliberately withheld information about the water’s toxicity, and exacerbated the problem through a series of boil-water notices—a practice that can eliminate some bacterial contamination, but also concentrates lead in water. Engelhardt stated there is no “constitutional right to truthful information from officials during a public health crisis.” 杰克逊市的原告指控称，市政府故意隐瞒了水质毒性的信息，并通过一系列“煮沸水”通知加剧了问题——这种做法虽然可以消除部分细菌污染，但也会导致水中的铅浓度升高。恩格尔哈特表示，在公共卫生危机期间，并不存在“从官员那里获得真实信息的宪法权利”。

Jackson is more than 80 percent Black and has a poverty rate that is more than double the national average. The city’s water system has long been in dire need of upgrades. In 2015, officials from the Mississippi State Department of Health found elevated lead levels in the water supply. Instead of immediately informing citizens, they remained silent about the issue for six months, according to reporting from Grist, while residents continued drinking toxic water. 杰克逊市80%以上的居民是黑人，贫困率是全国平均水平的两倍多。该市的供水系统长期以来亟需升级。2015年，密西西比州卫生部的官员发现供水中的铅含量超标。据《Grist》报道，他们没有立即通知市民，而是对这一问题保持了六个月的沉默，而居民们则继续饮用有毒的水。

EPA officials ran a series of tests in 2020 and found “persistent and concerning violations” of water safety policy, including leaks, corrosion, and high lead levels throughout the system. But no city, state, or federal agencies fixed the problem. Meanwhile, people including Jackson plaintiff Priscilla Sterling continued drinking water with unsafe levels of lead. 美国环保署（EPA）官员在2020年进行了一系列测试，发现水安全政策存在“持续且令人担忧的违规行为”，包括整个系统中的泄漏、腐蚀和高铅含量。但没有任何市、州或联邦机构解决这个问题。与此同时，包括杰克逊市原告普里西拉·斯特林（Priscilla Sterling）在内的人们继续饮用铅含量超标的不安全用水。

According to the 2022 lawsuit, several of Sterling’s children have since been diagnosed with lead poisoning, which can cause permanent brain damage. A quarter of Jackson’s residents are children, who are particularly vulnerable to the life-long effects of lead poisoning. 根据2022年的诉讼，斯特林的几个孩子此后被诊断出铅中毒，这可能导致永久性的脑损伤。杰克逊市四分之一的居民是儿童，他们特别容易受到铅中毒终身影响的伤害。

The Fifth Circuit ruling comes as the Trump administration moves to weaken clean-water-related protections. Also on Friday, Trump’s EPA released a supplemental rule to further dilute the Clean Water Act, quickly condemned by environmental watchdogs. 在第五巡回法院做出裁决之际，特朗普政府正采取行动削弱与清洁水相关的保护措施。同样在周五，特朗普领导下的环保署发布了一项补充规则，进一步稀释了《清洁水法》，该举措迅速遭到环境监督机构的谴责。

“The administration is clearly struggling to craft a rule that will hold up in court while satisfying their donors’ desire to effectively scrap these protections wherever possible,” said Jim Murphy of the National Wildlife Federation. “One thing is clear: If we don’t protect our streams and wetlands, the cost of dirtier drinking water and increased flooding will flow downstream to households at a time when most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.” 国家野生动物联合会（National Wildlife Federation）的吉姆·墨菲（Jim Murphy）表示：“政府显然在努力制定一项既能在法庭上站得住脚，又能满足其捐赠者尽可能废除这些保护措施的愿望的规则。有一点很明确：如果我们不保护我们的河流和湿地，在大多数美国人靠薪水度日的当下，更脏的饮用水和日益严重的洪水所带来的代价，最终将流向千家万户。”