In Our Water

There were an estimated 50,000 toxic waste sites in the US when the film was made, with most of the pollutants seeping into the ground. Either there were no legal regulations at all or those that existed were not strict enough. In her carefully researched film, Meg Switzgable focused on the Kaler family in New Jersey, who lived close to a toxic waste site and whose groundwater was contaminated to the point of being hazardous to their health. While the authorities claimed that the water was safe, independent experts proved that it was corrosive. The film followed the family for five years as they fought for their right to not be poisoned, encountering numerous hurdles in the process: the way politics and industry are in intertwined, the denial of responsibility, the indifference of the authorities. Shot at the beginning of the Reagan administration, which repealed numerous environmental regulations, the film could not be more topical. To this day, millions of people in the US do not have access to clean water.