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in the spring of 1993 an unexplained illness struck the residents of Milwaukee Wisconsin 400,000
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people developed serious gastrointestinal illness 4,000 were hospitalized and by the time it was
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under control more than a 100 people died Health officials suspected it was influenza
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but it was something more serious and much more difficult for Medical detectives to uncover
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[Music] [Music] [Music] Milwaukee Wisconsin the 17th largest city in the United States with a
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population of almost 1 million people it's a city known for its German culture summer
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festivals and Long Cold Winters with plenty of snow Milwaukee is the home of several
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large breweries producing 11 million barrels of beer annually but in the spring of
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1993 Milwaukee became famous for something else an unexplained outbreak of gastrointestinal illness which spread
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rapidly throughout the community 4,000 people rushed to area hospitals all with the same symptoms severe cramps diarrhea
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nausea and fever I had the diarrhea off and on all week I missed two days of work and I thought it was and it came
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back again hardest hit were individuals with weakened immune systems infants the
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elderly cancer and AIDS patients and those who had organ or bone marrow transplants four-year-old Becky Ferman
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suffered from a particularly bad case she was just a vibrant child she was highly intelligent very vivacious very
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talkative very friendly um just a normal kid Becky Ferman was born HIV positive which made her particularly susceptible
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to the mysterious outbreak this got to be absolute water turning from brown to Yellow to
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Green terrible odor and she would have 8 n 10 11 12 B movements a day 40-year-old Antonio claudo was also
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affected like Becky he too is HIV positive but the severity of the cramps and diarrhea he developed during the out
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break was alarming yeah I freaked out I was like is is this this what's happening to me a
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nature course of the virus itself of the HIV AIDS or is this something else the primary suspects were shagel Giardia
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campor or salmonella but stool samples from the infected individuals were all negative
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we knew this was big I mean we knew a lot of people were sick we knew a lot of kids were sick we were beginning to get
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reports from hospitals that patients particularly with immune compromising conditions particularly HIV AIDS were
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having very difficult times shaking loose of this outbreak and so we were uh beginning to understand that this was in
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fact an epidemic and health officials had no idea what was causing it [Music] within 24 hours of the outbreak the
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mayor of Milwaukee knew he faced a serious dilemma no American city had ever faced this type of Crisis before
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the concern in the health department was the beginning of you know a real concern
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what is this you know how can so many people get sick all at one time if the outbreak was caused by a contaminated
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food source stool samples would contain the bacteria which caused it and health officials could find no common food
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source that all of the sick individuals use food illnesses usually center around
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a common food distribution center processing plant restaurant or grocery store but one
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common element among all of the infected individuals was water officials analyzed the water
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quality records at the city's Municipal Water Supply but all of the water quality levels were within guidelines
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established by the Environmental Protection Agency for Safe Drinking Water we went back and indicated that to
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the health department and they continued on with their investigation into other areas but when scientists looked at the
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distribution pattern of the outbreak they noticed that most of the cases were clustered in the south side of the city
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we believed we would have witnessed a more normal uniform distribution of illness had it been an Airborne virus
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because it would have started at a point and moved outward since the outbreak seemed to be centered in Milwaukee South
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Side this narrowed the focus of the investigation Becky Ferman lived on Milwaukee's South Side her doctor had no
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idea what caused her illness and soon discovered they couldn't cure it in individuals like Becky who had
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HIV one of the things was that she was limited in what she could do as far as where we could go and what we could do
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with her as far as playing because she would have these accidents another thing was the General
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weakness uh because of the constant diarrhea gastrointestinal illness is usually caused by something that is
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ingested once again pointing to food or water the water plant which supplied Milwaukee's South Side reported that the
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only unusual readout was a peak in turbidity one week before the outbreak turbidity measures the amount of foreign
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particles in the water after a rainstorm or when snow melts turbidity levels will temporarily
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rise storms churn River and Creek bottoms and melting snow will often gather particles as it runs into streams
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Health officials wondered if the increase in turbidity levels was caused for concern the Municipal Water Supply
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was disinfected with chlorine was it possible that the city's water supply was contaminated with something that
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didn't show up in water tests and that chlorine would not kill if so the entire
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city would be at risk and one of the city's largest Industries could also be
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affected the Brewing industry the breweries were among the largest users of Municipal Water if
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there was an unknown organism in the water was it being shipped all across the country by the tens of thousands of
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gallons a day [Music] Health officials suspected that something in Milwaukee's water supply
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was causing the outbreak of thousands of cases of gastrointestinal illness the water department insisted that the water
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quality levels were all within standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency and that the water was safe to
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drink hospitals and Laboratories throughout Milwaukee continued to analyze to samples from the thousands of
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individuals affected everything pretty much was a dead end everywhere we looked was everything was negative Sandy sheris
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was doing some of those tests at a local hospital as a microbiologist she was performing the routine tests on patients
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hospitalized with the mysterious illness the standard test was an iodine stain when added to the stool samples the
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iodine would show if if parasites were present but all of the iodine tests were negative on her own Sandy shrus decided
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to go one step further she remembered something she learned earlier in her training that microbiology should be on
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the lookout for parasites which do not show up on standard tests with that in mind she noticed a number of unusual
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structures in the samples structures which didn't react with the iodine stain
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at that point I don't know exactly what it is yet but it means something that's
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your first clue so she performed an acid fast stain she flooded the stool sample
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with a red stain then washed the sample with alcohol and sulfuric acid during the
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final step and additional green stain is added under the microscope she thought what she saw a
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highly infectious potentially deadly parasite first acid Fain wasn't real definitive this is probably our first
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line it's easiest it's quickest it's done in about 10 minutes and I didn't
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feel comfortable calling it on that so we went on and did a fluorescent stain the fluorescent stain introduces the
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parasites antibod to the sample along with the fluorescent agent under the microscope Sandy sheris noticed a bright
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green glow if it was the fluorescent agent attached to the antibody proof that a parasite was present it was
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cryptos peridium little is known about cryptos peridium since it first infected humans just over 20 years ago it's a
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one- celled organism a protozoan parasite which is found in feces from Young farm animals particularly Cales
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kryptos peridium is an 80% cent of surface water largely due to animal feces washed from farms into nearby
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streams by heavy rains and melting snow here you can see the tiny cryptosporidia escaping from their
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shells once they do they multiply by the millions when they spread throughout the
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gastrointestinal system they absorb nourishment preventing the body from retaining fluids and causing severe
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cramps explosive diarrhea and other flu like symptoms a healthy individual with a healthy immune system can usually get
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rid of the parasite within a week with no lasting effects but it can be deadly for those with weakened immune systems
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like the elderly AIDS and cancer patients and individuals with organ and bone marrow transplants when lab
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technicians retested other stool samples they could confirmed what Sandy sheris first discovered cryptosporidium was
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found in seven more stool samples once you knew what you're looking for it was
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everywhere I mean we knew then now we had the agent now where was it coming from that was the next step since
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cryptos peridium is a waterborne parasite it renewed fears that the city's water supply was
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contaminated the mayor called an emergency meeting of both city and state health officials during that meeting the
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mayor noticed one of the participants Dr Jeffrey Davis the state's epidemiologist
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was drinking diet soda and not water when the mayor turned to Dr Davis and asked if he would drink the city's water
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Dr Davis said no it wasn't difficult once I asked Dr Davis if he drank the water I mean if he suspect he's a
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scientist he's an expert and and a very honest person uh you know if he suspected that there
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could be problems with the water that's pretty good test right there since boiling was the only way to get rid of
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crypt peridium the mayor immediately issued a boil water advisory recommending that all water be boiled
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for at least 5 minutes before use it was a bold recommendation with wide ranging
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implications since tests for cryptos peridium in the city's water supply had
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not yet been completed dental offices were closed since their drills were water cooled restaurants
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were also affected since they use water for ice and washing dishes 3 Days Later tests on Milwaukee's water done by an
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independent laboratory confirmed that krypto's peridium was present in the purified water from the Howard Avenue
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Water Plant the news of kryptos peridium contamination was especially terrifying
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Ling to one segment of the population people with HIV infections or aids for these patients it was life-threatening
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immediately they knew what crypto was this was not a new illness to them cryptosis for someone with a severely
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compromised immune system is a death sentence Doug Nelson and the organization he directs the AIDS
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Resource Center of Wisconsin went into crisis mode he knew that individuals with HIV aids would never get rid of the
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parasite but his goal was to make sure no one else became infected the Howard Avenue Water Plant was immediately
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closed the water flushed out and the entire plant disinfected from top to bottom to remove any traces of kryptos
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peridian a few days after the boil water advisory the number of cryptosporidiosis
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cases dropped significantly but the levels discovered in Milwaukee's water supply had been potent
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one businessman traveling through Milwaukee's airport reported getting sick after drinking just enough water to
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swallow a few aspirin Antonio claudo was living in Houston when he tested positive for
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cryptosporidiosis he believes he was infected while visiting his mother who lived on the south side of Milwaukee
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since there is no cure for cryptosporidiosis besides a healthy immune system and Antonio lives each day
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with constant chronic diarrhea once you discover you have this dis disease your life changes and there's just no way to
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get around it prayer helps a lot but um you just can't erase it it's reality no matter what portion of
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it and you're just waiting to die little Becky Ferman lost her fight with cryptosporidiosis she died after
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battling its effects for many months Becky was in a coma eyes closed but she raised her hands to us and grabbed h of
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our hands took three breaths and a spirit and energy left ripped the heart um but a gratefulness because she wasn't
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in pain anymore she looked peaceful for for the first time investigators soon had a theory for
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how crypto peridium contaminated Milwaukee's water [Music] supply after an intensive investigation
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Health officials developed a theory as to how cryptos peridium contaminated Milwaukee's water supply in ear early
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April of 1993 heavy rains and the spring snow melt caused water runoff the ground was
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still frozen and unable to absorb the water manure from the farms and Fields might have washed into nearby streams
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manure which contained cryptos peridium the cryptos peridia then made their way from the streams into Lake Michigan the
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source of Milwaukee's drinking water in 199 3 there were no filters or mass disinfectants used anywhere in the
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United States which could eliminate the cryptos peridium and water plants chlorine was ineffective against it over
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400,000 people who ingested water from the Howard Avenue plant became ill 4,000 were hospitalized
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104 died that theory held for 4 years during that time the the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta Georgia
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continued to investigate Milwaukee's cryptos peridium outbreak since it was the largest waterborne outbreak in
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United States history in 1997 scientists retested four stool samples from individuals infected during that
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outrate they conducted DNA testing on the cryptos peridium and when they did there was a shocking Discovery the type
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of crypto peridium found in the four stool samples from the Milwaukee outbreak did not come from farm animals
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it was a new strain one which came from human waste our results suggest on the basis of The Limited number of samples
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that we looked at that the uh Milwaukee outbreak um was was not from pasture runoff but was from uh sewage
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contamination when investigators looked more closely at Milwaukee's water supply
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they found that the Howard Avenue new Water Plant's intake was less than 2 mi
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down current from a sewage treatment plant overflow valve in Lake Michigan the cdc's discovery suggested that human
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waste containing cryptos peridium was released from the sewage treatment plant traveled the 2 miles Downstream where it
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entered the water intake of the Howard Avenue Water Plant today sewage from that plant is no longer released into
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Lake m Michigan and the Howard Avenue Water Plant moved their intake further out into the lake away from possible
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pollutant and Milwaukee is building an ozonization facility ozone is a form of oxygen which kills more microorganisms
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than chlorine it's the only Mass disinfectant process known to kill cryptos peridium in water when the
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facility is completed Milwaukee will be the only major city in the United States
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to ozonate its water every city around the country that relies on surface water for its drinking water must study the
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Milwaukee example and must follow our lead in making those extraordinary commitments to assure to their public
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that in fact the water that they consume is safe and that they will not get ill from it and and that they will not die
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from it I mean I I felt terrible about that I'm not an expert on water but I'm
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the mayor and uh you know you kind of rely on your City to provide you with water it turns out that cryptos peridium
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has gotten in water supplies in other parts of the country it's not that [Music]
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uncommon we went through a lot a lot of anger not only anger at the loss of our daughter but the anger loss of so many
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[Music] friends as time passed we came to realize that yes I we believe that public
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officials were at fault for not knowing more about it for not teaching us but ultimately we all are corporately
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responsible you and I and and the world for not caring about water until someone
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dies [Music] morning [Music] [Applause] [Music]