Tap Talk

Author: Illinois State Water Survey

Everyone has a role to play in protecting public health. Tap Talk, the Drinking Water in Rural America Podcast, connects professionals across the drinking water community with ideas to extend and enhance our work.
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Language: en

Genres: Health & Fitness, Natural Sciences, Science

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TT073 – Behind the Scenes of Water and Environment Reporting
Thursday, 16 April, 2026

Tap Talk Season 7 is here! Today, we bring you a conversation with Michael Phillis, a water & environment reporter for the Associated Press. Michael tells Jennifer & Steve about how he got into environmental reporting, the importance and range of stories about water, and the experience of reporting the recent long-form investigation "A crisis emerges across the US as 'forever chemicals' quietly contaminate drinking water wells" with his colleague Helen Wieffering. This story centers the well contamination crisis in Stella, Wisconsin, a town of ~600 people in northern Wisconsin, where some well water tests have found PFAS concentration levels of 375 times the federal limit for drinking water connected to a nearby paper mill. Visit drinkingwaterpodcast.org to learn more and find the full show notes for this episode.