This article was written by Greg Heitzman, WaterStep Board Member and Former President of Louisville Water Company.
Louisville Water Company and WaterStep share a common mission: to provide safe drinking water. The same public health crisis that exists in developing countries today was plaguing Louisville more than 200 years ago.
As early as 1819, a local physician wrote of how Louisville was dubbed the “graveyard of the west.” The proximity of water wells to outhouses had created epidemics of cholera and typhoid, though it would take many years for people to understand that contaminated water was the culprit.