In light of the water-quality debacle in Flint, Michigan, utilities around the country are asking, "What's the best way to handle lead?"

As the weather warms and the snow melts, municipalities from Boston to Bangor, Maine, are facing challenges from this winter's record-setting snowfall totals.

In this week's news, a lead operator at an Illinois wastewater treatment plant is taken into police custody. Also, a municipality bans gas drilling wastewater.

Every water plant has a story. But not every water plant has roots in the Great Chicago Fire, cholera outbreaks and a severe typhoid epidemic.

The discussion about fracking wastewater is far from over. As the City of Auburn, N.Y., learned, municipal plants are just beginning to understand how drilling wastewater affects a treatment system.