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. . . . so it may be (past time) due to replace some plumbing in Flint?
What is the expected life-service time of this stuff anyway.
I recall back when my hometown replaced the Wood (yes wood) water pipes.
Stuff is not built to last forever.
It's not that simple.
Some of this plumbing belongs to the city, some of it is the responsibility of the homeowner (pipes on their property or inside their homes).
Lead was used in pipes all over US and Canada until at least 1950s.
It is extremely expensive and extremely disruptive to try and change all that plumbing.
The worst thing is, the city replacing only their portion would actually lead to worse contamination unless the homeowner goes through the expense of replacing the pipes in their homes, as CDC found out. This article is from Canada and was written in 2010.
Basically, when US cities started to replace the lead containing pipes with copper, many homeowners did not want to spend a couple of grand required to replace the pipes under their property. The resulting copper - lead combination produced a much higher rate of lead corrosion, it was so bad that it looks like the pipe replacement efforts in the US were stopped after CDC got involved.
Even in a city that's not nearly in such a bad situation as Flint, many homeowners would not go through such a major expense, and a city ordnance that forces them to do it would not go over well. Many people in the poorer areas can't afford to spend that kind of money anyway.
This problem is also very prevalent in Europe where they have many old buildings. Long time ago (late 90s ?) I remember reading about a British study linking the youth crime problems in Yorkshire to higher levels of lead in the water, due to soft water. Hard water tends to form lime crust inside the pipes that slows lead release, but the soft water + old pipes = problem.
I wonder how many Flint like situations were never caught, all over the world.
The linked article is irresponsible, and most likely politically motivated. It was not a lack of environmental regulations that caused the crisis in Flint, it was gross incompetence at the local (and possibly State, I am not clear on that) monitoring and enforcement level. And further neglect and incompetence by the FDA after they identified high Lead levels early 2015 in homes furthest from the source. All the regulations in the world will not overcome incompetence.
I will add, it is clear to me that the major problem was Lead in the infrastructure piping, not the individual home piping, as the reported amounts of lead in the water were proportional to the distance from the water company. I have heard that the city of Flint is now taking the position that Lead wch from the infrastructure piping even if they start treating the water to lower the pH now, and that all the infrastructure piping needs to be replaced or it will continue to leach, at a cost of a billion dollars, which of course they want the Feds to pay for. I don't find that argument credible,and it sounds like they are trying to guilt the FEDs into giving them money.
Once a year here in the Fall in Florida, they flush the water system with chlorine. They "say" it is safe to drink but you do not need to be notified of it. You can smell it when you turn on your tap water.
Would you want to drink POOL water? That is what smells like. I would not let my pets drink that, let alone me. I do not trust my water filters for this. I buy bottled water to use for drinking and cooking. Yes, I give my cats bottled water then too.
Isn't this special? In January of 2015, when state officials were telling worried Flint residents their water was safe to drink, they also were arranging for coolers of purified water in Flint's State Office Building so employees wouldn't have to drink from the taps, according to state government e-mails released Thursday by the liberal group Progress Michigan Amid denials, state workers in Flint got clean water
The linked article is irresponsible, and most likely politically motivated. It was not a lack of environmental regulations that caused the crisis in Flint, it was gross incompetence at the local (and possibly State, I am not clear on that) monitoring and enforcement level. And further neglect and incompetence by the FDA after they identified high Lead levels early 2015 in homes furthest from the source. All the regulations in the world will not overcome incompetence.
The chorus demanding that Gov. Rick Scott veto a sweeping water policy hastily passed by the Florida Legislature last week just got a little louder. On Wednesday, Bob Graham, former U.S. senator and Florida governor, called the 134-page bill a “purposeful effort to weaken protection” of state waters increasingly threatened by pollution, waste and rising consumption. In a letter to Scott, Graham said the bill “blatantly” favors special interests, ties the hands of local water management districts and mostly ignores two key measures in protecting water: conservation and rules to stop pollution at its source.Bob Graham calls for Gov. Rick Scott to veto sweeping water reforms | Miami Herald
99% of the time bottled water is simply tap water marked up in price. There is nothing special about aquafina or dasani, there is no special filtration or treatment. Bottled water is one of the biggest scams out there and most of our country has bought into it fully.
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