The proposal to rip out nine million pipes across the country could cost as much as $30 billion but would nearly eliminate the neurotoxin from drinking water.
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Long over due with shades of evil that the pipes have not be replaced yet.
I do see supply-side economics as duplicitous.
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The lead pipes in Flint, MI, didnât really cause a problem, until the âemergency managerâ changed the city water supply to drawing from the Flint River, and did not adequately treat the water, so it was highly corrosive. The corrosive water ate through the inside layer of the lead pipes and started dissolving the lead. A GM plant in Flint refused to use the Flint water, because it was corroding their equipment, and was able to switch back to Detroit water. The residents of the city received no consideration though.
Steve
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The studies of metals show with very little pollution in water there are problems for children. Many of us are in industrial zones where reporting on pollution is poorly done and people are being hurt.
You are stating something straightforward but I doubt with all the lead pipes around the nation that things are often straightforward.
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Lead is natural. Has been around forever and does not go away. The Romans used lead. The word plumber comes from the Latin word for leadâplumbum. Chemical symbol Pb.
Its one of the easiest metals to work and was probably known before the bronze age.
I suspect the regulations grossly exaggerate the risk. (Iâd like to know who did the work that said there is no safe level. Most scientists on finding a measurable result would immediately dilute the sample by a factor of 100 or 1000 and repeat the test. Failure to do so implies incompetence.)
Maybe they ran out of funds. Maybe they could not find water that free of lead content. Perhaps they reached the detection limit of their lead test method. The project is clearly incomplete.
And lead is only one of dozens of materials people donât want in their water. Are we going to pay to clean them all up. Halocarbons. PFAs.
Or are we going to conclude that humans are tougher than people imagine. The reg is routinely based on 1/1000th of the no effect level. Maybe 1/50th is enough. Politicians and lawyers wish to take no risks.
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I thought I was already paying to clean that crap out of my water.
JimA
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PFA removal and destruction is a âwork in progressâ. Someday⌠But, right now, it is a very slow process.
This (or a similar article) has been posted here before.
Your water is mostly treated to remove suspended solids (like mud) and to kill bacteria. Your plant will need extra equipment to remove various impurities when they are dissolved. Some plants treat for water hardness. Desalination is possible with special equipment. Each target may require special equipment.
And with thousands of water treatment plants across the country the numbers required will be huge.
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Lead is in drinking water is bad.
Lead is a powerful neurotoxin, which means exposure to lead can damage the brain. It can also injure other soft tissues and organs, can interfere with the formation of blood, and exposure to enough lead can even kill.
EPA has lots of science based experts who come up with requirements for protecting the health of humans from heavy metals like lead.
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Yes, they say. Using the thousand fold safety factor. And the dubious no safe level report.
May be the best we have but iâm amazed.
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We know that children who are exposed to lead have mental and learning difficulties.
That is why the Roman emperors were so crazy. 
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Trump Tower has lead pipelines and worse. Something in the water.
âPeople do not know what it takes to flush the toiletâŚâ
Youâll need another excuse. Maybe autism? NYC banned lead pipes in 1961. Trump Tower was built between 1979 and 1983.
DB2
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I would suspect the emperors suffered from being big shots, surrounded by yes-men that catered to their every whim, so, from their perspective, they were all knowing, all powerful, and infallible. with no constraints of law, ethics, or justice.
Steve
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Lead is a poison, full stop. Itâs easy to work with, itâs pliable, melts low, all true, but it is a poison to humans and animals. Lead is detrimental to the human brain, particularly developing brains, aka children.
Lead is also very useful, but we threw it around with abandon until the risks were realized. Itâs been eliminated from dinnerware, from being aerosolized in gasoline, and from all new infrastructure, but history dies hard and there are still millions of miles of lead pipes - hopefully lined, but not always. Time for them to go. Probably mostly in disadvantaged areas.
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No no no, Steve, youâve lost the narrative. They were JCâs!!! And like our modern version of JCâs, they were an elite that had utterly forgotten that human cultures evolved elites to be pampered in return for doing significant service to the greater community.
david fb
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I know that. Thought it would be redundant to say it as the âsupply side economicsâ narrative made it clear âJCsâ are the new titled nobility, that lives off the production of the proles.
Steve
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Nobody said it was built to meet NYC code. 30k sf is top floor unitâright?
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Did NYC rip out all the existing lead pipes after 1961? If not then lead contamination could get into Trump Tower.
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Do you mean in his fatherâs slums?