Biden announces proposal to replace all lead water service lines in US within 10 years
The Biden administration has announced a proposal to “strengthen its Lead and Copper Rule that would require water systems to replace lead service lines within 10 years,” the White House said in a statement on Thursday.
According to the White House, more than 9.2 million American households connect to water through lead pipes and lead service lines and, due to “decades of inequitable infrastructure development and underinvestment,” many Americans are at risk of lead exposure.
“There is no safe level of exposure to lead, particularly for children, and eliminating lead exposure from the air, water, and homes is a crucial component of the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic commitment to advancing environmental justice,” the Biden administration said.
Just another day on which I as a European am absolutely shocked how shit the quality of life in the US is.
Europe has lead pipes as well, buddy.
They're perfectly safe as long as idiots don't change the water supply to one that's more acidic without buffering the pH.
Hell, England and Wales have nearly 3x more than the entire US.
That isn't perfectly safe. That is normally safe, but once in a while something will go wrong and they become unsafe.
If it goes wrong long enough after the pipes have been in service it's barely an issue iirc because there is now a coat of corroded lead inside the pipes that does not cause lead poisoning
That corroded lead can sometimes break off and then you get lead again.
When people say europe they usually aren't thinking of countries such as Russia, Turkey, or the UK.
What. I can maybe give you Russia ("Eastern Europe") and Turkey (seems more culturally Middle East than Europe), but most people are absolutely thinking of the UK. What other group would they be part of?
Svalbard.
Their own group? They voted to leave Europe after all.
Did you not read my whole comment?
We currently have the freedom to drink lead tainted water, can you say the same?
Yes. 25% of domestic residences still use lead piping in the EU, compared to 10% in the US.
Europeans "Try Not To Talk Shit About Something You're Actually Worse About" Challenge:
Impossible.
But it feeeels like they should be better! Don't bring facts into the Europe self-suck contest
Do they even have people in wheelchairs in Europe? Would really suck ass for those people if true.
That data is still from 2009 though, but sadly there doesn't seem to be a newer statistic. Since that time many changes were made to push for the removal of old lead piping in the EU.
Anyway the threshold for lead in drinking water in the EU is 10ug/L since 2013.
Since 2020 a regulation has been in effect with the goal to have less than 5 ug/L drinking water at the consumer until 2036 everywhere in the EU.
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC125733
The US has a threshold of 15 ug/L.
https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/leadtoxicity/safety\_standards.html#:\~:text=EPA's%20action%20level%20for%20lead,systems%20is%2015%20%C2%B5g%2FL.
https://extension.psu.edu/lead-in-drinking-water
ok do prison populations
European here, how is that relevant?
We are shit at stuff, Americans are shit at stuff, your comment does not solve anything.
Ha, checkmate Europe
Yeah! Tell that bad British person to shut up about my freedom water! They almost made me drop my crayon and I'm trying to find dot #6! I can't wait to find out which shape these dots are going to make me draw... There's seven dots and the word "stop" in the middle, so I'm thinking a school bus!
The funny thing is that England has more residences with lead pipes than the entire US.
That explains a lot about the Republican party
It doesn't, but lead gas and paint do.
You don't even have pipes in Europe. You drink water that you squeeze out of your sheep's wool
Delicious sheepwater. You will never take away my sheepwater.
It’s worth noting that 9.2 million homes is an extremely small percentage of American homes and I’d say almost all of them are extremely rural homes or dying rural towns that just need relocated. Think of North Dakota as akin to the Siberian oblasts or northern Finland, neither get a lot of infrastructure care because no almost one is there. This is the Biden admin trying to look out for the little guy that’s been ignored the last century
He should do high speed internet next. My mom has been stuck on a 3mbps WISP since 2007.
Agreed, the ISPs pissed away the billions they got in the early 2000s. It’s time to pony up another few billion but let the military do the work this time then hand the actually completed project to gouvernement ran ISPs.
My dad is still paying frontier like $80 a month for 4mbps that doesn’t work half the time
Eh, it doesn't need to be installed by the military, but it definitely needs to be a public works project.
And if the telecoms push back, it's time to start an audit on where that tax money went.
But yeah, AT&T's fiber trunk line runs 50ft from my mom's front door, but they wont even put a dsl relay out there (it's been 2 years away for the past 20 years)
I only say the military because they’re answerable to the executive branch, the public ISPs are beholden only to shareholders who do not have the best interests of the public in mind. If given the opportunity the ISPs will squander it again and there’s nothing an after the fact audit will do about it, the military will at least complete the job even if it takes longer and is slightly over budget.
And by military I mostly mean army Corp of engineers and whichever division wants to offer up its IT ops crew for the setup
Prepare to be even more shocked.
Have you ever been here?