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.
To be completely fair, a layer builds up in the pipe which stops the lead being an issue unless you royally fuck up like Flint. That said, it still should've been fixed
As someone who thankfulky doesn't like in the un-united states of america How exactly did flint royally fuck up
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis
They were buying water from Detroit's water system. In order to save money, they switched to getting it from the nearby river, but they failed to account for how the new water source would interact with their pipes. They didn't treat the new water correctly and it corroded all their old lead pipes, dumping lead into the water and giving everyone lead poisoning.
Even years later, after they switched back to Detroit water, they're still having problems because the damage to the pipes is already done.
They switched to a water source that wasn’t treated with orthophosphates. This change in water chemistry created an environment where the lead would dissolve off and be replaced with other metal deposits. My layman understanding is the water was treated in a way to bind lead to the pipes and the untreated water created an environment where the effect was counteracted.
“Orthophosphates create a mineral coating that keeps toxic lead stuck to pipes.”
“The absence of orthophosphates made the lead vulnerable to dissolving off the pipes and into the water supply. Meanwhile, other metals like aluminum and magnesium appeared to take the lead's place.”
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/science/study-confirms-lead-got-flints-water
Well, the appointed officials switched to a water source and specifically chose to not treat it with required chemicals to save money.
Slightly different than just switching water sources.
Thank you, I wasn’t entirely confident that part got proven or not so I didn’t want to inappropriately make the statement.