SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
exec and Arthur T Knackerbracket have found the following story:
Students returning to school in Detroit next week will find their water fountains entirely shut off over concerns of elevated lead and copper levels—something that federal lawmakers say is part of a "disturbing and unacceptable" nationwide issue.
The decision to shut off the drinking water in Detroit was based on a first round of results from testing that the school district carried out in its 106 schools earlier this year. The results from just 24 schools so far surfaced 16 that had water sources tainted with excessive levels of lead, copper, or both. For instance, tests at the district's Academy of the Americas Elementary school found a kitchen and drinking faucet in a basement cafeteria that had lead levels of 182 micrograms per liter (ug/L) and 154 ug/L, respectively. Those are more than ten times the Environmental Protection Agency's recommended limit of 15 ug/L. The full testing results can be found here.
[...] In a joint statement, the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) and the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) were quick to point out that the contamination is not due to a problem with the region's water system. Rather, the pair blamed aging plumbing within the schools for the contamination.
"The water at GLWA's treatment plants is tested hourly and DWSD has no lead service lines connected to any DPSCD building. The drinking water is of unquestionable quality," the statement read.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 5, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Monday September 03 2018, @05:45AM (7 children)
And we've known about this problem with the brass for about a decade: https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/science-public/newfound-water-risk-lead-leaching-valves [sciencenews.org] Plumbing manufacturers were allowed to have up to 8% lead in the brass alloy. They claimed the lead would not leach out, and designed the softball tests that were used. They were wrong. In 2014, new regulations lowered the limit to 0.25% lead in the brass.
Why did they want to use lead? Real simple: $. But it's pennies. Brass with no lead wears tools out twice as fast, but damn, even if that makes faucets twice as expensive, it seems well worthwhile to avoid lead poisoning. Another option is bismuth brass.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday September 03 2018, @06:44AM
I've played around with bismuth alloys for solder... mostly for melting point considerations....
The big problem for me here is loss of ductility... the solder is quite brittle, and breaks easily.
So far, the main use I have for the stuff is an aid for getting parts off of circuit boards without damaging either. I use it very similar to a product known as "Chip Quik".
But apparently Bismuth is not very toxic... its the main ingredient in "Pepto Bismol"... that pink chewing gum flavored tummyache remedy.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by shortscreen on Monday September 03 2018, @09:29AM (5 children)
The water dept. says "the lead is not coming from us!" But, as I recall from that other water quality scandal in Michigan, what happened was that a change in acidity of the water supply caused a spike in lead levels. The lead came from the plumbing, but the plumbing wasn't what had changed, and wasn't necessarily a problem on its own.
Without RTFA I'm not sure if these facilities had previously tested OK for lead, if they have always been noncompliant, or if they hadn't ever been tested before.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday September 03 2018, @01:52PM (4 children)
You can be sure manufacturers and cities are still trying to cut that corner, using lead everywhere they're allowed because it's slightly cheaper, for them. Costs society a lot more in the long run, dealing with all the health issues lead poisoning causes. Even a very little lead causes loss of intelligence and increased violence. Phasing out leaded gasoline was a big deal. I understand crime has dropped, and it can be attributed to switching to unleaded gasoline.
One of the most frustrating aspects of this problem is just how long we've known about it. Knowledge that lead is unhealthy for us goes back 2000 years, to the Romans, but here we are today, still trying to slip lead in to everything we can. Flint, Michigan was where that scandal occurred. Had the pipes not been made with lead, a change of the water chemistry would not have been the problem it was.
So, the 2014 rules change has a truck sized hole: _drinking_ water. The kitchen and bathroom sink faucets must have no more than 0.25% lead in the brass. But all the rest of the faucets are still on the old standard. Don't drink water from the outdoor faucet, bath tub, shower, washing machine tap, or toilet tap. You might also think there's no more leaded paint, but there is. Leaded paint is still used for marking roads.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 03 2018, @02:05PM
Well that explains EF. He needs to stop licking the road when he gets drunk.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 03 2018, @03:56PM (1 child)
that's because govs get to operate with no accountability. if they were held accountable people would see value in DIY, private, local, decentralization, etc. when there's no visibility, much less accountability, gov gets to grow like the cancer it is. as parents abdicate their parental role just like they abdicated their role of power checking citizen.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday September 03 2018, @05:02PM
Corporations and governments are really two arms of the same beast.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday September 04 2018, @01:59AM
It can also be explained by a decline in the age cohorts most likely to commit crimes, perhaps combined with more sensible crime control policies in a lot of US cities.