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Biden administration announces plan to replace 100% of lead pipes in US homes
The Biden administration on Thursday announced a "whole of government strategy" to remove dangerous lead from Americans' drinking water, including billions of dollars to begin replacing 100% of the lead pipes servicing the nation's homes.
Environmental groups praised the plan, which includes a promise to begin the process of strengthening the nation's drinking water standards to reflect the science showing that lead is toxic for children at any level.
But lawyers at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which has been leading efforts to fight lead, said they worry that the plan lacks a solid timeline and fails to deliver enforceable requirements.
The set of actions announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) included the release of the first $2.9bn of $15bn approved in Biden's infrastructure plan for local water agencies to begin replacing lead pipes and called for the efforts to focus on the low-income communities who face the most risk of lead poisoning. It also listed 15 new actions across 10 federal agencies to address lead dangers from both water and paint.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Username on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:09AM (10 children)
Reagan made lead pipes illegal and Bush made 0% lead the safe level. Why didn't they just throw those guys in Flint or DC in prison for poisoning people?
Also, some science, it's not the pipes that are the problem, it's the water. The more corrosive the water, the more metals it leaches. Even if Flint removed all its lead pipes, people would still get heavy metal poisoning from the copper and iron.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:30AM (5 children)
It's not just Flint or DC, and prosecuting politicians is frowned upon by political parties, which happen to be rather influential organizations. Water quality testing is not something even widespread enough to know the full extent of water supply contamination.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:52AM (4 children)
Yes it is. Most people receive water from a system that is required to test once a year [cdc.gov]. That's not often enough if something changes like it did in Flint, but it's better than nothing. It's definitely the norm, not the exception, to receive an annual report on your water quality.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @01:20AM
Testing at the source is not sufficient. Tests need to be done at the tap.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Saturday December 18 2021, @03:15AM (2 children)
Assuming they don't fake [mlive.com] the tests like they did in Flint. Regulation isn't enough, you need detection and enforcement too.
Flint got caught because there was independent testing of the water and children (some who showed high levels of lead in their blood). If nobody had bothered to test things on their own, it's likely that Flint's water supply would still be dosing people with lead today.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday December 19 2021, @01:11AM (1 child)
This is the source of many problems. We have a lot of regulations on the books that fail to stop the problems they are supposed to address. The problem isn't the regulations, it is that the enforcement is usually underfunded or left to local sources that have a vested interest in ignoring the regulations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 19 2021, @05:33AM
It's more fun to be the Big Man making rules that the worker following the rules. So we get a lot of rules. Then it's up to you to figure out which ones really matter and which ones you can ignore. Same deal at work - 1000s of rules for everything but only 2-3 actually really matter, i.e. someone will notice if you mess with it.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Saturday December 18 2021, @01:18AM
Because there are some people who the law binds but does not protect, and other people who the law protects but does not bind. And in this case, the victims are in the first category, and the crooks are in the second category.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Saturday December 18 2021, @02:27AM (1 child)
Copper and iron are essential nutrients. A person is more likely to be deficient than to have a dangerous excess.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @03:02AM
That and as copper oxidizes it gets an incredibly durable coating that protects the metal from further corrosion.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday December 18 2021, @07:26AM
How do you feel about PEX?