While much of the country’s attention has been focused on the humanitarian crisis—and possible crime—of lead contaminated water in Flint, Michigan, it was only a matter of time before the microscope began probing elsewhere. Reports of lead contamination have appeared and re-appeared in the news in stories about Cleveland; New Orleans; Washington, DC; Jackson, Mississippi and elsewhere. In the past week Newark, New Jersey, closed down water fountains after unsafe levels of lead were found in about 30 schools in the city. And now, according to USA Today, up to 2,000 water systems in all 50 of the United States of America have unsafe levels of lead contamination. Three hundred and fifty of those water systems provide the resource to schools and/or daycare centers, where some of the highest lead levels were reportedly found.
How can this not be considered criminal?
Even at small doses, lead poses a health threat, especially for pregnant women and young children. Lead can damage growing brains and cause reduced IQs, attention disorders and other problem behaviors. Infants fed formula made with contaminated tap water face significant risk. Adults are not immune, with evidence linking lead exposure to kidney problems, high blood pressure and increased risks of cardiovascular deaths. The EPA stresses there is no safe level of lead exposure.
USA Today analyzed data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over a four-year period.
While most, if not all, municipal systems have an infrastructure capable of treating its water or sewage the problem of lead contamination does not begin or end here, but elsewhere:
Yet the fundamental risk factor in Flint – old lead service lines that deliver water to homes, plus interior plumbing containing lead – is a common problem for tens of millions of homes mostly built before 1986. Unlike other contaminants that can be filtered out at the water plant, lead usually gets into drinking water at the end of the system, as it comes onto individual properties and into homes.
At greatest risk, experts say, are an estimated 7.3 million homes connected to their utility's water mains by individual lead service lines -- the pipe carrying water from the main under the street onto your property and into your home. The water passes through what amounts to “a pure lead straw,” said Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech environmental engineering professor who has studied water contamination in Flint and a similar, earlier crisis in Washington, D.C.
USA Today’s report comes just in time … the House Budget Committee does not appear to be gearing up to provide aid to any lead contaminated communities anytime soon. Oh joy!