Across the country, lead pipes are still carrying water into millions of homes, more than 30 years after they were banned. They’re tucked underground, out of sight and, for most Americans, out of mind, relics of an earlier time. But these aging conduits are still a risk for tens of millions of people. A new data analysis by APM Reports shows that those pipes may be leaching significantly more lead into Americans’ tap water than government monitoring has revealed. The most common sources of lead in drinking water are lead pipes, faucets, and plumbing fixtures. Certain pipes that carry drinking water from the water source to the home may contain lead.
The amount of time to run the water will depend on whether your home has a lead service line or not, and the length of the lead service line. Residents should contact their water utility for recommendations about flushing times in their community. Since you cannot see, taste, or smell lead dissolved in water, testing is the only sure way of telling whether there are harmful quantities of lead in your drinking water.
People who inhale also increase their risk for cancers of the lung, pancreas, and bladder. All specifications are deemed to be approximate values in respect of the specific material and may vary depending on the processing methods used. In general, data specified applies to average values water pipes measured on extruded sheets with a thickness of 4 mm. In the case of sheets manufactured by means of pressing, testing is generally performed on sheets with a thickness of 20 mm. Deviations from the values specified are possible if the sheets in this thickness are not available.
Water authority had altered its water treatments and set off a chain reaction that kept lead levels above the federal limit for years. By the time the NDWAC group got started, Lambrinidou had built a name for herself as an activist. “We wanted it to be as protective as possible,” said one retired EPA field officer who worked on the draft options and wants to remain anonymous. “It was really important to do the right thing with lead service lines.”
In 2019, Michigan’s new lead rule took effect with testing requirements that resemble the ones Del Toral and other EPA scientists advocated for nearly a decade. Utilities now must collect an extra sample, which is more likely to include water resting inside the lead pipe. Michigan samples both the first and fifth liter out of the tap, and reports the higher of the two samples.
When a person swallows or breathes in lead particles, the body stores the toxin in the blood, bones, and tissues, where it accumulates over time. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there is no safe level of lead exposure. Lead is particularly harmful to children, causing reduced IQ, language development, and attention span, and increased aggression and impulsivity. In addition, prolonged exposure for both children and adults can damage the brain and nervous system, reduce fertility, and increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease, and likely even cancer.
This information applies to most situations and to a large majority of the population, but individual circumstances may vary. Some situations, such as cases involving highly corrosive water, water pipes may require additional recommendations or more stringent actions. Your local water authority is always your first source for testing and identifying lead contamination in your tap water.
Astonishingly, even amid the crisis, Flint officials still managed to produce lead test results below the federal action level for months. The city needed 90 percent of its sampling sites to come back below 15 parts per billion, and when they did, officials claimed the water was safe. Despite the incredibly high lead levels in Flint’s drinking water — in some cases as high as 13,200 parts per billion — the Lead and Copper Rule requirements failed to flag the disaster. That kind of robust sampling would have placed utilities in a “difficult position,” the memo stated. More utilities might have found high levels of lead and become responsible for replacing more lead pipes than ever before.
The agency hired a consultant to analyze the fairness of the Lead and Copper Rule revisions before they were public. The consultant reported that children living in poor neighborhoods are more likely to have high levels of lead in their blood, and more likely to live in older homes with lead service lines. Under the EPA’s proposal, they concluded, low-income families with lead service lines would be left with “disproportionately higher health risks.” States and municipalities can also apply for federal funding to assist with water infrastructure projects addressing lead, but haven’t faced significant federal pressure to locate and remove 100% of pipes. The Safe Drinking Water Act requires EPA to determine the level of contaminants in drinking water at which no adverse health effects are likely to occur with an adequate margin of safety.
The consequences emerge over time, across an entire community. The demand for special education programs in Flint schools is already rising. Without interventions in schools, research suggests the city will likely see fewer kids enrolled in gifted programs, and graduation rates may fall. EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler told reporters at the unveiling of the rule in October that the agency was eliminating loopholes that allowed utilities to get out of replacing pipes. He claimed that would more than make up the difference in replacement rates, but past and present EPA employees told APM Reports that the agency has provided almost no data to back up that claim. Journalists examined both the lead levels that Michigan utilities reported to EPA from 2010 to 2019 and the amount of lead found in samples collected between 2016 and 2019.