EPA Cracks Down on Lead in Drinking Water

[Conservativesux]

EPA Cracks Down on Lead in Drinking Water

March 07, 2005 11:26 AM EST

WASHINGTON(AP) - Stricter monitoring and reporting of problems with lead in drinking water will be required of utilities, states, schools and child care facilities, the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday.

EPA officials said they found few such problems nationally, but were moving to impose stricter requirements starting early next year because of problems with lead in drinking water that surfaced in 2002 for thousands of residents in Washington, D.C. Those problems only gained widespread attention two years later, and residents complained that the city did little to alert them.

EPA proposes that utilities notify states before making changes in treatment and better control corrosion in pipes. Utilities also would have to notify residents of any testing within a home or facility. Lead service lines that don't meet requirements would have to be re-examined after any major changes to drinking water treatment.

Also being updated is the agency's 1994 guidance on testing for lead in schools' drinking water.

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http://start.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20050307/422bdfd0_3ca6_1552620050307-1757956896

[Mr.Green93]

1. All copper pipes

connected with lead solder should be removed.

[98geoduck]

2. along with the mercury in our teeth.

[Conservativesux]

6. The avarage dentist wont admit that Mercury amalgam is toxic.

[One_Life_To_Give]

3. Removing the Lead Pipes in the supply

would be a good start. Many of the older distribution systems still have lead pipes in the supply. Causing entire communities to have high lead levels.

[Trillo]

5. But why would child care facilities have the financial burden

placed on them for lead-piped distribution systems utility districts are responsible for?

[One_Life_To_Give]

8. Schools and Daycare may be a good place to test

for lead due to the immediacy of the impact.
But when the Lead Pipes are owned by the City Water Supply. It is the cities responsibility to change out the lead pipes or provide filtration at the end use point.

[Trillo]

9. I agree children should be protected, that's the human way.

However, requiring (already expensive) child care facilities to actively monitor lead levels will force them to pass that cost on. The water utility district should assume financial responsibility for the monitoring of child care facilities water.

If it can be established that lead contamination is due to sub-code plumbing at the day care premisis itself, (easy to measure: contaminate difference of supply versus point of use) then their assuming financial responsibility makes sense. But not if the lead contamination source is upstream of their facility. Then it just becomes another unfair, burdensome, and costly distribution of responsibility, that in turn gets passed on to those least able to pay for it.

[MissB]

7. Within homes? No way.

The water suppliers need to make their water less corrosive, and the public needs to be educated to run the water until it is cold (and never pull hot water for cooking from the tap).

Water systems shouldn't have to replace plumbing within the homes. Often times, the fancier faucets are the culprit as well - not just the lead solder in the pipes.

Most big water systems removed lead pigs from their piping systems years ago.

[bleedingheart]

4. Oh No...it's what makes our teeth so nice and shiny...

hee hee....

[ozarka]

10. you should drink more ozarka n/t