In 2014 the city fo Flint Michigan changed its source of drinking water, from Lake Huron and the Detroit River to the Flint River. A national scandal followed as Flint’s drinking water became contaminated with dangerously high levels of lead. What happened? Could it happen in other cities? Unfortunately, the Flint scandal in Flint was just the beginning. Something was wrong with America’s drinking water and a full-blown health crisis was exploding! Let’s dive right in and find out why so much of America’s water is unsafe for our kids to drink!
It all started a long time before the Flint scandal. A century ago, America loved lead. It did some great things for the average consumer. High-quality glass and crystal were made with lead. many types of paint, gasoline, glazing on our dinner plates, and a lot of our plumbing was made out of lead. Even back then it was known that lead was a poison, but the amount of lead in our homes was considered to be harmless.
Today we know that even small amounts of lead, amounts that will not sicken an adult, affects small children very differently. Up to 3-year-olds, children absorb more of the lead in their environments than adults> In a small child, lead interferes with the development of their brains and nervous system, causing multiple intellectual development disorders.
Lead made paint dried faster and stayed on longer. It also held less moisture than unleaded paint and was thought to reduce humidity. Lower humidity can be very valuable in a child’s nursery. Putting lead in a nursery was considered a good idea!
Ironically, they may have been right. Before air conditioning, antibiotics, and ex-rays children had a lot of illnesses with coughs… colds, pneumonia, whooping cough, the croup. Conditions made worse in wet environments. The drying quality of lead may have offset some of its deadly qualities.
Likewise, lead has been used in pipes and water supplies for thousands of years. The famed waterworks of Rome used lead pipes. Even the symbol for lead (Pb) comes from the Latin term “plumbum”. As in Plumping. Lead IS plumbing!
Before the 1840s, New York City’s water pipes were largely made of wood. Rotting wood, seepage from the streets, and other contamination caused frequent epidemics and water-borne illnesses, in New York and across America. By the late 1800s wood was replaced by lead and cast iron. For the average city dweller, it was a big improvement.
And all that lead? By the 1960’s America became aware of the dangers of lead and other contamination. The first Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), was passed in the 1970s and in a series of additional laws, lead was banned in new construction. But what happened to all of the lead in old buildings and under our feet in municipal water systems?
The crisis in Flint happened! When Flint changed the source of the city’s water, the water’s chemistry changed. Citizens almost immediately complained that the water had a different color or a strange odor. Then a General Motors factory found that the water was corroding equipment. To combat these effects, more chemicals were added to the water, which created new undesirable effects. Which meant using even more chemicals.
The water became more corrosive, and by 2016 the protective coating that develops on lead pipes was removed. With lead in direct contact with the water, tests showed massive contamination. Step by step, the corrective actions taken by Flint made things progressively worse, and a Federal State of Emergency was announced for Flint.
But that’s just Flint. What about your city? New lead wasn’t being added to buildings, but if the building is more than 50 years old it probably has lead pipes. No one dug up and removed the old pipes. Instead, we’ve relied on the protective coating that keeps lead out of the water, and municipal water departments know the exact chemistry needed to keep that protective coating intact. This was all settled in the last century. And regular, comprehensive testing of lead contamination would prevent any new issues. Problem solved!
But, by the late 20th century, there were a lot of other contamination issues. Like asbestos in schools and how second-hand smoke affects children. An then there were anti-biotics in our meat and milk, and genetically modified food. Lead wasn’t a big issue. Until Flint.
After Flint, questions were raised by reporters and by parents in other cities. “What about our water?” Over the last 50 years, new water treatment plants were built, using new water treatment methods. As populations and agriculture grew, water sources dried up and new water sources (with different chemical profiles) were used. Is anyone checking that the mistakes made in Flint didn’t happen in other cities?
There are huge gaps in America’s water safety. If water is tested at the water plant or the reservoir, lead from water pipes between the reservoir and your home will not be detected. Likewise, if an elementary school has lead pipes it will only be detected if the water is tested IN the school. Unfortunately, that’s not what’s happening.
Today, at least 8,000 public schools and 500,000 childcare facilities are not regulated under the Safe Water Drinking Act (SDWA). In a recent survey of schools in 31 states, 65% of the schools that were tested for lead contamination… failed. Another government study showed that 43% of school districts tested their water for lead… and failed. Another study found that 22 states failed lead safety tests. Clearly, America has a massive health safety problem.
But it may be even worse.
As previously discussed, lead causes intellectual and developmental issues for small children. While conditions such as autism have a genetic cause, the severity of the symptoms is influenced by environmental conditions. Lead contamination is one of those conditions. In 2004 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that just 1 in 164 children was diagnosed with autism. By 2014 autism rose to 1 in 59.
A clearer definition of autism and better testing standards are undoubtedly part of the rise in positive autism diagnoses. However, pollution, changes in foods, and lead in our water may also be contributing factors. Also, in the last few decades, America’s population has been moving from rural areas into big cities. Cities that have older buildings and water systems, with a lot of lead. This may also be a factor.
However, we should note that officially reported numbers for lead exposure in our water show falling numbers for lead exposure. Even so, the official numbers identify over 500,000 children with significant, dangerous, level of lead. Then we have all of the exceptions and exemptions we discussed. Given the problems with accurate reporting, it is unclear if the drop in reported lead poisoning is accurate or merely reflects missing data.
Even Global Climate Change is contributing to water safety issues. Many factories and refineries put industrial wastes in holding pools above ground or in underground pits. Old mines (including lead mines) that were closed down decades ago are filling up with contaminated groundwater. As the numbers of violent storms increases, new mines are flooded. Every day, at least 50 million gallons of contaminated water from mines pour into rivers, and eventually into drinking water. When devastating hurricanes hit industrial cities, such as New Orleans and Houston, the sludge in their waste pools was swept into water supplies, rivers and into the oceans.
This issue is in the hands of the EPA, which has requested new powers and funding to expand testing and allow more aggressive closing of contaminated sites. However, President Donald Trump has been very vocal about reducing the size of the EPA. It seems unlikely that they will receive the resources that they requested to address the problem.
Are there other options? As it happens, there are!
There was a time when a simple lead test was a complicated matter. Today, however, lead tests are simple to obtain and use. Look at Amazon, they sell hundreds of different test kits, not just for lead but also for other contaminants. Today parents, school systems, and advocates can perform their own tests. Identifying a contamination issue may not in itself resolve the problem, but it is the first step to making our water safer!
Do you feel your water is safe? How important is lead contamination to you? Tell us what you think! Talk to me on Linked In… linkedin.com/in/chrisniccolls