In 2014 the city of 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 was just the beginning. Something was wrong with America’s drinking water and a full-blown health crisis was becoming apparent! Let’s dive in and discover why so much of America’s water is unsafe for our kids to drink!
It started a century ago, back in the days when America loved lead. It did some great things for the average consumer. High-quality glass and crystal were made with lead. Paint, gasoline, the glazing on our dinner plates, and even our plumbing used lead. Even then it was known that lead was a poison, but the small amount of lead in our homes was considered harmless.
Today we know that even minuscule amounts of lead, amounts that will not sicken an adult, affect small children very differently. Up to 3-year-olds, children absorb far more lead from their environments than adults. In children, lead interferes with the development of the brain and the nervous system, causing multiple intellectual development disorders.
Lead makes the paint dry faster and stay 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 became common, children had a lot of respiratory illnesses… colds, pneumonia, whooping cough, and the croup. Conditions are made worse in wet environments. The drying quality of lead may have offset some humidity issues.
Likewise, lead has been used in pipes and water systems 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 1960s America became aware of the dangers of lead and other contamination. The first Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), was passed in the 1970s, followed by additional laws. Soon, lead was banned in new construction. But what happened to the lead in old buildings and under our feet in our municipal water systems?
The crisis in Flint happened! When Flint changed the source of the city’s water, the chemistry of the water changed. Citizens almost immediately complained that the water had a different color or a strange odor. A General Motors factory reported that the water was corroding their equipment. Flint then added more chemicals to solve the problem. But this just created new undesirable effects. Flint was now caught in a spiral of ever more chemicals, and ever more corrosive water.
The water became so corrosive that by 2016 the protective coating that normally formed on lead pipes was eroded away. Lead was now in direct contact with the water, and 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 Flint was just one town. What about your town or city? While new lead pipes were not added to buildings, any building that was over 50 years old probably still used lead pipes. Was the old protective coating we relied on still there? A century ago, municipal water departments knew the exact chemistry needed to maintain the protective coating. And regular testing for lead contamination should have prevented any new issues. Until Flint.
New technology used by the latest water treatment plants, and the addition of new water sources, especially on the West Coast, created significant changes in our water sources. And runoff from the heavy chemical runoff from residential lawns and golf courses created further chemical changes. Could it be that the mistakes made in Flint were being repeated in other cities?
Changes in water chemistry may have been the critical factor, or it may have just been poor monitoring of our water systems. Whatever the cause, the crisis in Flint led to greater testing of water, especially in our schools. The results were not good.
At least 8,000 public schools and 500,000 childcare facilities fall outside of the Safe Water Drinking Act (SDWA) regulations. 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. Yet, another study found that 22 states failed lead safety tests. Clearly, America has a massive health safety problem. Not only unacceptable levels of lead but lead in an environment where children would be faced with daily exposure.
Was the problem the changes in water quality? Or was the problem always there, but inadequate testing and monitoring failed to identify the problem? Water was regularly tested at the water plant or the reservoir. But as the water traveled through the inter-city pipes and the lead pipes inside the school… there was little if any testing.
Even Global Climate Change is another contributing factor to water safety. Over the past century factories and refineries stored industrial wastes in holding pools above ground and in underground pits. Old mines (including lead mines) that were closed decades ago are filling up with runoff water and groundwater. As the number of violent storms increases, storage pools are flooded and overflowed into local lakes and rivers. At least 50 million gallons of contaminated water pour travel through rivers and into our drinking water. The devastating hurricanes that hit industrial cities like Orleans and Houston, swept sludge from waste pools into water supplies.
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. So, it seems unlikely that they will receive the resources they need to address the problem. Are there other options? As it happens, there are!
Simple (and cheap) lead tests are available. Amazon sells hundreds of different test kits, not just for lead but also for other contaminants. Parents, school systems, and advocates can perform their own tests. Identifying a contamination issue may not solve 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