In July 2018, tests showed that the drinking water supply serving Yvette Jordan’s home in Newark, New Jersey, contained nearly 45 parts per billion (ppb) of lead – three times the US Environmental Protection Agency’s action level for the neurotoxic heavy metal. It was a similar story for many families across her city. A lead crisis had struck Newark, and it was drawing comparisons to the tainted water that devastated Flint, Michigan, a few years earlier. Yet what has subsequently played out in Newark – for the most part, anyway – should serve as a “national model”, said Jordan, who is a high school history teacher. Across the US, between 6 and 10m old pipes made of lead still connect people’s homes with local water supplies. As these underground lines age and corrode, more and more people are being exposed to lead, including young children who are particularly vulnerable to the metal’s impacts. A report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) estimates that between January 2015 and March 2018, at least 5.5 million Americans received water contaminated with levels of lead that exceed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action level of 15 ppb. Other research finds that lower-income and minority communities are disproportionately affected. In addition to lowering that action level – and making it more enforceable – public health experts urge the widespread replacement of all of these pipes. The Biden administration won praise when it unveiled a goal in March of replacing 100% of the nation’s lead service lines, and it insists this is still achievable as talks with Republicans continue on infrastructure legislation. Newark has shown that doing so doesn’t have to be a pipe dream.“We’ve known how to do this for decades. It’s not like treating PFAS or any of these multisyllabic chemicals,” said Daniel Van Abs, a water-use expert at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.“We know what the issue is, we know what the health effects are, we know how to deal with it,” he added. “It really comes down to political will.”Since early 2019, residents of Newark have watched workers dig up and swap out thousands of lead lines that long linked their homes with the city’s water main. Jordan saw hers replaced last spring. By this spring, local officials had removed more than 20,000 lead service lines. It’s an impressive feat, especially considering that recently updated federal regulations allow cities 33 years to accomplish the same task.“We’ve shown it’s possible,” said Newark’s mayor, Ras Baraka. “And it can get done fairly quickly.”Newark Closing In On Swift Completion Of Lead Water Service Line Replacement, A Feat The Feds Call Remarkable https://t.co/gX16xlYpxkJoe Biden announced the goal of eradicating all of the remaining lead water lines in the country as part of his administration’s $2tn American Jobs Plan, which would have allocated $111bn to improve water infrastructure, including $45bn on replacing the lead lines. Hopes for that
All data is taken from the source: https://www.theguardian.com/
Article Link: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/15/newark-new-jersey-replace-lead-water-lines-pipes
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