The US city that proves replacing lead water lines needn’t be a pipe dream | Water

IIn July 2018, tests showed the drinking water supply to Yvette Jordan’s home in Newark, New Jersey contained nearly 45 parts per billion (ppb) lead – three times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s action level on the neurotoxic heavy metal.

It was a similar story for many families across town. A lead crisis had struck Newark, and it drew comparisons to the polluted water that ravaged Flint, Michigan, several years earlier.

But what later happened in Newark – for the most part, anyway – should serve as a “national model,” said Jordan, a history teacher at the high school.

In the United States, lead pipes between 6 and 10 m old still connect people’s homes to the local water supply. As these underground pipes age and corrode, more and more people are exposed to lead, including young children, who are particularly vulnerable to the effects of the metal.

A report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) estimates that between January 2015 and March 2018, at least 5.5 million Americans received lead-contaminated water that exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action level of 15 ppb. Other studies show that low-income and minority communities are disproportionately affected. In addition to lowering this level of action – and making it enforceable – public health experts are calling for the widespread replacement of all of these pipes.

The Biden government received praise in March for announcing its goal of replacing 100% of the country’s top service lines and insists that this is still achievable as talks with Republicans continue on infrastructure legislation.

Newark has shown that this doesn’t have to be a pipe dream.

“We have known how to do it for decades. It’s not like treating PFAS or any of those polysyllabic chemicals, ”said Daniel Van Abs, a water use expert at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

“We know what it’s about, we know the health effects, we know how to deal with it,” he added. “It really depends on the political will.”

Since early 2019, Newark residents have watched workers dig and replace thousands of lead pipes that long connected their homes to the city’s aqueduct. Jordan saw her replacement last spring. By this spring, local officials had removed more than 20,000 senior service lines. It’s an impressive feat, especially when you consider that recently updated federal regulations allow cities for 33 years to do the same job.

“We have shown that it is possible,” said Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. “And that happens relatively quickly.”

Newark is joining the swift completion of the lead water service line replacement, an accomplishment the Feds cite: https://t.co/gX16xlYpxk

– City of Newark (@CityofNewarkNJ) May 4, 2021

Joe Biden announced the goal of eliminating all remaining lead water pipes in the country under his administration’s $ 2 trillion US employment plan, which would have allocated $ 111 billion to improve water infrastructure, including $ 45 billion to replace the lead pipes .

Hopes for this level of total investment in water infrastructure have faded, with an initial framework for a bipartisan infrastructure contract released last month that describes $ 55 billion for water infrastructure, in part from private public partnerships.

However, while bipartisan talks on infrastructure legislation continue, the Biden administration continues to insist that plans to replace 100% of the lead lines remain alive and that this is an area where Democrats and Republicans agree.

Not a safe level

The threat of lead in drinking water in the United States has received widespread attention in the wake of the Flint water crisis. In January of this year, eight former Michigan state officials and one now suspended employee were charged with their roles in the environmental disaster that resulted from a switch of the city’s water source from the Detroit Water and Sanitation Authority to the Flint River. Among other things, because the local authorities did not take any corrosion protection measures, lead and other pollutants from the pipes got into the drinking water of the residents.

Lead pipes are not the only source of lead in drinking water. The heavy metal can get into the water through corroding leaded brass or bronze taps and fittings. Joe Cotruvo, an environmental and health advisor based in Washington DC and formerly with the EPA’s Drinking Water Office, notes that lead from water can build up even on the surface of old galvanized iron pipes.

This is one of the reasons lead can still be a significant problem for the roughly 15% of Americans who rely on private wells for their water.

No safe lead content has been determined by national or global health authorities.

Lead exposure can lead to heart, kidney and reproductive problems in adults. But young children are at the greatest risk. Low-dose exposures have been associated with hyperactivity, slowed growth, and lower IQ. And, across the population, exposure to lead can result in much more necessary investments in special education and medical resources, as well as significant losses in economic productivity.

Rachel DeWitt, a medical assistant at St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor Hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan, said that in the case of a city like Flint or Newark, lead pollution “placed a heavy tax on a community that was short of resources.” First, “In fact, racial differences in lead poisoning in children are large: 5.6% of black children have blood lead levels that exceed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) limit of 5 micrograms per liter, compared with 2.4% of the white children.

In 1986, in recognition of the many health risks, Congress banned the use of lead water pipes.

Get the lead

Kareem Adeem was born and raised in Newark. In 1991 the city hired him to fill potholes. In the decades that followed, Adeem worked his way up, and despite his missing college degree, was promoted to assistant director of Newark’s Department of Water and Sanitation in 2018. At this point the city’s water problems had worsened.

In March 2016, almost half of Newark public schools were found to have elevated levels of lead in drinking water from old faucets and faucets and solder between water pipes. The next year, lead levels in one of five water samples taken in the city exceeded the EPA’s action level. Further tests in the second half of 2018 showed even higher values. Then, with some suggestion from local activists and national groups, Newark quickly began to address the problem, with Adeem at the helm.

“This is our system. We have to protect it, ”said Adeem. “And we will continue to invest so that this problem never occurs again.”

In March 2019, contractors began upgrading Newark’s old lead lines. The original plan was to complete the major project in about eight years, but with county and state funding, said Thomas Schoettle, senior vice president at CDM Smith, the city’s contracted engineering and construction company.

The last two rounds of water samples taken during 2020 showed that Newark is back in compliance with EPA regulations. The city and the state’s Environmental Protection Agency reached an agreement with stakeholders in late January, including the Newark Education Workers Caucus, chaired by history teacher Jordan. The groups had sued the EPA in 2018 for alleged violations of the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Act.

Still, not everyone is happy with the way Newark handled its leadership crisis. A New York Times investigation published in August 2019 concluded that city officials “brushed aside warnings and allowed the system to deteriorate, while state and federal regulators often failed to intervene vigorously to prevent the crisis.”

Even city officials agree that the lead pipes should have been removed decades ago. “Environmental problems shouldn’t be thrown overboard for 30, 40, 50 years without interruption. And that was a huge one, ”said Adeem. “Some of my colleagues across the country were mad at me. “Why are you replacing lead services so quickly? They are going to put pressure on everyone to do it. ‘ But that could really have happened in 1986. “

Many scientists and advocates have forgiven. It is to be expected that in such a situation an officer would be the first to “duck” or “say something defensive,” said Van Abs of Rutgers University. “But Newark got over that and decided to do something different.”

Erik Olson, a senior strategic director at NRDC, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, criticized how long it took Newark to admit a problem and address it. But he also suggested that their efforts should now serve as a national model. “We want cities in the US to be really aggressive with a senior service line replacement program similar to what Newark and Flint did,” said Olson.

  • This story was produced by Ensia, a solution-oriented not-for-profit media company covering our changing planet; it has published a longer version here.

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