By Ron Fonger
Flint -- The city’s chief financial officer (click here) says the state will release previously withheld funds for work completed by contractors replacing water service lines in Flint
“These are the funds that were being questioned by members of the (City) Council and media,” CFO Hughey Newsome, said in a statement issued by the city on Friday, Feb. 15. “As I stated time and time again, we, meaning myself and the MDEQ, were working closely to get it figured out. I was confident that we would be reimbursed for the work that was completed.”
In late November, the state said it was withholding reimbursement for Flint’s water service line replacement work in a dispute with the city over the cost of performing full, traditional excavations at homes with copper water service lines that do not require replacement.
DEQ officials have questioned the need for full excavations at such homes, advocating instead for the city contractors to use hydro-excavation, a less expensive method, to uncover pipes....
Thirty years ago the level was much different and one third what it is today. Thirty years ago there were more lead pipes than today. So why is the state and federal agencies allowing higher level today when there is less and less lead pipes used?
...In 1988, (click here) it was estimated that a lead level of 5 µg/l was exceeded in only 1.1% of public water distribution systems in the USA (16). A more recent review of lead levels in drinking-water in the USA found the geometric mean to be 2.8 µg/l (10). The median level of lead in drinking-water samples collected in five Canadian cities was 2.0 µg/l (17). A recent study in Ontario (Canada) found that the average concentration of lead in water actually consumed over a 1-week sampling period was in the range 1.1–30.7 µg/l, with a median level of 4.8 µg/l (18). In the United Kingdom in 1975– 1976, there was virtually no lead in the drinking-water in two thirds of households, but levels were above 50 µg/l in 10% of homes in England and 33% in Scotland (2). In Glasgow (Scotland), where the water was known to be plumbosolvent, the lead concentration in about 40% of the samples exceeded 100 µg/l (19)....
What Type of Plumbing Pipe is Best? (click here)
- Copper Pipes (Metal)
- Galvanized Steel (Metal)
- Polyvinyl Chloride Pipes or PVC Pipes (Plastic)
- Chlorinated Polyvinyl Chloride Pipes or CPVC Pipes (Plastic)
- Cross-Linked Polyethylene or PEX Pipes (Plastic)
With the changes in pipes in homes across the USA why is any level of lead tolerated?
February 15, 2019
By Ron Fonger
Thirteen Michigan water systems failed (click here) to meet federal standards for lead in drinking water in the last half of 2018, and seven of those systems had lead levels at least twice as high as the state will allow starting in 2025.
Data requested by MLive-The Flint Journal from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality shows water systems above that action limit in the most recent Lead and Copper Rule testing are located throughout the state and are both large and small -- one serving less than 100 homes and others providing water to cities as large as Hamtramck and Benton Harbor.
A total of 27 water providers registered 90th percentile lead levels of at least 13 parts per billion, beyond the 12 ppb future threshold established last year by the state.
The 90th percentile is a formula used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to measure the prevalence of lead in water sampled by the more than 1,200 public water systems in the state. Federal regulations set the lead limit at 15 ppb....
Lead in drinking water, food or air is nothing to ignore.
June 1977
By Dr, Herbert A, Schreier, Norman Sherry, MD and Elizabeth Shaughnessy
Lead poisoning (click here) and subclinical body lead elevations have become increasingly widespread findings in children, not only in the inner cities but in the suburbs and rural areas as well. This paper reports on 2 institutionalized children with elevated urinary lead levels who subsequently developed astrocytomas. Lead toxicity may play a role in causing mental retardation, hyperactivity, and more subtle neuropsychological dysfunction in children. It has been shown to have a direct toxic effect on neurons, causing astrocytic proliferation in humans and central nervous system neoplasms in rats.
