How Not to Get the Lead Out—Lead Service Line Replacement Will Not Solve Our Drinking Water Crisis

Since the water crisis erupted in Flint, Michigan, over lead in the water, there have been numerous calls to replace lead pipes used to bring water into the home. This is likely to do little, if anything, to reduce the detection of lead in drinking water under EPA sampling protocols. The problem is...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current pollution reports 2016-09, Vol.2 (3), p.200-202
Main Author: Vaccari, David A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aquatic Pollution
Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution
Civil engineering
Conflicts of interest
Copper
Corrosion
Crises
Drinking water
Earth and Environmental Science
Environment
Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice
Industrial Pollution Prevention
Invited Commentary
Lead content
Monitoring/Environmental Analysis
Plumbing
Pollution
Public health
Waste Water Technology
Water crises
Water mains
Water Management
Water Pollution Control
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Since the water crisis erupted in Flint, Michigan, over lead in the water, there have been numerous calls to replace lead pipes used to bring water into the home. This is likely to do little, if anything, to reduce the detection of lead in drinking water under EPA sampling protocols. The problem is that the standard 1-l sample draws only from the first 10 to 22 ft of the pipe, not enough to reach the service line. The lead most likely comes from interior plumbing. Unless we find the actual sources of the lead, we may be in the same crisis position years from now after spending billions of dollars.
ISSN:2198-6592
2198-6592
DOI:10.1007/s40726-016-0034-4