The issue began in Flint when improper treatment of the water dissolved the lead oxide out of the pipes. The lead pipes have been there all along.
Michigan legislative action thread
Posted on 01/29/2016 10:07:55 AM PST by SeekAndFind
More proof that your liberal master don’t care if you live or die.
Might? More like “probably.” But hey, since drinking water is a government issue, it will be swept under the rug and the government drones who are supposed to be monitoring this won’t be held responsible.
This is what always gets me about the Libs who keep screaming about how evil private companies are oppressing and killing people. If a private company was responsible for monitoring the water, you can be damn sure that (1) they would have done a Hell of a better job at it than the government and (2), if they didn’t people would get fired and the company would be sued into bankruptcy. How is that worse for society than letting government handled it and then just say “Ooopsie” when the water is poisoned and people get sick and die?
reminds me of the many times have we seen freepers insult people who use bottled or filtered water.
Pretty much any older building has lead pipes carrying the water supply. It is only a problem if something disrupts the buildup of scale that insulates the lead from the water.
This could vary from street to street or even house to house.
You cannot sue the govt into bankruptcy is the problem. You will either end up paying or your neighbors will thru higher taxes. Govt and lawyers win both ways
Filters for lead are available but do require periodic replacement. They could be installed cheaper than replacing pipes. It still doesn’t address the problem of lead paint in substandard housing.
Actually I think the long-term goal here is a multi-trillion dollar Green Jobs project, replacing every water line in the State of Michigan.
Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
Let’s take all the global warming research money and use it to replace pipes! For the children. (Even if it’s botched by the gubermint, a wealth transfer from activists and academics to engineering and construction folks would be a net positive.)
Lead pipes? I mean, potable water systems where the pipes are actually made out of solid lead metal?
I have never seen ANY plumbing anywhere that has pipe made from actual lead. Solder joints on copper pipe, yes. Caulking on old cast iron DWV pipe, yes.
This is like the arsenic in the groundwater in Michigan. It occurs naturally, nobody put it their. The threshold levels set by the DEQ are ridiculously low. You would have to drink like a million gallons to have any sort of adverse effect.
That could well be. My BIL is a plumber of long standing. For his “friends and relatives” jobs he always used soft form copper line for water lines. Hated galvanized and crimp plastic lines. Even put full copper all over the house. After 30 years, I never had one leak or problem with what he did. (And it was a bunch.)
The problem is that they don't know what the levels in children were before the change.
My house is 100 years old, and the supply lines are lead.
All of my neighbors houses as well, as the lines were laid in the street starting in 1910.
The interior piping is copper with some recent PVC. Some lead solder joints in the copper. But from the meter out to the street it’s all lead (I know because I accidentally snapped off my meter once).
Century-old water pipes should have been replaced decades ago, but the fiscal realities have precluded that in many neighborhoods.
Detroit has been fortunate in that much of its older housing stock has been largely demolished or is presently uninhabitable.
I love my little water distiller...
Wow, that is interesting. I’ve never come across any actual lead pipe in a water system.
Either way, in the case of Flint, if their water system is lead pipe, then the lead issue was there all along. Switching from the Detroit system to the Flint river would have not made any real difference.
Where on the Flint river are they pulling their water from?
It’s an issue in neighborhoods with older construction.
The cost of replacing every individual line would be insane.
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