Tap Water

Tapped Out?

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After what you’ve been reading in the papers and hearing on TV- and yesterday’s blog post– it should not surprise you that ½ (or more) of American citizens don’t trust the quality of their tap water.   It’s why the bottled water business is so profitable.   (Of course, when you consider that Pepsi and Coke sell you bottled water for the same price that they sell you pop- and pop sales require them to add in coloring and flavoring and for bottled water they don’t- you should not be surprised about that either.)

But, it gets better.  The Administrative Code of Michigan stipulates that each community water supply must notify its residents when their water supply system exceeds the MCL (maximum contamination level) – within 24 hours.  But, if the violation is not acute and just long term, they must notify their users within 30 days.  Hmm.  18 months was the time involved in Flint.  Oh, well, Rick Snyder (the Governor of Michigan) was never impressed with all those laws anyway.

Lead solubility in water

Or, what about a Teflon residual contaminant (perfluorooctanoic acid) in Hoosick Falls, New York.  But, since reporting that a 540 microgram per liter (ppb or parts per billion) level was found would clearly jeopardize the economic development plan for the region, no notification was given to the residents.  (Not the first time a body of water served as the rug under which bad facts are swept.)

But, our situations are worse than that.   I serve as a mentor to a bunch of high school kids, who are trying to learn more about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).  And, they were interested to learn why kids in their school dislike the taste of the water that comes from their water fountains.   This interest came about before the s..t hit the fan in Flint.

They learned that the fact that  while Alexandria water is among the best in the nation (believe it or not, New York City has that honor)- but that does not mean that the water coming through the taps is ok.  Because the pipes can leach chemicals into the water.  (Alexandria has a private water system.  And, the American Water Works Company does a very good job of maintaining the infrastructure.  Of course, at a “reasonable” cost to consumers. 🙂 )

More importantly, the water travels through myriad pipes, tees, dead-ends, etc. within the school.  So, I helped the students map out locations where the water flow may be substandard, where it’s further from the source, etc.  So they could see what that water quality is.

Let us not forget that there is a special law on the books- the 1988 Lead Contamination Control Act.  This law required schools to trash any lead-line water coolers.  It also required entities to check their systems and their pipes (that means TEST the water quality) and remedy any problems that obtain.  OK- at least that was the law of the land  until 1996, when an appeals court struck down the portion of the law that affected schools.    So, your kids- and mine- are left at risk.

In the meantime, it has become clear that DC’s public schools- which often are very, very old- have significant water quality problems.  Sure, they’ve installed “filters” on every tap in the school system.  But, obviously, based upon the results, the filters are either wrong for the job- or poorly maintained.  Because the lead levels have been found to be as high as 68 micrograms per liter.

Or, that Baltimore (Maryland), rather than fixing their systems, decided to offer bottled water to their schools.  Because the cost of some $ 675K a year was the cheaper alternative.   (They removed all the water fountains, too.)   That was back in 2007- and, over the ensuing nine years- have managed to fix  just six (6) of the 190 buildings.

Newark is following the same example as Baltimore.  Because at least 30 of their schools fail to deliver water of adequate quality.

Maybe now’s a good time to remind you that there is no microbiological standards for drinking water in the US.  Oh, sure, we check to make sure that there is no fecal contamination.  But, that is very different than deciding that 1000 microbes per 100 ml is too much- or, more likely, 50X that amount should not be what is in our drinking water.

Caveat emptor.

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