Lead Levels in Water

[ethics]

Clear case to buy your water.

What's friggin sad, is that I have been telling my wife not to boil the water and just to use tap for my daughter. :(


<blockquote>Cities across the country are manipulating the results of tests used to detect lead in water, violating federal law and putting millions of Americans at risk of drinking more of the contaminant than their suppliers are reporting.

Some cities, including Philadelphia and Boston, have thrown out tests that show high readings or have avoided testing homes most likely to have lead, records show. In New York City, the nation's largest water provider has for the past three years assured its 9.3 million customers that its water was safe because the lead content fell below federal limits. But the city has withheld from regulators hundreds of test results that would have raised lead levels above the safety standard in two of those years, according to records.</blockquote>

See the rest of how to trust your municipals. (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/washpost/a7094_2004oct4)

[Biker]

Many of the older homes are at risk for high levels of lead because of the type of pipes and sealants they used back in those days.

[ethics]

Many of the older homes are at risk for high levels of lead because of the type of pipes and sealants they used back in those days.

True, but this is not the issue, Tom, or at least not the scope of the article. The munis are supposed to test for lead and report it fairly.

[Biker]

True, but this is not the issue, Tom, or at least not the scope of the article. The munis are supposed to test for lead and report it fairly.

In a way it is part of the issue. Since the muni's are supposed to test/report those levels, they KNOW older homes are going to shoot the figures above the safe level. And the city politicians don't want to deal with the resulting mess, because you KNOW folks are going to tell the cities it's their responsibility to fix the problem, even if it's in a private home.

[ethics]

Yep, so long as they "pass" the tests, they don't have to upgrade their systems. And the EPA seems to be letting them get away with it: The agency "ordered utilities to remedy violations in just 14 cases, less than one-tenth of the number ordered in 1997."

The Post notes that this year, "The EPA dropped drinking water altogether from its enforcement priority list." Unfortunately, the paper doesn't explain exactly what that means or its ramifications.

[tke711]

Clear case to buy your water.

What's friggin sad, is that I have been telling my wife not to boil the water and just to use tap for my daughter. :(

Just make sure you buy water that has fluoride added if you go that route. Not so much for you or your wife, but for your daughter.

[joseftu]

There's no excuse for manipulating the test results, and I don't mean to absolve the city or the EPA.

But this is an issue where I had already decided not to trust the city's claims when my daughter was small. When we moved into this house (it's about 100 years old--although most of the plumbing is newer than that), I took samples of the drink water once a month for three months, and had them tested by a private lab. All the tests came back with no significant levels of lead or any other contaminants.

I waited three months, and then did the same thing over another three-month period. The results were the same, so I haven't worried about it since.

[Biker]

There's no excuse for manipulating the test results, and I don't mean to absolve the city or the EPA.

But this is an issue where I had already decided not to trust the city's claims when my daughter was small. When we moved into this house (it's about 100 years old--although most of the plumbing is newer than that), I took samples of the drink water once a month for three months, and had them tested by a private lab. All the tests came back with no significant levels of lead or any other contaminants.

I waited three months, and then did the same thing over another three-month period. The results were the same, so I haven't worried about it since.

Joe, if you ran the test with cold water, you need to do it again. It's the hot water that causes the lead to leach from the soldering compounds and pipes.

[ethics]

Actually, I just spoke to her and she said she bathed in tap, yes, but she was never convinved about the safety of the tap for drinking. Ah.. the good ole Ukrainian training and mistrust of that! :)

[joseftu]

Joe, if you ran the test with cold water, you need to do it again. It's the hot water that causes the lead to leach from the soldering compounds and pipes.
Thanks--I did both hot and cold. The lab required two samples each of hot and cold--one sample drawn after letting the water run for a half hour, and one sample drawn first thing in the morning, after the water had been sitting in the pipes all night.

The instructions were very specific, and they sent sealed containers to use for the samples. I was pretty impressed with the whole procedure, and (as I remember) it wasn't very expensive at all, either.

[Techie2000]

From what I understand, the people in charge of my water make some of the highest rated tap water in the nation. So I don't worry.

[Kangaroo]

I wonder at efficacy of boiling water to remove lead.

[Fiona]

Actually, I just spoke to her and she said she bathed in tap, yes, but she was never convinved about the safety of the tap for drinking. Ah.. the good ole Ukrainian training and mistrust of that! :)
Yet another reason for me to admire that woman! ;)

I have not used tap water for consumption except for the rare, rare case of making kool-aid when out of bottled water, or for boiling pasta, which I'm also not sure is safe... but I hate tap water- YUCK!

I once lived in Clifton Forge, VA which at that time was able to claim to have the purest water in the country. Of course once it goes through the old pipes, who knows.

[ethics]

That was my incorrect statement. While I did ask my wife to boil water (bacteria) she just declined to use it for consumption at all. And I realize that was a pretty stupid statement to make regarding lead and boiling water. Didn't want people to think that's how they can get rid of lead levels.

[Steve]

Ah, give me nice, clean well water any day! :)

Biker has a very good point about the older homes, though. Without knowing how any specific laws come into play, it would seem to me the municipalities and water companies need to comply with the contaminant levels, only up to the point where the home taps into the main. From that point, the piping is privately-owned by the homeowner, both underground and within the structure. Seems like tests for lead done by the water companies shouldn't be done using tap water but rather using samples pulled from somewhere within the pipelines......

[ravital]

I confess that even though I had never had trouble drinking the water in some pretty remote pestholes around the world, once I came to this lovely neck of southern NH, I cannot get used to the taste of the water at all, so I buy drinking water. But we still use tap water for cooking and the coffee maker.

It's supplied by the town, but it is local well-water, and it's hard (soap washes off you almost instantly in the shower). The town does the bare minimum the code requires to make it potable, but that's it. I did have it tested once - technician came over and took a sample himself, so I have to trust his knowledge - but even at that I wouldn't trust it much.

To the point that, I'm currently building a darkroom in my basement, and I know I'll have to add a water-softening and filtering system before I can use it. If I don't trust that water with photographic materials, I know I don't want to drink it.

Leon, from what I recall of my years in NY, one of the saving graces of the city is the tap-water, it's supposed to be clean Adirondak water (though I'm not sure if that was true only of Manhattan). But you can't go wrong with buying drinking water.

[Suchaknight]

I live on the 3rd floor of a building that is about 80 years old. Although it's a very nice place, I'm sure the plumbing is quite old. So I do not consider whatever the city says about the water condition in their distribution system to be particularly relevant to the water condition when it comes out of my faucets.

So, I installed a filter on the kitchen tap that I use exclusively for drinking/cooking purposes. They are relatively cheap ($30), and remove virtually all of any lead present, along with other nasty things you don't want. And the water tastes MUCH better. When you make a cup of tea, you can actually see the difference. There is no crud on the surface.

Considering the expense, I really don't know why more people don't use these things. Especially people with small children.

[Pyrion]

San Diego municipal tap water stinks. I'm serious. I always boil tap water before using it, and that's after running the stuff through several purifiers and a softening system.

[joseftu]

I grew up in San Diego, and I never realized just how bad the water tasted there until I moved away.

Now when I go back to visit my parents, I have to use bottled water even to brush my teeth.

It's terrible--worse even than Florida!