President Joe Biden announced Thursday $3 billion toward identifying and replacing the nation’s unsafe lead pipes, a long-sought move to improve public health and clean drinking water that will be paid for by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Biden unveiled the new funding in North Carolina, a battleground state Democrats have lost to Donald Trump in the past two presidential elections but are feeling more bullish toward due to an abortion measure on the state’s ballot this November.
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The Environmental Protection Agency will invest $3 billion in the lead pipe effort annually through 2026, Administrator Michael Regan told reporters. He said that nearly 50% of the funding will go to disadvantaged communities – and a fact sheet from the Biden administration noted that “lead exposure disproportionately affects communities of color and low-income families.”
My city got rid of lead pipes decades ago, and now I’m mad other cities are getting free money to replace them.
(This post is about student loans)
People still have lead pipes? That would actually explain a lot…
They’re all sealed theoretically, but shit goes wrong like in Flint, still having the lead pipes with sealers is theoretically not dangerous but is considered a bit of a ticking time bomb.
Holy shit, we still have lead pipes in places!? I thought those were replaced in the 80’s.
We stopped using lead in the 80s - the existing pipes are mostly still there and working just fine. If you are in a building or city built before 1985 assume there is lead in the plumbing someplace and take action. The more important thing you can do is let drinking water run for a minute before drinking (or install a RO drinking water system that will remove lead - regular filters will not - RO is most common of that that will).
With a little care (much of it chemistry - meaning your water department - not much lead will leach from your pipes and you are okay. Okay should not be confused with good, 0 lead is what you want. However it isn’t feasible to replace all pipes in a day and so step one is doing as little damage as possible, then we reduce even that.
install a RO drinking water
People will get one for their whole house, which is great unless your home has leaded pipes…
It sounds like something people would think of, but they often don’t.
If your house has leaded pipes, you can get a small RO either by your sink, or before the hose that connects to your fridge is a better plan. It doesn’t have to be by your fridge, it can be where the hose meets pipe which is usually out of the way.
The real solution is replacing the piping, but that shits gets expensive.
A small RO to your fridge is doable even when renting, and if you get tests done and it’s high, some landlords would pay it just to show they’re not liable and did something to address the issue if it’s high.
A whole house ro filter is evpensive, so I doubt most will install one vs a drinking water system. Most plumbers won’t know about a whole house system much less sell one.
unless you live in an area where the water is so bad your showers dosen’t get you clean. Then you can get one - but you should have one.
Because of urban sprawl lots of homes in cities have wells still.
House built in the 40s before city water had expanded can still be on a well, and septic tanks.
Like lead pipes it’s something that just never got updated.
Although because of the risk of old septic tanks collapsing, some cities have programs where if you hook up the to city services for switching and filling in the septic can get spread over like 20-30 years as an add on to your water bill.
It’s worse than you think.
You know those old ill maintained public schools?
The combination of not just old lead pipes, but being shut down for extended periods mean lots of children are getting lead poisoning at school.
https://www.gao.gov/blog/protecting-children-lead-exposure-schools-and-child-care-facilities
So even if your house and local water is fine, your kids might be getting dosed up with lead at a young age, which is when it’s most impactful.
Lead is a serious problem that lots of people assume was fixed when we took it out of gas. It helped, but there’s still lots of lead around.
It’s going to be one of those things future generations look back on and go “no wonder they were so fucking crazy”.
This is huge…
I don’t get a chance to be happy with Biden often, but this is one of the rare times.
Lead poisoning doesn’t just hurt people’s health, it makes the stupid and belligerent. Like, those are the actual effects of it.
There’s a reason the benefits of banning leaded gas takes decades, it’s not helping those who already have lead poisoning, it’s just waiting for a new generation to grow up without it.
This is like one of those “best time to plant a tree” things.
The benefits are really far away, but doing it is a huge investment in our future as a society.
It’s reassuring to know society overall will be more sane when I’m old.
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Your mood is a disgrace.
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Biden: Adds on to the amount he’s already given to replace lead pipes; more than any other president has done
The Uncanny Observer: Yeah but it should have been done 20 years ago so I’m mad 😠
Edit: this brings the total up to 9 billion. Still not enough for everything, but how much has every other president gave? Be a little happy
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Unironically, yes. Big jumps don’t happen without violent revolution and that rarely works out well. Progress happens by baby steps. If you’re waiting for everything to get better all at once, you will be angry the rest of your life.
Big jumps don’t happen without violent revolution and that rarely works out well.
Explain to me how the United States was created
George Washington did not politely ask for independence.
He and others murdered people for it. A lot of people. And then he won. And now here we all are.
Lead poisoning doesn’t just hurt people’s health, it makes the stupid and belligerent. Like, those are the actual effects of it.
Dosage matters.
It takes a very low dosage to see effects, and it stacks.
So, you’re right. But it just feels like you were trying to disagree with me, when you were reinforcing my point that even a little is harmful.
But it just feels like you were trying to disagree with me, when you were reinforcing my point that even a little is harmful.
Again this arrogant stupidity.
It takes a very low dosage to see effects, and it stacks.
Define “low” and explain how would you make that something objective for this your sentence to not look awfully stupid.
My friend, the recognized “safe” level of lead is literally no lead. Any more than literally 0ppm is above safe lead levels.
Just because it isn’t considered lead poisoning, doesn’t mean it’s safe.
Do some research before you pop off about stuff you don’t understand:
- https://www.mottchildren.org/posts/your-child/lead-poisoning#:~:text=The lead level of 5,and development%2C and impaired hearing.
- https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health
You will find no evidence that lead at any level is safe. In fact, previous research which suggested that lower levels were fine are being refuted by more recent studies, that show quite the opposite.
My friend, the recognized “safe” level of lead is literally no lead. Any more than literally 0ppm is above safe lead levels.
That’s not what I’m talking about and this sentence too reaches the “Soviet lecture for kolkhozniks” level of cringe.
By 0 do you mean “under 10^(-10)”, or “under 10^(-13)”, or what?
I know what lead is.
A single molecule of lead in a human body is too much. Does that answer your question?
And I’m aware the chances of a specific person consuming lead are slim for most pipes, the problem is there are so many lead pipes throughout the country, that I’d be willing to bet money there are a number of people drinking lead contaminated water right now.
It’s like the lottery, just because the chances are exceedingly small that you will win, doesn’t change the fact that it’s almost guaranteed someone will win.
OK.
Ooh, nice. Coming in hot with the ethnic slur against Ukrainians, and then continuing on with some delightfully obnoxious pedantry.You should stop while you’re behind.It is a different word, and I misread it; as was pointed out, it’s a Russian cultural anecdote/idiom that non Russians would not necessarily understand. My apologies for starting a kerfluffle with my misunderstanding.
You shouldn’t write anything on subjects requiring knowledge of Russian without that knowledge.
Колхозник means, naturally, someone living and working in колхоз .
And “лекция для колхозников” is a reference to a well-known (in ex-USSR) anecdote.
And you are an idiot.
