At least 33 US cities used water testing 'cheats' over lead concerns

[kadaholo]

Source: Exclusive: The Guardian by Oliver Milman and Jessica Glenza

At least 33 cities across 17 US states have used water testing “cheats” that potentially conceal dangerous levels of lead, a Guardian investigation launched in the wake of the toxic water crisis in Flint, Michigan, has found. Of these cities, 21 used the same water testing methods that prompted criminal charges against three government employees in Flint over their role in one of the worst public health disasters in US history.

The crisis that gripped Flint is an extreme case where a cost-cutting decision to divert the city’s water supply to a polluted river was compounded by a poor testing regime and delays by environmental officials to respond to the health emergency. The Guardian’s investigation demonstrates that similar testing regimes were in place in cities including Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee.

Marc Edwards, the scientist who first uncovered the crisis in Flint, described water testing in some of America’s largest cities as an “outrage." “They make lead in water low when collecting samples for EPA compliance, even as it poisons kids who drink the water,” Edwards, a Virginia Tech scientist, said. “Clearly, the cheating and lax enforcement are needlessly harming children all over the United States. “If they cannot be trusted to protect little kids from lead in drinking water, what on Earth can they be trusted with? Who amongst us is safe?”

Testing methods that can avoid detecting lead include asking testers to run faucets before the test period, known as “pre-flushing”; to remove faucet filters called “aerators”; and to slowly fill sample bottles. The EPA reiterated in February that these lead-reducing methods go against its guidelines, and the Flint charges show they may now be criminal acts. In the nine years since the EPA last updated lead regulations, a substantial body of peer-reviewed science has shown no level of lead is safe for humans. Tiny amounts are associated with impaired development and behavioral problems in children, and exposure is linked to a propensity to commit violent crimes.





Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/02/lead-water-testing-cheats-chicago-boston-philadelphia

[Angel Martin]

1. I knew it would not just be Portland and Flint nt

[scottie55]

2. Drink Some Lead Kiddies - A Jail Cell Awaits

If you have problems.....

[sofa king]

3. Holy crap!

Deliberate or not this has surely helped define our societies for years.

If deliberate, it's as diabolical as the Tuskeegee experiments.

[trudyco]

4. Hotdamn! The British News reveals the truth.

Go The Guardian!
I had heard that lead testing was voluntary and most towns didn't send in test results.

[arithia]

5. Unsurprising to see a PA city on the list

The Corbett administration went out of it's way to roll back water testing standards and environmental protections in general.

Sadly, I'm pretty sure the current gov would love to fix this mess, but our gerrymandered to Hell state is currently dominated by Tea Partiers who would rather float unconstitutional anti-abortion bills than work on a state budget (let alone improve environmental protections, water testing standards or invest in infrastructure.)

Then again, I'm a bit biased. I live in Harrisburg and my tap water is dirt brown with shiny, sticky, black particulate matter whenever it rains. Take a wild guess as to when THAT phenomenon started. ~_~

[BumRushDaShow]

6. I have used water filters on my faucet

for years and boil the water first if I have to use it out of the tap. The joke here in Philly was to reference our water as "Schuylkill Punch". At work, the building told us that the water from the sinks and older water fountains is "not potable" (we pay for our own water coolers).

I will say though that many cities like ours are slowly cleaning up the rivers and nearby ecosystems so the Schuylkill River is like day and night compared to how it used to be decades ago. Trout are yearly introduced to the Schuylkill for fishing, although I would be afraid to eat anything caught from it. The Delaware River still has a ways to go however, but is getting better.

[Major Nikon]

7. Actually the EPA recommends taking a pre-flush and a flush sample

https://www.epa.gov/dwreginfo/testing-schools-and-child-care-centers-lead-drinking-water

This is standard protocol for lead testing pretty much everywhere. The reason you take both samples is to pinpoint where the lead is coming from. If the pre-flush sample denotes high lead levels and the flush sample notes low lead levels, the source is probably local rather than remote.

[Igel]

8. Sssshhhhh.

You want repeated samples, a large number of samples, and multiple samples.

That would go towards having data.

We don't want data. We want incriminating anecdotes.

It's like the outrage when some place--Flint?--collected samples from a relatively small number of locations and found high lead levels, then collected more samples from a larger number of locations. Average lead levels fell. If the additional locations were random, then it was random chance in a small number of samples that we were outraged about (apart from the idea of zero tolerance for others). If not random, something I didn't see pointed out, then it was foul.

Then again, the only thing that mattered was the average. Not the other descriptors of distribution, or concern about peak levels (which, of course, should have been resampled and retested).

We're the products of the public education system we complain about.

[arithia]

9. Flint is a bad example to mention here

given that the testers were intentionally avoiding homes that were at higher risk for lead poisoning to make the problem seem smaller than it was.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/21/us/flint-lead-water-testing-distortions.html?_r=0