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.”
And by lead pipe replacement I mean we’re replacing anti protester cop’s batons with lead pipes
Excuse me, officer. Before you dent my head, was that lead pipe recycled? Excellent, please continue.
Like, to actually do it? Or for companies to pocket the money and give up on it soon after, like with the infrastructure upgrade we should already have?
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I’m confused, are you saying we shouldnt be removing lead pipes which have been in use for nearly 40 years minimum?
They are only still in use because “they are so covered in minerals it’s probably fine” ignoring the fact that even a minuscule amount of lead leads to problems in both children and adults.
Could they focus on other things? Sure. But there’s always going to be “something more important than this” so it’s either pick something, or do nothing. Which option would you like?
No I’m saying our politicians suck so much ass that they’re literally 50+ years behind the curve. How the fuck are lead pipes still a thing at all??? Shit should have been done decades ago.
Geez someone’s been drinking lead pipe water
Hopefully lots of work to be done in conservative areas.
Looks like it outside of Cali and the north east, assuming they don’t fight it like they fight everything anyone on the left tries to do for them.
“Buh muh lead!1 gubment ruinin muh watuh!”
Waiting for the conspiracy videos where people are claiming they’are adding 4G modules to your pipes.
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Run fiber with the new pipes too.
Weve replaced all your lead pipes with covid vaccines
You still…?
Welcome to the 1800s.
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.
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.
You’re being pointlessly semantic and making no actual argument here.
Didn’t have an opportunity to make it clearer due to opponent’s smartassing tone, so: the argument was that it does matter how much probability there is of lead getting into your water.
Since, as even people under this post explain, it happens differently with different water composition, whether there is vibration, whether some sharp item floats through the pipe etc.
So a lead pipe doesn’t necessarily poison all water passing through it. Just sometimes does that.
Same as a punctured cast iron pipe doesn’t leak always, only when the pressure is right, when some coating of various nature over the puncture gets dissolved or damaged by vibration, etc.
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.
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.
Sadly, this is barely enough to scratch the surface. We need a lot more money put into this, and it’s not like the presidents before Biden didn’t know about it. They just didn’t even do this much. It’s disgraceful.
Your mood is a disgrace.
I’m sorry, sir. I’ll lick the boot harder, I promise!
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
You’re right. I need to really celebrate those incremental improvements. I mean, not like we’re gonna get anything more out of democrats. Just whatever they need to still be able to say “we’re not as bad as the other dude”.
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.
It’s in conjunction with state and local funding as well. Your local municipality might be abke to aquire $4 million to replace the main lines through local bonds, while getting $2 million from the state and another $10 million from this federal program.
Kind of true, but some lead pipes just aren’t an immediate issue. Like asbestos in a building that isn’t disturbed, it doesn’t hurt anyone until it starts to come loose.
Getting the worst of it solved is a good step.
The issue with not dealing with problems immediately, is that people have a tendency to push them down the line over and over until it’s not just immediate, it’s an emergency over a decade ago. Flint still doesn’t have clean water. This should have been a good first step Obama did, like he promised he was going to.
Flint actually does have clean water by most metrics and independent measurements, but public trust is reasonably deeply, deeply shaken.
This, and I don’t mean this as a bad thing, isn’t actually a thing Biden started. It’s a massive disbursal of funds allocated by the infrastructure bill to a program started in 1996 for upgrading water infrastructure and specifically removing lead pipes.
So this is something great to do, and we should keep doing more of it (there’s $12 billion more waiting for future rounds), and we can be slightly happy that we’re not complete fuck ups since we actually started nearly 30 years ago.
We shouldn’t have to live in a world where we need to advertise that the people entrusted to be basically competent at managing our public works are doing their jobs, but here we are, and we should probably advertise this stuff better.
Strategic lead reserve is being tapped… munitions.
Looking at historical data on lead prices, you might be on to something
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.
Nope, they’re actually still pretty common across the industrialized world. It’s not just a US thing.
We recognized the potential for harm decades ago, but for the most part it’s not a critical issue due to some minutiae of how lead pipes work in practice.
Incidents like Flint made it clear that the consequences of messing up that minutiae are big enough that we really, really shouldn’t be relying on them.
So this isn’t billions of dollars in emergency response, it’s billions of dollars in preventative maintenance, which is even better. 😊
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.
there is normally nothing wrong with well water. I have lab reports on my current well to prove it.
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Wasn’t lead also linked to paranoia, and the likelihood to believe conspiracy theories?
It’s proven to damage the brain, cause mental illness, and increase aggession and overall criminal behavior, so… Yes!
So maybe in the coming decades, Florida won’t be the laughingstock of the nation anymore. Bad news for Alabama.
Bad news for any place that has to take in Floridian refugees
I would say they could just count on evolving gills for when climate change sinks their state, but they don’t believe in that either.
Idk man knowing Ronnie he’s probably going to say something like “well us REAL AMERICANS grew up with lead pipes and we all turned out FINE!” turning it into a partisan issue like the stupid gas stoves and just reject all funding
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”.
Damn Libruls trying to take away our poisonous lead pipes
republicans now replacing their nonlead pipes with lead pipes
“Tonight on Hannity: Liberals want to take your Lead away!! The Romans used lead everywhere and they were a gigantic empire! Leave it to stupid liberals to think they know better than our ancestors! Take Back Our Lead!”
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Feels like they did that years ago.
And what did he do for the last 3.5 years? Not a damned thing, buying more votes it seems.
Infrastructure updates? Fuck yeah!
