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Biden announces proposal to replace all lead water service lines in US within 10 years
(abcnews.go.com)
this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
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Flip your district blue in 18 years with this one weird trick!
This is a greater threat to the republicans than gerrymandering is to the democrats!
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Huzzah! Another great move by the Biden administration that will probably be overlooked by most commenters, like his labor board appointments that led to the recent union resurgence were.
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Those that purposely destroyed the water systems with cuts in Flint Michigan should have been quartered in a public square.
Sadly in reality they probably received bonuses and perks.
Those that caused the switchover to Flint River water that resulted in the disaster surfacing definitely should be drawn and quartered, no question. Snyder and his city managers put all this nonsense in motion and should be charged with crimes against humanity.
However, it's also a systemic, deeper problem in the US. Flint's pipes didn't suddenly become terrible overnight. The entire water system was in disrepair for decades. The only reason it didn't surface sooner was they were regulating the water going through it to hold the demons at bay. Even when it was working, pre-disaster, the water was safe to drink, but horrible from a drinking water perspective.
The whole system was a giant leaking piece of junk that basically kept working due to positive pressure pushing contaminants out of the leaks, and the pH level being maintained so the old pipes wouldn't start leeching into the water. That a GM engine plant had to switch water sources because the water was damaging the engine construction is just mind-blowing. Human bodies are vastly more delicate than engines.
Flint's not the only one either, many American cities with aging water infrastructure that wasn't properly maintained all have/had similar problems.
We are such a short-sighted country that seems to so quickly forget that our infrastructure requires constant maintenance and updates. I really think the generation that got to live among all the New Deal and post WWII infrastructure just thought they lived in a magic time where all this stuff just exists forever, rather than realizing it takes stewardship to keep things "the way they are". Now, we on the back end, reap the rewards of everything falling apart at the same time, faster than we can fix it.
We are such a short-sighted country
We see about as far as the next quarter's profits. That seems to be the marker. Apparently, the future isn't really worth looking at past that.
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Just another day on which I as a European am absolutely shocked how shit the quality of life in the US is.
Europe has lead pipes as well, buddy.
They're perfectly safe as long as idiots don't change the water supply to one that's more acidic without buffering the pH.
Hell, England and Wales have nearly 3x more than the entire US.
That isn't perfectly safe. That is normally safe, but once in a while something will go wrong and they become unsafe.
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We currently have the freedom to drink lead tainted water, can you say the same?
Yes. 25% of domestic residences still use lead piping in the EU, compared to 10% in the US.
Europeans "Try Not To Talk Shit About Something You're Actually Worse About" Challenge:
Impossible.
But it feeeels like they should be better! Don't bring facts into the Europe self-suck contest
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That data is still from 2009 though, but sadly there doesn't seem to be a newer statistic. Since that time many changes were made to push for the removal of old lead piping in the EU.
Anyway the threshold for lead in drinking water in the EU is 10ug/L since 2013.
Since 2020 a regulation has been in effect with the goal to have less than 5 ug/L drinking water at the consumer until 2036 everywhere in the EU.
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC125733
The US has a threshold of 15 ug/L.
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You don't even have pipes in Europe. You drink water that you squeeze out of your sheep's wool
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I would rather DRINK LEAD then to not be allowed to call a black person the N WORD! I'm a NOT RACIST REPUBLICAN!
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Amazing that this has not been done decades ago.
To be completely fair, a layer builds up in the pipe which stops the lead being an issue unless you royally fuck up like Flint. That said, it still should've been fixed
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This has the potential to save democracy itself. If we can hold out 30-50 years.
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This has been often speculated as being the cause of the "Stupid American" stereotype. Good decision
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This is great. 10 years seems long, but it is a huge project. Glad it will be started soon.
Edit: Aw shit. This is only a proposal. At least we are talking about it.
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"An initial estimate is that 25% of domestic dwellings in the EU have a lead pipe, either as a connection to the water main, or as part of the internal plumbing, or both, potentially putting 120 million people at risk from lead in drinking water within the EU. "
As of 14 years ago! And Europe has a lot of former communist countries that hasn't fully reached Western European standards yet.
Led has been illegal to use in many contexts for decades in EU, including water pipes, and for instance electrical wiring and soldering.
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This is a hugely underrated win imo. We have no idea the damage lead is doing to us, we can only guess the damage in health problems is in the billions. Politicians usually don't give a shit about this so for Biden to do so is a big outstretched hand and big achievement
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Why suit man take my sweet water?
I know the GOP will hate this plan, and want people dumber.
Can you imagine if this turns out to be the thing that was needed to calm you lot down?
In a major new study (conducted decades ago) it turns out that Lead in your water/food/air is bad for you
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Waiting for a Republican to call this a woke, gay, Chinese conspiracy or whatever.
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my little town is replacing all the water mains.. when the streets above them need repair or rebuilding, along with the lines to customers where needed. they've done two streets in the last ten years, each about 8-10 blocks long. they've got a long ways to go. 10 years ain't nearly enough time unless someone is gonna pony-up a ton of cash.
If almost guarantee the federal government will throw a couple billion at this, the local utilities will mismanage it, and the project will be completed in 2050 after another round or two of investment and maybe the army Corp of engineers taking over from bubba’s utility coop
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