"Newark, New Jersey, has removed more than 20,000 lead water lines while the White House pushes national plan"
"In July 2018, tests showed that the drinking water supply serving Yvette Jordan’s home in Newark, New Jersey, contained nearly 45 parts per billion (ppb) of lead – three times the US Environmental Protection Agency’s action level for the neurotoxic heavy metal.
It was a similar story for many families across her city. A lead crisis had struck Newark, and it was drawing comparisons to the tainted water that devastated Flint, Michigan, a few years earlier.
Yet what has subsequently played out in Newark – for the most part, anyway – should serve as a “national model”, said Jordan, who is a high school history teacher.
Across the US, between 6 and 10m old pipes made of lead still connect people’s homes with local water supplies. As these underground lines age and corrode, more and more people are being exposed to lead, including young children who are particularly vulnerable to the metal’s impacts."
Lynne Peeples reports for Ensia and the Guardian July 15, 2021.
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