Results tagged “lead”

You knew something like this was only a matter of time. The Post reports that a D.C. man who is the father of developmentally disabled twin boys has filed a class action lawsuit against D.C. WASA.

District residents are understandably disturbed by yesterday's lead revelations in the Washington Post, and the D.C. Council has gone ahead and scheduled a hearing to address environmental and health concerns. The Committee on Government Operations and the Environment hearing is set for February 10 at 11 a.m. at the John A. Wilson Building, Room 412. Committee chair Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) will hold the hearing jointly with Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who oversees WASA.

So the big, big, big story on the front page of this morning's Washington Post was by Carol Leonnig, who obtained a copy of a forthcoming study that shows that hundreds of District children had dangerously high levels of lead in their blood during the WASA lead crisis earlier this decade.

The study, based on a detailed analysis of thousands of children’s blood tests from 2000 to 2003, contradicts the public assurances issued by federal and D.C. health officials starting in 2004. At the time, although officials acknowledged that the amount of lead in city water were at record-breaking levels, they said repeatedly that they found no measurable impact on the general public’s health.

This is seriously scary shit, especially for parents and pregnant women living in older homes in the neighborhoods identified as being the most affected: Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights, the southeastern portion of Capitol Hill, a large swath of Ward 4 along Georgia Avenue, and Northeast Washington's Langdon Park.

To refresh your memory, the Washington Post reported last weekend on a set of test results from 2006 that show major lead level spikes in the tap water of hundreds of homes just after lead pipes near them were replaced. The test results were obtained through a freedom of information act request by Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards, and were not made public by WASA before then.

Drinking water distributed in the District of Columbia meets all federal EPA regulations and standards for public health safety.

Except, of course, for the tap water from 658 homes tested in 2006, within a week after the agency partially replaced their lead service lines. Edwards' analysis showed those homes had lead levels 17 times the amount the federal government considers unsafe in drinking water.

The implication that WASA has been withholding information about “dangerously high” lead levels is unfair and unfounded for several reasons – (1) temporary spikes in lead levels are not a system-wide problem in District drinking water; (2) the potential for a spike affects only about two percent (2%) of customers who are having a partial lead service line replacement (replacing the lead pipe on the public side of the property line with copper pipe), (3) this temporary (short-term) elevation in lead levels can occur in some cases when lead shavings come loose in the pipes after construction, and (4) the lead spike is short-term and can be reduced by flushing the lines, which customers are instructed on before and after partial lead service line replacement.

The statement also detailed other instructions and advisements that are sent to property owners who are slated for partial lead pipe replacement, which do indicate that affected homeowners are given adequate information on the issue.

On Saturday the Post reported on a set of D.C. Water and Sewer Authority test results from 2006 that show major lead level spikes in the tap water of hundreds of homes just after lead pipes near them were replaced. The test results were obtained through a freedom of information act request by Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards.