Flint Water Crisis or Lead in Your Pipes?
Flint, Michigan is still rolling around with these youngsters who think that the government has completely ignored the situation (especially Trump) and there is still a crisis there.
Here is the full story of Flint, which many people probably do not know:
After several years of thinking, in early 2013 the Flint City Council (which is broke) decides to save money by switching water supplies from Detroit City Water to Karegnondi Water Authority. The KWA needs a couple of years to complete work before they can supply Flint with water. Flint knows this.
April 17, 2013 Detroit sends the city of Flint notice that its water contract is going to expire soon. This did not mean that Detroit was going to cut off Flint. Like an Eviction Notice there would be many steps before the water was actually cut off, steps amounting to months or even years. The Flint City Council took this as Final Notice, however and panicked.
June 26, 2013 Flint contracts with Lockwood, Andrews & Newman, Inc to use the Flint River and retrofit the Flint Water Plant to supply water to the city. LAN had been in contact with the city for a couple of years already and had advised the Flint City Council that any water taken from the Flint River posed a substantial corrosion risk to pipes and had to be chemically treated to mitigate said risk. They also warned Flint that there needed to be testing of water that came out of the plant for 2-3 months before any of that water hit the city systems. However the city ignored LAN’s warnings and made a very limited contract with the company that excluded water treatment and testing. - source
At the same time KWA broke ground on their project to supply Flint with water from Lake Huron.
During this time (for a few years before and after) the Emergency Managers that are supposed to help Flint with their money troubles form a revolving door. It is possible that the LAN Risk Assessments gets lost in this shuffle as the contract with LAN gets narrowed further (to save money).
March 7, 2014 Detroit offers to continue to supply Flint with water until KWA finishes their project. The Emergency Manager refuses the offer.
April 9, 2014 State Environmental Regulators, who are assessing the effects of the water plant on the Flint River and not the safety of the water coming out of the plant, approve permits for the water plant to switch on. The switch from Detroit City Water to the Flint River happens on April 25, 2014.
Complains begin almost immediately from city residents. E. Coli is found in the water supply. In October the GM Plant in Flint stops using the Flint Water citing it is causing corrosion in the engines it is power-washing with it. January 2015 Federal Regulators find Flint to be in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act. However the Flint Mayor Dayne Walling (D) comes out and insists the water is safe to drink. A few days later the University of Michigan finds high lead content in some of the water samples from campus areas; thinking the problem is isolated they close off some public water fountains. Also in January the Emergency Manager changes once again.
February 2014, high lead is tested in several homes in Flint. It goes down hill and back and forth from there for a couple of years. October 16, 2015 at a cost of $12 million the city of Flint reconnects with Detroit City Water. - source (NPR Michigan)
Since 2015 the State of Michigan has sent Flint over $350 Million to aide in everything from medical costs and health monitoring to paying for bottled water to supplying water filters to replacing plumbing in houses. After two years of the crisis the Obama Administration finally approved $100 million as part of the EPA Budget to go to Flint. That money was still unused in the EPA budget when Trump came into office and although Trump gutted many things, mostly regulations including language that classified rain water as a hazardous waste, the $100 million was finally dispersed (given to) Flint to continue the work the State of Michigan had already started.
Here is a graph of the lead testing over the years in Flint: - source
In conclusion to this part of the post the Flint Water Crisis is over but certain weaknesses in the water supply of most cities were exposed there (as are noted below) and the medical effects of the crisis will be felt for some time into the future.
The question that none of these sources gets into in detail is how the lead got into the water in the first place. Most people assume (wrongly) that the Flint River has high lead content. The truth of it is the lead came from old pipes, especially the ‘service line’ that goes into most homes built before the 1970′s (and some even later). Also the solder used to join metal pipes (both copper pipes and steal pipes) had lead in it before 1986. Brass Faucets had up to 8% lead in them up until 2014. - source
Let me explain a bit about the ‘service line’. I like pictures so here is one:
The orange is the service line, the blue is the city water lines. The city is responsible for the blue part, the homeowner is responsible for the orange part. This is standard for all of the USA (not sure about other countries). The is a similar arrangement (without the meter and valve) of responsibility on the sewer-side. That entire skinny part is often made of lead in older housing areas. This is usually not a problem, as 50/50 solder on metal pipes is not a problem, because cities treat their water with chemicals, specifically phosphate additives, that coat the pipes and keep the lead from leaching into the water. - source source
To add onto this, since almost no one on City Water tests their water (people on wells-water often test water especially when it is sold), most people have no idea if their water contains lead or not, for the lead is not coming from the water plant but from their own plumbing. Since the Phosphate levels in the city water supply is not always consistent, you could get periods of elevated lead in your own water supply, especially in dry periods in normally wet climes like anywhere east of the Mississippi, which is also the most likely areas one is to find houses with metal pipes and lead service lines.
Most filter systems today filter out lead and other bad things so it is recommended that one uses one for drinking water (or making tea/coffee, cooking, etc.). Note: boiling water does not remove lead, in fact it concentrates it. Use a filter always. Lead is only a problem when ingested so showers or baths shouldn’t be a problem ever, but if you have a baby you might want to use filtered water for its bath just in case it swallows any of the bath water; sponge baths shouldn’t be a problem. In fact if you have a kid I would make sure the plumbing all the way to the street (including the City part) is lead-free. but then I renovate houses as part of my living so tearing up a yard and walkways is no big deal to me.
PS -
I should note that on my houses in general with the plumbing I go by ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ rule although I do often redo limited plumbing for bathrooms and kitchen remodels and will often add outdoor faucets. I will only test water once if there is a well involved and never test it if it is city water. Testing well water is just a bonus to help with the sale but even that is more than most people do.
I have yet to live in home that I plan on keeping for more than a few years but I do plan that once I do find a long-term home the home will most likely be a full renovation to the studs. In other words new plumbing, wiring, insulation, drywall, everything but maybe hardwood floors, from the Street Mainlines to the sockets and spigots. I even plan on moving walls, maybe even raising the roof to add livable attic space.
But to buy a flip that needs all that is rarely worth it.
