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Comment by toodlebunions | Hacker News Reader

Will they get the same attention?

Will the nation ever upgrade and repair ancient and disastrous infrastructure?

In my area (Western PA), the water authority is working to replace lead service lines, but only to the curb. Unfortunately, it is up to the homeowner to replace the line from the curb to the house. This is quite expensive, and depending on the topography, requires a significant amount of digging.

This is not an excuse, but I think it's important to point out in some cases, the issues with lead are on private property, and some municipalities just can't afford to fix everything.

Wait, what? They have actual lead pipes for drinking water? That's insane.

It's safe as long as the water chemistry doesn't leach the pipes. If it does, and you're not using agents in the water to stop it, you get Flint, MI.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis

"The Flint water crisis is a drinking water contamination issue in Flint, Michigan, United States that started in April 2014. After Flint changed its water source from treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department water (which was sourced from Lake Huron as well as the Detroit River) to the Flint River (to which officials had failed to apply corrosion inhibitors), its drinking water had a series of problems that culminated with lead contamination, creating a serious public health danger. The Flint River water that was treated improperly caused lead from aging pipes to leach into the water supply, causing extremely elevated levels of the heavy metal neurotoxin."

Is anyone else not totally cool with showering and drinking water with flouride, chlorine, and inhibitor chemicals? APEC Water makes a great counter-top tankless RO filtration system for $200 that takes 10 mins to install and doesn't require any permanent mounting (so it's fine to use in apartments). The only downside is that unlike filter taps with a reservoir tank, you only get the RO membrane rate of flow (~2GPH depending on your water pressure) so you kinda need to fill up a jug and keep it in the fridge, otherwise an 8oz glass of water takes about a minute to fill.

What's the risk here? Fluoride helps control dental health and chlorine keeps biological contaminants at bay. These are beneficial for your health! If you really don't want chlorine in your drinking water (or don't like the taste), you can let it sit in an open container for a couple hours - it will just evaporate...

Lead was the common material for pipes until the 1950s and was only banned in the US in the mid 1980's. Most of the infrastructure in the US was built during the industrial revolution around the turn of the century, so most of that infrastructure is lead. If the water is treated properly (with very low levels of extremely cheap chemicals), these pipes are completely safe. It was estimated that spending $150/day in Flint would have prevented the crisis.

In some cases the solution not being obvious isn't an excuse for why there isn't proper disclosure and prompt remediation when the solution is obvious.

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