This story from The Guardian talks about 33 cities in the United States that manipulated the tests for lead in the drinking water to hide potential danger to citizens. A lawsuit has been filed.
Written by Oliver Milman and Jessica Glenza, June 2, 2016
Of these cities, 21 used the same water testing methods that prompted criminal charges against three government employees in Flint over their role in one of the worst public health disasters in US history.
The crisis that gripped Flint is an extreme case where a cost-cutting decision to divert the city’s water supply to a polluted river was compounded by a poor testing regime and delays by environmental officials to respond to the health emergency.
The Guardian’s investigation demonstrates that similar testing regimes were in place in cities including Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee.
On Thursday, the Hagens Berman law firm filed a class action lawsuit against the city of Philadelphia, alleging that water department testing protocols “temporarily hide” lead contamination and that the city does not test enough high-risk homes.
The Guardian investigation concerned thousands of documents detailing water testing practices over the past decade. They reveal:
Despite warnings of regulators and experts, water departments in at least 33 cities used testing methods over the past decade that could underestimate lead found in drinking water.
Officials in two major cities – Philadelphia and Chicago – asked employees to test water safety in their own homes.
Two states – Michigan and New Hampshire – advised water departments to give themselves extra time to complete tests so that if lead contamination exceeded federal limits, officials could re-sample and remove results with high lead levels.
Some cities denied knowledge of the locations of lead pipes, failed to sample the required number of homes with lead plumbing or refused to release lead pipe maps, claiming it was a security risk.
To read the rest of this important story, click here.
Of the 43 large cities that provided water testing information to the Guardian for this investigation, 33 used distortions in their testing in the past decade. Photograph: Richard Drew/AP
33 cities violated EPA testing protocols for testing for lead in waterCities that tested for water incorrectly
This information contributed by members of hb5, a co-working space in Concord, NC.
