Lead Levels In Water Misrepresented Across US

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Lead Levels In Water Misrepresented Across US

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A7094-2004Oct4?language=printer

http://paranormalnights.com/star/index.php?showtopic=940

 

Cities across the country are manipulating the results of tests used to

detect lead in water, violating federal law and putting millions of

Americans at risk of drinking more of the contaminant than their suppliers

are reporting.

 

Some cities, including Philadelphia and Boston, have thrown out tests that

show high readings or have avoided testing homes most likely to have lead,

records show. In New York City, the nation's largest water provider has for

the past three years assured its 9.3 million customers that its water was

safe because the lead content fell below federal limits. But the city has

withheld from regulators hundreds of test results that would have raised

lead levels above the safety standard in two of those years, according to

records.

 

The result is that communities large and small may have a false sense of

security about the quality of their water and that utilities can avoid

spending money to correct the problem.

 

In some cases, state regulators have helped the utilities avoid costly

fixes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is supposed to ensure

that states are monitoring utilities, has also let communities ignore

requirements to reduce lead. In 2003, records show, the EPA ordered

utilities to remedy violations in just 14 cases, less than one-tenth of the

number ordered in 1997.

 

Taken together, the records point to a national problem just months after

disclosures that lead levels in the District's water are among the highest

in the country, a problem the city's utility concealed for months. Documents

from other cities show that many have made similar efforts to hide high lead

readings, taking advantage of lax national and state oversight and

regulations riddled with loopholes.

 

The Washington Post examined 65 large water systems whose reported lead

levels have hovered near or exceeded federal standards. Federal, state and

utility records show that dozens of utilities obscured the extent of lead

contamination, ignored requirements to correct problems and failed to turn

over data to regulators.

 

Jim Elder, who headed the EPA's drinking water program from 1991 to 1995,

said he fears that utilities are engaging in " widespread fraud and

manipulation. "

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