Replacing Lead Water Pipes with Plastic Could Raise New Safety Issues

Whelton and his colleagues have actively pursued questions about potential contaminants in the water carried in plastic and other types of drinking water pipes. Two years later the team published a study that compared contaminants released by copper pipes and by 11 brands of a total of four types of plastic pipes. Microbial growth thresholds were exceeded in water in contact for the first three days of exposure with three of the brands of PEX pipe. Then, in a 2017 study, Whelton and other colleagues found that heavy metals, including copper, iron, lead and zinc accumulated as sediment and formed scales inside PEX drinking water pipes in a home’s one-year-old plumbing system. This funding builds on $350 billion provided in the American Rescue Plan that states, localities, and Tribes are able to utilize for lead pipes and the replacement of faucets and fixtures inside schools and child care facilities. All pipes can leach their constituent materials to some extent, according to a 2006 National Research Council report.

Our nation’s drinking water infrastructure system is made up of 2.2 million miles of underground pipes that deliver safe, reliable water to millions of people. There is a water main break every two minutes and an estimated 6 billion gallons of treated water lost each day in the U.S. enough to fill over 9,000 swimming pools. However, there are signs of progress as federal financing programs expand and water utilities raise rates to reinvest in their networks. It is estimated that more than 12,000 miles of were planned to be replaced by drinking water utilities across the country in the year 2020 alone.

water pipes

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How the pipe wars play out — in city and town councils, in state capitals, in Washington — will determine how drinking water is delivered to homes across America for generations to come. Each of the studies, however, drew the pointed attention of the other NSF , which reported$123 water pipes million in revenuein 2020. On a voluntary basis, manufacturers of products ranging from water system components to microwave ovens may pay fees to NSF, or any of several other competitors, to assess whether products meet standards and whether they merit certification.

As many as 8,000 children were exposed to unsafe levels of lead in Flint, Mich., after the city switched to a new water supply but failed to properly treat the water with chemicals to prevent its lead pipes from disintegrating. Corroding iron pipes, meanwhile, have been linked to two outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease in Flint that added to the public health emergency. “We are not aware of credible evidence that would discourage the use of plastic pipe or other products that are certified to NSF/ANSI/CAN 61 in drinking vaporizers bongs water systems,” NSF said in a statement to Scientific American. The funds could cover the replacement of about a third of the nation’s estimated six million to 10 million such lines. In addition to activating these investments, the Administration will mobilize existing resources and programs, technical assistance, rulemaking and policy standards, and other tools to accelerate progress towards the President’s goals. Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is releasing its Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan.

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