Current Event #4 - Detroits Contaminated Water

In Detroit, Michigan water with high levels of lead and copper is being used in schools. Some schools have stopped having water at their school. Water fountains have been replaced with water coolers. Parents are outraged and disappointed that this has been pushed off. They want the problem to be addressed. A test had been done by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services that children under six had a higher percentage of lead in their blood in Detroit -- almost nine percent, above the statewide average of four percent. Some are saying that this is becoming a lot like the Flint incident which started in 2014. Officials and water quality experts say that the problem might just be of aging pipes. They say they’re decades old.
Something very similar to this happened only a couple of years ago in Flint. The lead levels in the water were very high and exposed over 100,000 residents. If this exact problem has happened in the same state and only a few years later why hasn’t it been addressed and fixed earlier on? If children don’t know that their water is contaminated and they're drinking it there's a problem. One lady said, “Twenty years of pipes — that was around the time I was going to school.” in a New York Times Article. Knowing that these pipes have been there for two decades, and maybe even longer, is really scary. It's even worse that schools had to cut off the water because it was so contaminated.

 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/us/detroit-schools-water-lead-contamination.html

Comments

  1. Payson R.December 20, 2018 at 8:54 AM

    I think that if the pipes are too old then they should be replaced. Also, I'm sure there is an another option such as a harmless chemical that would break down the lead. My question is how does the lead get into the pipes. The only possibility i can think of is that the pipes themselves are lead but that doesn't make sense.

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