Photo by Will Huntsberry
Over the past two years, amid growing worry about lead in drinking water, officials from the city of San Diego’s water department have said none of the city’s water lines are made of lead.
Yet new data reveals that city water officials have repeatedly misled the public about what they know and don’t know, and that the city isn’t sure what 192,000 of the department’s lines are made of.
The department can’t account for the material contained in two-thirds of 285,000 service lines that connect the city’s big water mains to customers’ homes and businesses.
“Wow, that is a lot,” said Kurt Souza, the state Water Resources Control Board’s assistant deputy director for drinking water operations in Southern California.
That means not only are there potentially unknown public health issues in San Diego, if some of the lines are made of lead, but the city is facing a massive liability that could cost ratepayers nearly $1 billion in coming decades. If the lines are made of lead, or even if the city doesn’t know what they are made of, the city must to pay to replace them under a new state law.
No other major […]
Full article: Data Shows San Diego Officials Misled the Public on Potential Source of Lead in Water
At least 2% of US public water systems are like Flint’s – Americans just don’t hear about them
Kids Risk Lead-Contaminated Drinking Water in Schools
DC drinking water needs more monitoring for lead, audit finds
Lead-Tainted Water In Schools: Connecticut Gets Failing Grade
Michigan’s Lead in Drinking Water Protections Under Attack
New Mexico: New administration opens up on lead data
Toxic legacy: Wash U researchers look for ways to keep lead out of drinking water
Duke Study: Rivers Contaminated With Radium and Lead From Thousands of Fracking Wastewater Spills
In Echo of Flint, Lead Water Crisis Now Hits Newark, New Jersey
What new EPA lead regulations mean for local drinking water protection
New York governor signs law mandating lead testing in schools
Hillsborough School District found lead in its water, didn’t tell parents for a year.
Brain-damaging lead in tap water, hundreds of homes across Chicago
What Nashville’s Metro Schools Isn’t Telling You About Lead In Water
Gov. Brown Signs Bill Requiring California Water Districts to Test School Water for Lead
Watersheds on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard will be among the areas most affected by underground…
An invasive algae has wrecked huge sections of reef in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Scientists…
Sardine Meadow is a key link in conservation efforts for the Sierra Nevada, north of…
UC Davis researchers insert a device that continuously collects water samples underground, providing real-time data…
Irrigated farmland in the desert of the Imperial Valley. (Photo credit: Steve Proehl, Getty Images)…
The Inspector General of the Department of Defense released some scathing reports Thursday over the…