You Wake Up In The Morning. You’Re Thirsty So You Decide

The lead in the environment is formed naturally in the earth’s crust mainly as Lead Sulphide. The main exposure channels of lead entering the environment through atmospheric lead is predominantly from automobile emissions. Other lead exposure routes include lead-acid batteries, paint chips, fertilizers, utilized ammunition, pesticides, and other industrial byproducts. The means of conveying lead from key emission sources is mainly through the air. Concerning the sources of lead in drinking water, normally lead reaches into the residents’ water after it is channeled from their water treatment plant or the wells. To be more precise, the source of lead in people’s water supply largely emanates from their households’ pipes or lead solder from plumbing. The most typical cause of the lead formation is from the corrosion reaction by the lead pipes or solders and the water. The acidity as a result of the low pH, dissolved oxygen, and little mineral contents in the water are main reasons of the corrosion. The lead amounts in the water become high if the water spends a long duration of time stagnated inside the old pipes.

The current water crisis in Flint, Michigan stems from government officials changing water sources. The government of Flint switched from using the water of Lake Huron, which they had used for over 50 years, to using the water of the Flint River, which had a high level of chloride. The high chloride level eventually led to the corrosion of water pipes allowing unhealthy levels of chlorine and lead contamination. Additionally, irresponsible and unreliable water treatment allowed even more contaminates to enter the city’s water source. All this pollution ultimately ended up in the homes of thousands of people, poisoning families throughout the city. Lead poisoning can have disastrous effects on the human body, with some symptoms including “memory loss, anemia (lack of healthy red blood cells), kidney dysfunction, and in severe

All the inhabitants of Flint communities regardless of their location had irreversible, permanent brain damage due to lead-contaminated water. It started when traces of E. coli and total coliform were found in the Flint River. The city addressed this problem by increasing chlorine levels in the water, causing the pipes to corrode, releasing lead into the waters. Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) were also formed in the water (they are carcinogenic to humans).TTHM is a disinfection byproduct that occur when chlorine interacts with organic matter in the water. At this stage, The lead levels in the water was 13,200 ppb. Water is considered hazardous waste at 5,000ppb (NPR 2016). This tragedy goes to show that this toxic runoff, or even the miss-handling of the water resources in a watershed can affect everyone as the downstream water was piped up into the upstream communities.

The lead effects in the drinking water have caused a massive public health crisis (“Scientific Opinion on the risks”, 2015). The whole crisis was as a result of poor management practices employed in the Flint water plant. The city decided to switch the

The article, “Lead Levels Remain High in Flint’s Water” by Matt Davenport explores the increased lead contamination in the Flint, Michigan water source. In April of 2014, high levels of bacteria, and fecal matter were detected in the water of Flint, Michigan. While the levels of bacteria decreased, the city’s water still breaks the federal rule for lead levels. A series of tests conducted by Marc A. Edwards was able to show that the city’s contaminated water was corroding pipes, which leached lead into the water. Because Edwards was able to inform the public about the contaminated water source, Michigan officials have taken steps to improve Flint’s water quality. For example, the water-pipes were re-routed to carry water from Detroit instead

Many service lines leading into homes are leaching lead into the water. This problem happened because the city of Flint decided to not treat the water properly with corrosion control (Ganrin, 2016). This proves that officials did not care about those living in Flint. They chose to save money but instead they destroyed many lives. So this proves that our government is not there to help the people out, but instead to cut money wherever they feel necessary to not have to take it from other places. Lead poisoning can affect IQ and behavior. This can cause some people to become score low on standardized test and to become violent and to sometimes harm others. No level of lead is ever safe in any person or animal (Ganrin, 2016). The water source in Flint is currently undrinkable and very unsafe and will continue to be for months ahead ("Researcher: Flint water 'like Russian roulette'," 2016). Flint water is not a safe water source and has not been for many months. According to federal regulations Flint's water supply still does not meet standards. Since August 2015 the water supply has improved, but it still is not safe ("Researcher: Flint water 'like Russian roulette'," 2016). The people of Flint have been poisoned under their noses without even knowing it, secretly being sickened by their own government. Flint’s water is not safe it's an unreliable water

In 2001, after Washington, D.C., changed how it disinfected drinking water, lead in tap water at thousands of homes spiked as much as 20 times the federally-approved level. Residents did not find out for three years. When they did, officials ripped out lead water pipes feeding 17,600 homes — and discovered three years later that many of the repairs had only prolonged the contamination.

In Flint Michigan studies show there was a large amount of lead in the water , because of this high turbidity in the water witch means this water is dangerous.

“In September, Virginia Tech researchers released a report saying Flint's water was creating a health threat in old homes that have lead pipes or pipes fused with lead solder. And doctors last week reported high levels of lead in local children's blood samples, also blaming water pipes” (CBSNEWS). Lead is a serious problem as it may cause a serious damage in different organs of the body especially the brain and it is the most known neurotoxin. However, knowing that lead is the source of the problem is an important piece of information which can facilitate reaching the source of lead leaching. In fact, many cities have lead pipes, not only Flint city, and when water sits in those pipes, the lead can leech into the water. So cities usually add corrosion-control chemicals, such as phosphates (PO4), to keep the lead out of the water. However, Flint did not take into account these precautions, and this was a major contributor to the high lead levels and, consequently, health problems, “the public health protection was gone,” Edwards says. (ALANA SEMUELS, 29 Jul. 2015). If we talked about the reason why the water in Flint’s River is difficult to treat, it turns out that it contains high levels of coliform and fecal coliform bacteria. But what makes it more difficult than Lake Huron water is that the Flint River is subject to temperature changes, rain events and high carbon content. An additional indication, is the increased level of trihalomethanes (TTHM), a byproduct of the large amount of chlorine needed to kill bacteria in the river water. For the most part, specific amounts of chlorine are used to treat river water, but the problem is that low levels of chlorine can produce coliform bacteria and, on the other hand, high levels of chlorine may result in Disinfectant Byproducts (DBP), which, in turn, may lead to elevated levels of

Back in April 2014, Flint Michigan, switched its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. The government believed that this would be a great idea, because by them making this big switch they begin to start saving a lot of money. The new water that they now use is very polluted. This is the water that each and every person in Flint depends on to drink, cook with and to also bathe in. A lot of people have been affected by this change in water supply. As things begin to worsen the people in Flint, started to hear and become very familiar to lead poisoning. A significant amount of their victims have fallen victim to to being affected by the contaminated water, that everyone has been using. Doctors have noticed that the amount of lead found

Water treatment plants typically add and remove chemicals, and change the composition of a water source in order to supply clean and safe water to its residents. Lead pipes that contain soluble forms of lead can allow lead ions to react with hydrogen ions within water, causing a dissolution reaction with allows for those lead ions to leach into the water and contaminate it as seen here with the dissolution of galena: PbS(solid) + 2H+ Pb2+(aq) + H2S(aq) The first problem that occurred with the Flint Water Supply was the fact that they did not have a plan to maintain the protective layer that builds up along the walls of lead pipes. This layer is made up of lead phosphate and lead carbonate. The previous water treatment facility that the city used added orthophosphate PO43- which is a negative ion that will bond with the positive lead ions (Pb2+) in order to form a solid chemical known as lead(II) phosphate

Imagine being informed that the water with which you bathe, brush your teeth, and cook is the root of many serious and sometimes fatal health problems. Sadly, this is the case for a majority of the citizens in Flint, Michigan. According to an online article titled “This is how toxic Flint’s water really is,” by reporter Christopher Ingraham, the culprit is high concentrations of lead that have leached into tap water from lead-containing pipe systems and fixtures as they slowly corrode. The article also informs that although nearly all citizens were exposed to the hazardous water, some exposures were found to be worse than others (Ingraham). Additionally Ingraham states “A group of Virginia Tech researchers who sampled the water in 271 Flint homes last summer found some contained lead levels high enough to meet the EPA 's definition of ‘toxic waste." With lead being the culprit, and nearly all citizens being exposed to the contaminated water, Flint has found itself in a near epidemic.

The more polluted a water source is, the more processing required to make the water safe to drink. Most of the contaminants now in Flint’s drinking water were introduced during or after processing. For all drinking water, the first concern is bacteria, which can cause diseases like hepatitis, Legionnaire’s disease, and other illnesses. Because Flint’s river water had high levels of bacteria, it was treated with additional chlorine. Chlorine reacts with organic material in the water to produce carcinogenic byproducts such as trihalomethanes; it also makes water more acidic, which corrodes pipes. Federal law mandates adding anti-corrosive agents to drinking water in large cities; this standard water treatment practice was not followed (Carmody, 2016). The water created issues with lead due to its high acidity. Water service connections have been made for years using lead piping primarily in the 1920s and 1930s. The acidic water corroded the old lead pipes and lead seeped into the water. Lead poisoning is the most widespread and serious health problem associated with Flint’s drinking water; children with prolonged exposure to lead experience a range of developmental problems that are incurable. Flint’s water-treatment staff were not able to successfully make Flint River water safe to drink. Whether this is because they were undertrained, understaffed, or simply made a decision not to invest scarce

The federal government realizes that lead and other contaminants pose a real threat too drinking water so they began to pass acts and amendments that restricts or prevents lead and other contaminants from affecting the drinking water. The clean water act and the safe drinking water act are major examples of what the federal government implemented. Lead still continued to be a problem due to the aging pipelines leading to the Flint, Michigan water crisis caused by improper care of corrosion control thus concluding the history of public water

Recently, the residents of Flint, Michigan experienced a water crisis that caused lead to contaminate the water supply of thousands of people in the city. Although, Flint is a developed city within one of the worlds most successful countries, the water crisis of 2014 rocked the nation to its core, causing us to investigate how safe our drinking water really is and how social inequality continues to plague the country. The old pipes that channeled the water from the Flint River is lined with lead that has gone untreated with anticorrosive for many years. The Flint River is filled with iron which in itself is highly corrosive, but when mixed with lead is doubly hazardous to those who consume the water (CNN). As contaminated water flowed to the