Tag: plumbing
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Senate hearing next week on Tribal access to clean water: it takes more than just a pile of money
The U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee is holding an important hearing Thursday on S. 2385, a bill to refine the tools needed to help Tribal communities gain access to something that most non-Indian communities in the western United States have long taken for granted: federally subsidized systems to deliver safe, clean drinking water to our homes. Inkstain readers…
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Does California Have a ‘Lead in Drinking Water’ Problem?
More testing and proper lead service line replacement is needed throughout the state. It has been nearly eight years since the Flint water crisis and yet we continue to see how lead-contaminated drinking water threatens human health and disproportionately impacts vulnerable communities across the country. As headlines of lead in drinking water continue to make…
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As Newark Deals With Water Crisis, Another Look at Lead Levels in Chicago
Elevated lead levels in Flint, Michigan, and Newark, New Jersey, have made national news, causing growing concern over water safety in Chicago. Mayor Lightfoot has suspended the city’s water meter installation program after samples showed higher lead levels in homes where a water meter had been recently added. Research has shown that lead levels can…
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Why the modern bathroom is a wasteful, unhealthy design
Piped water may be the greatest convenience ever known but our sewage systems and bathrooms are a disaster For centuries, the people of London and other big cities got their cooking and washing water from rivers or wells, limiting their consumption to pretty much what they could carry. They dumped their waste into brick-lined cesspits…
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Chemicals that keep drinking water flowing may also cause fouling
The top image shows a thin and stiff biofilm formed from untreated water, and the bottom image shows a thick and soft biofilm that formed as a result of polyphosphate treatment. Credit: Helen Nguyen Many city drinking water systems add softening agents to keep plumbing free of pipe-clogging mineral buildup. According to new research, these…
