Re:State of emergency declared after lead and copper found i...
by xyzzy123 on Wednesday November 01, 2023 @07:45PM
(#38106999)
As far as I can tell only the last link has any quantitative information about the actual level of contamination:
Lead: Of the 66 sampling locations, 35 of the first samples exceeded EPA’s 15 ppb Lead Action Level.
Results for Lead ranged between 16 ppb and 20,000 ppb. For the second samples, after flushing the water
for 3-5 minutes, the levels fell to below the Lead Action level for all but two sample locations.
Copper: Of the 66 sampling locations, 15 of the first samples exceeded EPA’s 1300 ppb Copper Action
Level. Results for Copper ranged between 1320 and 137,000 ppb. For the second samples, after flushing
the water for 3-5 minutes, the levels fell to below the Copper Action level for all locations.
Note: 20,000 ppb is 20 mg/L, which is ... yeah that's a pretty high dose of lead.
Re:State of emergency declared after lead and copper found i...
by londons_explore on Thursday November 02, 2023 @04:20AM
(#38110441)
'flushing for 3-5 minutes ' solving the issue shows that it is likely in the pipes of the household that tests are being done in.
Aka, someone still has lead pipes in their house.
Could maybe be lead pipes leading to the house from the street too.
There are two fixes:
* add phosphates to the water, which reduce the amount of lead that will dissolve. Done in old cities where a large proportion of people still have lead pipes.
* go replace those pipes. Done where only a small chunk of people have lead pipes so it is feasible to replace them all.
Re:State of emergency declared after lead and copper found i...
by xyzzy123 on Thursday November 02, 2023 @06:39AM
(#38111525)
I did a double take also, the units are a bit confusing... 1 ppb is 1 nanogram per gram but there are 1000 grams in a litre so 1 ppb is 1 microgram per litre. So I still think that approx 20mg/L is the correct figure.
Re:State of emergency declared after lead and copper found i...
by mortify on Wednesday November 01, 2023 @10:12PM
(#38108120)
There are no details in this article. It doesn't even state whether their water source is tainted or if it's a transmission issue. My house tested 16ppb for lead. Our source had no lead but a low ph which was leaching lead from the solder used on the pipes. An acid neutralizer brought the ph up and the lead dropped to zero.
https://viconsortium.com/vi-health/virgin-islands-vi-governm...
https://viconsortium.com/vi-wapa/virgin-islands-water-testin...
https://www.viwapa.vi/news-information/press-releases/press-...
https://www.vi.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2023-State-of-...
https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-10/october-2...
Lead: Of the 66 sampling locations, 35 of the first samples exceeded EPA’s 15 ppb Lead Action Level. Results for Lead ranged between 16 ppb and 20,000 ppb. For the second samples, after flushing the water for 3-5 minutes, the levels fell to below the Lead Action level for all but two sample locations.
Copper: Of the 66 sampling locations, 15 of the first samples exceeded EPA’s 1300 ppb Copper Action Level. Results for Copper ranged between 1320 and 137,000 ppb. For the second samples, after flushing the water for 3-5 minutes, the levels fell to below the Copper Action level for all locations.
Note: 20,000 ppb is 20 mg/L, which is ... yeah that's a pretty high dose of lead.
Aka, someone still has lead pipes in their house.
Could maybe be lead pipes leading to the house from the street too.
There are two fixes:
* add phosphates to the water, which reduce the amount of lead that will dissolve. Done in old cities where a large proportion of people still have lead pipes.
* go replace those pipes. Done where only a small chunk of people have lead pipes so it is feasible to replace them all.
It's 20μg/L. It's bad (hence the state of emergency), but not so bad that you would actually see the lead with naked eyes.