Concerns of lead crisis grow, as multiple cities in the U.S. deal with elevated levels

Newark, New Jersey, stole headlines earlier this month when the city began distributing bottled water to residents due to elevated levels of lead in its drinking water, but a Bloomberg Environment analysis found that 10 other cities — including Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — are dealing with similar situations.

The other cities have not had to resort to Newark's more extreme measures, but they have had to forge expensive and lengthy campaigns to improve water quality and remove the lead pipes that are the source of the contamination. Bloomberg notes that the Environmental Protection Agency requires water utilities to sample lead levels up to twice a year and if more than 10 percent of those samples contain lead above 15 parts per billion, utilities must take steps such as more intense sampling, using different anti-corrosion chemicals, or ripping lead pipes out of the ground.

While 15 parts billion is reportedly only equivalent to about 15 drops of water in a swimming pool, lead can reportedly cause serious harm at even far lower levels. "What we know now that we didn't know a decade ago is that low does matter," Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, executive director of the Children's Environmental Health Network, said.

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The EPA estimated in 2018 that replacing lead service lines would cost an average of $4,700 per pipe with some replacements costing as much as $12,300. This would obviously add up in cities like Trenton, New Jersey, which has approximately 21,000 lead service lines. The cost isn't the only hurdle, either, since in some cases, homeowners must grant utilities companies permission to work on their private property. Read more at Bloomberg.