D.C. Lead Issue Was Debated for Months

Regional EPA Office Decided No Federal Action Was Needed

By Carol D. Leonnig and D'Vera Cohn
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, March 16, 2004; Page A01

Federal authorities responsible for ensuring the safety of Washington's water knew about the toxic levels of lead and the likely solution more than a year ago but took no action, according to records and interviews.

On Nov. 21, 2002, a staff member in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regional office in Philadelphia told his supervisors in writing that "fast action" might be needed to solve the lead contamination problem in the water.

The alarm, sounded by an EPA liaison to the District, was based on test results received a few months earlier that confirmed unsafe amounts of lead in the District's tap water. On Nov. 26, the EPA staffer also e-mailed the D.C Department of Health about the public health risk, according to a copy of the correspondence, but there are no indications that local officials followed up.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61565-2004Mar15.html

In God's name how could a moral person support George aWol Bush and hi Repuke Butchers?

All else means nothing!!!

EPA employees are disciplined and fired for enforcing regulations...the US-ACOE Quality Assurance Chemist was FIRED for bringing the lead poisoning issue to her supervisors...the EPA water testing laboratory for Region III no longer has a Quality Assurance Chemist....and all government work is being contracted out to companies just like halliburton....slimy government-contracting-profiteers who do not care about WE THE PEOPLE.....

AND anyone who mentions any environmental regulation violation will suffer severe consequences to their careers....

Federal and State Government employees are good people who serve OUR country....they should NOT be tormented and threatened by bush* and his minions......

If we want a strong and healthy country, we should support OUR Government Employees....these are the people who rescue you from burning buildings, who save you from lead poisoning, and who treat your drinking water, and your sewage, and protect your parks, streams, rivers.....and treat your children when you bring them for medical care....

do not have any medical help for pregnant and delivering women.

This is our nation's capital!

I was born in D.C. and there has always been a part of Wash. that is neglected, on purpose.

link to the yahoo version of what is probably the same story...

the san francisco water district has switched to using chloramines, too. and if you think you're safe because your plumbing doesn't have lead pipes, think again. most plumbing fixtures contain lead. just waiting to be leached out by chloramines.



``...
By the summer of 2002, lead levels in the city's water had
reached 75 parts per billion, as measured by the EPA, five times
the level considered safe. In November that year, the EPA's
liaison to the District, Chris Ball, sent an e-mail to a
colleague about trying to alert his supervisor, Capacasa, to the
D.C. lead threat.

"Got through to Jon C on the drinking water issue," Ball wrote.
"It was news to him and he is looking into what's going on now.
He agreed that if it appears to be a real problem, fast action by
EPA would be key. . . ."

A few days later, Region III staff members prepared a memo
explaining that the spike in D.C. lead levels was a sure sign
that the water was corroding pipes and fixtures. In it, the EPA
surmised that the aqueduct's new chemical to treat bacteria,
chloramines, was a likely cause.

Chloramines "may also leave the pipe interiors more susceptible
to corrosion," the memo said. "EPA will work with the Aqueduct to
revisit corrosion control treatment options."
...''