DC again has an issue with lead in drinking water -- this time, in several schools.
One fountain in a kindergarten classroom at Kenilworth showed lead levels of 1,200 parts per billion. The Environmental Protection Agency recommends that school water fountains be taken out of service if the lead level exceeds 20 parts per billion.
My guess is that it is leaching out of brass fittings.
From today's Washington Post:
The D.C. Water and Sewer Authority violated federal law by claiming that the water in more than 400 District homes had safe levels of lead and by not replacing that number of lead service lines, federal regulators announced yesterday.
The class action against the D.C. Water and Sewer authority based on lead in the drinking water in the District has been remanded from federal court to D.C. Superior Court, on the grounds that there is no longer federal question jurisdiction.
The issue was whether the plaintiffs' negligence per se theory of liability, based on alleged violations of federal statutes or regulations, created federal question jurisdiction. The Court held that it did not, because it was an alternative theory of liability.
Another Post article on the growing scandal of lead in municipal drinking water across the country.
No surprise that water departments around the country have been accused of fudging on their tests for lead in drinking water, as Washington Post reported on Oct. 5.
I have often wondered why there is so much more litigation in Baltimore over lead-based paint poisoning than in the District of Columbia. One reason might be that legally required blood tests of young children simply are not being done in the District, as the Post reports today.
The Washington Post today reported that Paul Hastings Janofsky is filing a class action in D.C. Superior Court against the District of Columbia and WASA arising out of the problem with lead in the drinking water.
Earlier the Post reported that the problem may not be limited to lead from lead service lines, but also may be the result of lead being leached from brass fixtures by chloramine used for water purification. And it probably is a problem with national scope.
Ironically, while this news is being greeted with shock and dismay in D.C., it is not exactly a new problem, e.g., this link shows that Philadelphia has recent experience with this problem.
The EPA has a website discussing lead in drinking water.
Later: The D.C. government has a web page with further information on the problem.
