The Biden administration has announced a proposal to “strengthen its Lead and Copper Rule that would require water systems to replace lead service lines within 10 years,” the White House said in a statement on Thursday.
According to the White House, more than 9.2 million American households connect to water through lead pipes and lead service lines and, due to “decades of inequitable infrastructure development and underinvestment,” many Americans are at risk of lead exposure.
“There is no safe level of exposure to lead, particularly for children, and eliminating lead exposure from the air, water, and homes is a crucial component of the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic commitment to advancing environmental justice,” the Biden administration said.
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“We don’t want any of your leftist ‘woke’ pipes!”
I can already hear my boomer father bitching
Came here to say this. I look forward to whatever their excuse is to not solve the toxic drinking water problem. And likely immediately spend more on DoD or cut taxes to the rich.
DoD
Dungeons or Dragons?
That would be infinitely cooler and more useful.
Sadly it’s the department of defense.
Lead makes Republicans
It’s funny, because the hexbears basically have the same “Biden bad” reaction. Almost like there’s a weird amount of ideological overlap.
Not a hexbear, but the leftist “Biden bad” narrative wouldn’t demonize investing in infrastructure, they would call out shit like unconditional support for Israel or failing to meaningfully improve social safety nets via Medicare for All, or other such measures. Biden is a Liberal, at the end of the day, and that’s not going to please any leftist except by not being a fascist.
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Flip your district blue in 18 years with this one weird trick!
Just another day on which I as a European am absolutely shocked how shit the quality of life in the US is.
Europe has lead pipes as well, buddy.
They’re perfectly safe as long as idiots don’t change the water supply to one that’s more acidic without buffering the pH.
Hell, England and Wales have nearly 3x more than the entire US.
We currently have the freedom to drink lead tainted water, can you say the same?
That explains a lot about the Republican party
It doesn’t, but lead gas and paint do.
Yeah! Tell that bad British person to shut up about my freedom water! They almost made me drop my crayon and I’m trying to find dot #6! I can’t wait to find out which shape these dots are going to make me draw… There’s seven dots and the word “stop” in the middle, so I’m thinking a school bus!
The funny thing is that England has more residences with lead pipes than the entire US.
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It’s worth noting that 9.2 million homes is an extremely small percentage of American homes and I’d say almost all of them are extremely rural homes or dying rural towns that just need relocated. Think of North Dakota as akin to the Siberian oblasts or northern Finland, neither get a lot of infrastructure care because no almost one is there. This is the Biden admin trying to look out for the little guy that’s been ignored the last century
He should do high speed internet next. My mom has been stuck on a 3mbps WISP since 2007.
Agreed, the ISPs pissed away the billions they got in the early 2000s. It’s time to pony up another few billion but let the military do the work this time then hand the actually completed project to gouvernement ran ISPs.
My dad is still paying frontier like $80 a month for 4mbps that doesn’t work half the time
Eh, it doesn’t need to be installed by the military, but it definitely needs to be a public works project.
And if the telecoms push back, it’s time to start an audit on where that tax money went.
But yeah, AT&T’s fiber trunk line runs 50ft from my mom’s front door, but they wont even put a dsl relay out there (it’s been 2 years away for the past 20 years)
I only say the military because they’re answerable to the executive branch, the public ISPs are beholden only to shareholders who do not have the best interests of the public in mind. If given the opportunity the ISPs will squander it again and there’s nothing an after the fact audit will do about it, the military will at least complete the job even if it takes longer and is slightly over budget.
And by military I mostly mean army Corp of engineers and whichever division wants to offer up its IT ops crew for the setup
You don’t even have pipes in Europe. You drink water that you squeeze out of your sheep’s wool
Delicious sheepwater. You will never take away my sheepwater.
Have you ever been here?
Amazing that this has not been done decades ago.
It’s such a staggering amount of work and money that I think is hard for most people to comprehend. Though, if dispersed properly, will benefit local workers as they usually require they get paid prevailing wage. Which can be pretty fucking high depending on where you live.
And even once all of the lead service lines are replaced, that’s just from main to the meter at most. All of the internal fixtures are the owner’s responsibility, and you better believe tons of old houses are still full of lead pipes.
This is something that is going to take decades, and you’re absolutely right that we should have started decades ago.
Germany outlawed installing lead pipes in 1973, this year operating them got outlawed, though already ten years ago the permissible lead concentrations were so low as to be basically impossible achieve if you had even short runs of lead pipes. All the main lines got replaced IIRC in the 80s, latest, can’t find numbers right now, though apparently they rarely used lead there in the first place.
Also, btw, if you’re already digging up water pipes it’s quite easy to install some cable ducts while you’re at it, put all those power and telco lines underground and stop looking like a 3rd world country. That kind of last-mile infrastructure should be managed by municipal-level monopoly, if an ISP wants to sell you something they can hook up to the municipality’s IXP and rent the rest of the way to your house at fixed, fair, rates. It’s a natural monopoly: It makes as much economical sense to run more than two power or telco connections to a house as it makes to run more than one street to your house: Costs a lot of money to run that second street and as soon as you did your competitor is going to lower their prices, which they can do because their investment already amortised, and leave you stranded with your investment because why would the residents of the house switch to your offering if your competitor is cheaper. There’s an opportunity when switching from copper to fiber but fiber will last for the next 1000 years so it’s not really a solution.
Come on now, you’re actually making sense, we don’t do that here in the US. Money and the amount of effort required rule everything.
It’s just another case of “it costs too much to fix it, so just keep slapping a bandaid on it and kick it down the road”, just like the rest of our infrastructure. Yet we have billions available to “defend” ourselves 🙄
More than billions, I think our defense budget was $766 billion in 2022 alone, at around 12% which was actually lower than 2021 which cost taxpayers 15% and 801 billion.
It’s… it’s a big big problem, especially in a time where the U.S hasn’t had a war on it’s soil in a long, long time.
I get that we go to other countries and
help out a bitget involved but we have issues on our own turf killing us from the inside.Yeah, I just saw a YouTube video where the US has “frozen” the access to mega-yachts owned by Russian billionaires, but they can’t seize them because they can’t legally prove that the billionaires own them since they’re registered in one country and owned by a shell corporation in another country. So if we (and other countries who are doing this) can eventually prove that they own said yachts, we can sell them, but until then we have to pay the constant upkeep on them to keep them in pristine condition… Which costs like 10 million a year per yacht…and we have multiple of them🤦♂️
No money to pay our citizens more, invest in our own infrastructure, or fund programs that our citizens need!
Nope, none of that. Can’t even support our veterans that fought in the past wars that taxpayers had to pay trillions for but they can afford the salaries of the soldiers currently out there. It’s like when a corporation cuts the 401k’s of thousands of employees then turns around and hires thousands more…
The yachts ordeal is yet another example. All this $ frivolously spent on excess before basic needs of citizens are being met. The U.S could damned near be a utopia if we’d elect some people with common sense and quit voting in corrupt politicians.
I could rant about this for hours as it’s just basic stuff. It’s petty and boring so read on at your own risk.
We can’t afford guns until the needs of the common people have been met.
We can’t afford to imprison people for trivial stuff when they’re not an active threat to society.
Healthcare is a right, not a privilege.
Food is a right. No one should have to decide between paying the rent and eating a proper meal.
Housing is a right and shouldn’t be a for profit industry. Buying up tons of land in a scheme to get wealthy isn’t good for anyone.
Banks just… shouldn’t exist the way that they do. Neither should the credit system, predatory loaning practices etc. Prices just keep going up due to this.
If banks/credit ceased to exist and loans stopped being made, then the price of things would have to adjust to reflect what the average person can actually afford which just makes sense right? If an average person can’t make enough to afford their own home at regular wages within a few years by their self then either they aren’t getting paid enough or asking prices are way too damned high.
There are just some practices in this world that are bad for it. Everyone knows the shit but no one will do anything because the people with the power to actually enforce change are benefitting too much from the same system to kill it.
Oh, and another one. Flint Michigan is supposedly enacting an (iirc) $9-10 million dollar bill to repair/replace their pipes in order for the people their to have clean drinking water and not get sick or die from lead poisoning. $9-10 mill would make all that difference yet our government won’t pay it even though we’re spending the better part of a trillion each year blowing things up. How petty is that? Can’t take a penny out of our war money so people can have clean drinking water… pathetic!
Yep it’s disgusting. They’re only willing to put money into things that will (potentially) make them money.
That, and bombs. Nice username btw
I would rather DRINK LEAD then to not be allowed to call a black person the N WORD! I’m a NOT RACIST REPUBLICAN!
For some reason I read that last post with an Italian accent. I’ma noot racist
Let’s a go!
This has the potential to save democracy itself. If we can hold out 30-50 years.
What are the odds that this is just a campaign promise and he never even attempts to actually do this?
Edit: this was a genuine question. I’ve seen lots of broken campaign promises in my day. Politicians will promise you the moon every election cycle, but very few ever deliver.
Biden has had more accomplishments in his presidency than most.
TL;DR: largest economic stimulus packages ever passed in US history. Designed to prevent a COVID depression, build US manufacturing, support western democracies and compete against chinese manufacturing, and to decarbonize the US to fight climate change.
Plus there was the whole clean up the trumpian COVID mess and support Ukraine being invaded by Russia.
I found a good list here: https://www.upworthy.com/joe-biden-s-23-greatest-achievements-as-president-of-the-united-states-so-far
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Passed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package to increase investment in the national network of bridges and roads, airports, public transport and national broadband internet, as well as waterways and energy systems.
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Helped get more than 500 million life-saving COVID-19 vaccinations in the arms of Americans through the American Rescue Plan.
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Stopped a 30-year streak of federal inaction on gun violence by signing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that created enhanced background checks, closed the “boyfriend” loophole and provided funds for youth mental health.
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Made a $369 billion investment in climate change, the largest in American history, through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
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Ended the longest war in American history by pulling the troops out of Afghanistan.
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Provided $10,000 to $20,000 in college debt relief to Americans with loans who make under $125,000 a year.
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Cut child poverty in half through the American Rescue Plan.
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Capped prescription drug prices at $2,000 per year for seniors on Medicare through the Inflation Reduction Act.
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Passed the COVID-19 relief deal that provided payments of up to $1,400 to many struggling U.S. citizens while supporting renters and increasing unemployment benefits.
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Achieved historically low unemployment rates after the pandemic caused them to skyrocket.
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Imposed a 15% minimum corporate tax on some of the largest corporations in the country, ensuring that they pay their fair share, as part of the historic Inflation Reduction Act.
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Recommitted America to the global fight against climate change by rejoining the Paris Agreement.
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Strengthened the NATO alliance in support of Ukraine after the Russian invasion by endorsing the inclusion of world military powers Sweden and Finland.
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Authorized the assassination of the Al Qaeda terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri, who became head of the organization after the death of Osama bin Laden.
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Gave Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices through the Inflation Reduction Act while also reducing government health spending.
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Held Vladimir Putin accountable for his invasion of Ukraine by imposing stiff economic sanctions.
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Boosted the budget of the Internal Revenue Service by nearly $80 billion to reduce tax evasion and increase revenue.
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Created more jobs in one year (6.6 million) than any other president in U.S. history.
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Reduced healthcare premiums under the Affordable Care Act by $800 a year as part of the American Rescue Plan.
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Signed the PACT Act to address service members’ exposure to burn pits and other toxins.
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Signed the CHIPS and Science Act to strengthen American manufacturing and innovation.
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Reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act through 2027.
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Halted all federal executions after the previous administration reinstated them after a 17-year freeze.
Here’s what the Whitehouse says:
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This is a hugely underrated win imo. We have no idea the damage lead is doing to us, we can only guess the damage in health problems is in the billions. Politicians usually don’t give a shit about this so for Biden to do so is a big outstretched hand and big achievement
Republican might loose a lot of it’s voter base
It’s a win, but not really underrated. We can test for lead easily in both the water supply and people, there are some isolated areas it’s bad, but it’s not a problem in most areas.
Waiting for a Republican to call this a woke, gay, Chinese conspiracy or whatever.
Why? I’m sure there are some vocal extremists who will shit on anything Biden does, but I know quite a few republicans and all them support this move. Do democrats and republicans really live under the illusion they’re so different from one another instead of almost exactly the same like they are?
I used to be a republican when I was young, mostly because they understand economics better, but then later I found myself disagreeing with them on social/censorship/privacy issues. One side wants to impede freedom one way, and the other wants to impede it the other way, that’s when I realized that both parties are hypocritical by nature. And I doubt it was knowingly designed this way, but all either side ever does is end up growing government and removing freedoms aside from the rare big wins towards actual liberty.
Didn’t mean to go into rant mode, it’s just annoying to me when democrats call republicans stupid or vice-versa. No, neither side is stupid. They have reasons for their beliefs, and while they do go through mental gymnastics to convince themselves their platform isn’t hypocritical, they’re both still coming from a place of trying to improve the world. But you bring that up and then people will use “whataboutism” all day to point to specific examples that seem particularly indefensible on one side or the other. This then makes productive discussion impossible. We all need to acknowledge that the “other” side aren’t heartless bastards who don’t care about the rich or who don’t know how money works or whatever ignorant complaint you have, actually take time and learn.
Edit: Truth struck much too hard for many people lmao
Republicans are heartless evil bastards. Abortion bans. LGBT existence bans. Book bans. No gun controls. Underfunded education. Climate denial. Unchecked capitalism and inflation. Housing and stufent debt crises. Grifting trillions from taxpayers. Witch hunts against politicians family members who stayed out of politics. Sketchy relationships with the Russians, Chinese, and Saudis.
Fuck off, both sider. They are not the same.
They are the same. I’m sorry that you see yourself so much in them that you feel the need to lash out at me, but if that works for you whatever I suppose.
What are you talking about?
Republicans absolutely are not better on economics in any way whatsoever. They borrow, spend, and saddle everyone with high interest. All of the trillions of debt is their doing, and theirs alone, and always has been.
Oh really? Let’s hear why you think this, I bet it’ll be good.
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Republicans are already against it.
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Bless your heart.
I know the GOP will hate this plan, and want people dumber.
Key word is “proposal”, which will be used for the election. But will not be actually fought for, or if somehow makes it through will likely be gutted to give corps money and just retain the name. I am thinking it would be stopped just like all the bullshit was on technicalities that we never hear of except when shit that would help people is brought forward (the shit involving that stupid-ass parliamentarian a few years ago being a great example). And the mass public of liberals or otherwise the “um I really don’t care about politics” folks will just remember it was mentioned at some point and assume it was done. Just another failure of our larger problem of mass amnesia. Similar to how so many idiots voted for Biden over Bernie because they thought they both were for Medicare for All, since Biden had stated multiple times that “healthcare is a right”. Fuck him, his party, the Republicans, corpo media, and especially the capitalist ruling class that owns both parties!
Sounds like he’s a-Biden by safety regulations.
Champ!
TIL that America uses lead water pipes… WTF
It’s actually pretty common around the world. Most places stopped putting in new ones but haven’t gone back and phased out the old ones.
The UK and Germany for example didn’t discontinue the practice until the 70s.Usually there’s a coating in the pipes that prevents contamination, allowing utilities to replace the pipes with more modern replacements as they do routine maintenance. There’s a big focus on doing that maintenance ahead of schedule in the US after a series of very public incidents where that coating was damaged and lead got in the water causing serious issues.
Coating on lead pipes? I highly doubt that. The whole point of using lead is that it’s malleable, corrosion resistant and cheap.
The coating is usually a scale build up and not an intentional coating.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190403080506.htm
It’s not like it’s plastic lined, but there’s a coating that prevents lead from leeching into the water supply that’s built up by additives in the water.
If you want more info, just look up lead pipe scale.
Not that plastic coating would be much better with what we’re learning about that now.
America used lead water pipes
Lead pipes can last 100+ years
America is ~250 years old.
Lead pipes installed in early 1900s would still be functional today.
Now look at the UK. They still use lead sheet for roofing, as well as piping.
a big bold plan to solve a major american problem?
Must be election season.
In unrelated news totally not privately owned utility companies are about to sue the government with the argument, “the current Congress didn’t sign off on this regulatory change that an older Congress gave the agency the power to do.”
This and more in the decade long SCOTUS hates us all crisis.
