To Remove Lead Water Pipes, First You Must Find Them

[Remodeling Maidiac]

Safe drinking water for everyone in America is an important goal, and Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan makes a $111 billion investment toward that. While the majority of the funding goes to modernizing water treatment and delivery systems and remediating potentially harmful chemicals like PFAS, what’s gotten the most attention is a $45 billion initiative to “replace 100 percent of the nation’s lead pipes and service lines.”

If we could manage to do this, it would make a huge difference. Lead exposure has been credibly linked to stunted child development, kidney disease, auditory problems, brain damage, behavioral challenges, and more provocatively, crime. We eliminated leaded gasoline and paint in the 1970s and yet it still lingers as a persistent problem. And part of that comes through water tainted as it flows through lead pipes.

But if you want to replace all the lead water pipes in America, the first thing you have to do is find all the lead water pipes in America.

First 100: To Remove Lead Water Pipes, First You Must Find Them

And then you have to remove the whole pipe, including the part on private property.

prospect.org

This sounds like it has the makings of a chaotic nightmare. I don't have a problem with it as long as homeowners are not having to come up with money to replace them.

in all my 45 yrs of working on old houses I have never seen a single lead water pipe,, they are used fro drain pipes but not water pipes because they cant handle the pressure,,

Shhhhh! You don't want to educate the left! Let them remain ignorant.

And yes lead is a very malleable material lol

Only place I've ever seen those pipes is under toilets and on main waste trunk line connections.
Hate remodels that have that old shit

 

[progressive hunter]

copper breaks almost as easy as pvc,, if youre worried about freezing you use pex

My custom home builder said he thought he would be copper forever, but switched to Pex for that very reason if it freezes Pex expands it doesn't split. When it thaws it shrinks back again. That cold spell in Texas burst about 5 million copper pipes open.

I was very skeptical the first time I saw it 20 yrs ago,, but after using it for a few yrs I think it deserves to be the new standard

 

[progressive hunter]

It is time to replace much of the cast iron piping....so america needs to step up to the plate

Cast iron is almost exclusively used for mains (in the street)and drains and is neither lead nor the issue here.

these are some kind of cast iron lead hybrid,, dont understand it but thats what they say

 

[progressive hunter]

in all my 45 yrs of working on old houses I have never seen a single lead water pipe

maybe I'm missing something,, but lead pipes would crush if you buried them and burst if you put them under the pressure water is put under,,

WTF are you people talking about?

Just about any FEED water pipe installed pre-1960 was lead. If they haven't been upgraded they are STILL lead but coated with calcium...which when degraded by chemical or physical means exposes the people drinking from that water to the lead

WTF are you talking about??

in 45 yrs of primarily working on old houses I have never seen a lead supply line.. only lead I've ever seen is in trunks lines for drains,,

 

[progressive hunter]

copper breaks almost as easy as pvc,, if youre worried about freezing you use pex

My custom home builder said he thought he would be copper forever, but switched to Pex for that very reason if it freezes Pex expands it doesn't split. When it thaws it shrinks back again. That cold spell in Texas burst about 5 million copper pipes open.

the pipe won't bust but the fittings will/can

very unlikely,, the pipe is to close and the fittings are a lot thicker,,

 

[Concerned American]

Safe drinking water for everyone in America is an important goal, and Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan makes a $111 billion investment toward that. While the majority of the funding goes to modernizing water treatment and delivery systems and remediating potentially harmful chemicals like PFAS, what’s gotten the most attention is a $45 billion initiative to “replace 100 percent of the nation’s lead pipes and service lines.”

If we could manage to do this, it would make a huge difference. Lead exposure has been credibly linked to stunted child development, kidney disease, auditory problems, brain damage, behavioral challenges, and more provocatively, crime. We eliminated leaded gasoline and paint in the 1970s and yet it still lingers as a persistent problem. And part of that comes through water tainted as it flows through lead pipes.

But if you want to replace all the lead water pipes in America, the first thing you have to do is find all the lead water pipes in America.

First 100: To Remove Lead Water Pipes, First You Must Find Them

And then you have to remove the whole pipe, including the part on private property.

prospect.org

This sounds like it has the makings of a chaotic nightmare. I don't have a problem with it as long as homeowners are not having to come up with money to replace them.

Wait a minute, let's back up here. Are you advocating the government replacing lead pipes on private property? If so, I am afraid we have reached a parting of ways. My tax dollars are not used to advance my personal lot in life and I don't support using them to replace outdated homes vulnerabilities either. What's next, free replacement of popcorn ceilings because they have asbestos in them? I am fine with replacing lead pipes in the public infrastructure, but on private property, no way.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

It is time to replace much of the cast iron piping....so america needs to step up to the plate

Cast iron is almost exclusively used for mains (in the street)and drains and is neither lead nor the issue here.

Older homes are full of cast iron but that's on the homeowners to deal with not our tax dollars

 

[Concerned American]

It is time to replace much of the cast iron piping....so america needs to step up to the plate

When did this thread move from lead to cast iron?

 

[progressive hunter]

It is time to replace much of the cast iron piping....so america needs to step up to the plate

When did this thread move from lead to cast iron?

the pipes in question in flint are not lead pipes ,, they are a lead cast iron hybrid,, so some are just going into other aspects,, and yes its off topic,,,

 

[Concerned American]

View attachment 478872

Lead was used in the solder mixture to solder copper pipes together. You'd have to use a lot of solder at that joint to make the water toxic. Most of the copper pipes in my area have been replaced with PVC because copper pipes don't last forever.

I think some of the old cast iron sewer pipes were lined with lead to make them last longer because lead doesn't rust like cast iron, not sure on that though, but then that isn't drinking water.

*****SMILE*****

I don't think solder ever comes in contact with the water on a copper pipe joint if it is done right. So that is a non-issue as well.

It is time to replace much of the cast iron piping....so america needs to step up to the plate

Cast iron is almost exclusively used for mains (in the street)and drains and is neither lead nor the issue here.

Older homes are full of cast iron but that's on the homeowners to deal with not our tax dollars

The bottom line is that no iron or steel pipe will last forever. Every home owner will at some point be forced to deal with plumbing issues. The public should not be forced to pay for it. Newer construction has dealt with this with the introduction of PVC and Pex pipe for potable water and ABS for sewage. People who buy older homes are either stupid or naive to think that plumbing lasts forever.

 

[Donald H]

Not a big deal that should take 5 pages of Americans spamming each other. If you want the lead pipes to stay, support Trump. If you think they should be removed, support Biden.

As a Canadian I'm leaning toward leaving them all in place.
Government has no right spending OPM for social programs such as replaceing perfectly good pipes. It's communism, socialism, pinko, bleeding heart librul lies.

You Americans can take it from here, I'm outta it.

 

[progressive hunter]

Not a big deal that should take 5 pages of Americans spamming each other. If you want the lead pipes to stay, support Trump. If you think they should be removed, support Biden.

As a Canadian I'm leaning toward leaving them all in place.
Government has no right spending OPM for social programs such as replaceing perfectly good pipes. It's communism, socialism, pinko, bleeding heart librul lies.

You Americans can take it from here, I'm outta it.

does that mean youre going to stop trolling this thread now??

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

View attachment 478872

Lead was used in the solder mixture to solder copper pipes together. You'd have to use a lot of solder at that joint to make the water toxic. Most of the copper pipes in my area have been replaced with PVC because copper pipes don't last forever.

I think some of the old cast iron sewer pipes were lined with lead to make them last longer because lead doesn't rust like cast iron, not sure on that though, but then that isn't drinking water.

*****SMILE*****

I don't think solder ever comes in contact with the water on a copper pipe joint if it is done right. So that is a non-issue as well.

It is time to replace much of the cast iron piping....so america needs to step up to the plate

Cast iron is almost exclusively used for mains (in the street)and drains and is neither lead nor the issue here.

Older homes are full of cast iron but that's on the homeowners to deal with not our tax dollars

The bottom line is that no iron or steel pipe will last forever. Every home owner will at some point be forced to deal with plumbing issues. The public should not be forced to pay for it. Newer construction has dealt with this with the introduction of PVC and Pex pipe for potable water and ABS for sewage. People who buy older homes are either stupid or naive to think that plumbing lasts forever.

I switched to pex about 15 years ago. I've had one fitting fail in that time and it failed in the first week.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Really not necessary....Lead pipes have enough calcium scale in them to make the threat of lead contamination negligible.

Oh yeah?

Then where is all the lead in the water coming from?

National trends in drinking water quality violations

Drinking water contaminants pose a harm to public health. Some can cause immediate illness, such as the 16 million cases of acute gastroenteritis that occur each year at US community water systems. Here, we show that health-based drinking water quality violations are widespread, with 9–45...

www.pnas.org

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

Not a big deal that should take 5 pages of Americans spamming each other. If you want the lead pipes to stay, support Trump. If you think they should be removed, support Biden.

As a Canadian I'm leaning toward leaving them all in place.
Government has no right spending OPM for social programs such as replaceing perfectly good pipes. It's communism, socialism, pinko, bleeding heart librul lies.

You Americans can take it from here, I'm outta it.

There are no lead pipes feeding water ya moron. Just goes to show how stupid the left is. My first post in the thread comes to mind...

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

There are no lead pipes feeding water ya moron.

Except for the 10 million American homes that have lead pipes feeding water into them from the water main.

Lead pipes: A threat to kids across America

U.S. homes relying on lead pipe lines put kids at risk. The protective coating can fail unpredictably, allowing lead into drinking water.

www.edf.org

So you were only off by 10 million.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

There are no lead pipes feeding water ya moron.

Except for the 10 million American homes that have lead pipes feeding water into their homes.

Lead pipes: A threat to kids across America

U.S. homes relying on lead pipe lines put kids at risk. The protective coating can fail unpredictably, allowing lead into drinking water.

www.edf.org

So you were only off by 10 million.

They are on waste lines. In 30 years I have never seen lead lines feeding any supply in the thousands of homes I've worked in

 

[progressive hunter]

There are no lead pipes feeding water ya moron.

Except for the 10 million American homes that have lead pipes feeding water into their homes.

Lead pipes: A threat to kids across America

U.S. homes relying on lead pipe lines put kids at risk. The protective coating can fail unpredictably, allowing lead into drinking water.

www.edf.org

So you were only off by 10 million.

They are on waste lines. In 30 years I have never seen lead lines feeding any supply in the thousands of homes I've worked in

from what I seen so far the main lines have some kind of iron lead hybrid pipe,, being mainlines we wouldnt see them in working on the house itself

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

They are on waste lines.

False. They are the service lines leading to the homes from the water mains. Facts are facts.

 

[Disir]

Safe drinking water for everyone in America is an important goal, and Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan makes a $111 billion investment toward that. While the majority of the funding goes to modernizing water treatment and delivery systems and remediating potentially harmful chemicals like PFAS, what’s gotten the most attention is a $45 billion initiative to “replace 100 percent of the nation’s lead pipes and service lines.”

If we could manage to do this, it would make a huge difference. Lead exposure has been credibly linked to stunted child development, kidney disease, auditory problems, brain damage, behavioral challenges, and more provocatively, crime. We eliminated leaded gasoline and paint in the 1970s and yet it still lingers as a persistent problem. And part of that comes through water tainted as it flows through lead pipes.

But if you want to replace all the lead water pipes in America, the first thing you have to do is find all the lead water pipes in America.

First 100: To Remove Lead Water Pipes, First You Must Find Them

And then you have to remove the whole pipe, including the part on private property.

prospect.org

This sounds like it has the makings of a chaotic nightmare. I don't have a problem with it as long as homeowners are not having to come up with money to replace them.

in all my 45 yrs of working on old houses I have never seen a single lead water pipe,, they are used fro drain pipes but not water pipes because they cant handle the pressure,,

Shhhhh! You don't want to educate the left! Let them remain ignorant.

And yes lead is a very malleable material lol

Only place I've ever seen those pipes is under toilets and on main waste trunk line connections.
Hate remodels that have that old shit

Ok. What are your thoughts on the plan, the amount of money being spent, the potential for fraud here?

What has become very clear is that there is an over abundance of trust in people about those things that we don't know about. By we I mean me. So..........how do we navigate this? What am I looking for?