In this recent editorial written for Water Quality Products (WQP), ENPRESS’ own Michael Mormino wrote about the growing problem of lead contamination in drinking water nationwide.
In the article, Mormino runs down the quick list of cities that have recently dealt with lead crises—Flint, Chicago, Milwaukee, Newark, Denver, Pittsburgh, Providence, Oakland—and notes that there is no “safe” level of lead in drinking water. This is a problem people need to be aware of and one that has the potential to impact all of us.
Some of the eye-opening figures mentioned in piece:
- 6-10 million lead service lines in the United States
- 96 million people may currently be getting their water from lead service lines
- $275 billion is the estimated cost to replace lead service lines nationally
High-level solutions like replacing all the lead service lines around the country will be costly and take decades, while small-scale solutions like turning to bottled water or using point-of-use (POU) filters are costly and inconvenient. A middle ground may be point-of-entry (POE) devices that can remove lead from water going into a home or business before it reaches sinks, showers, bathtubs, dishwashers, or refrigerators.
As Mormino writes in the WQP piece: “Perhaps the solution for cities grappling with lead contamination lies in the water treatment industry, and specifically designed POE devices that filter all the water as it enters a home.”
Read the full WQP article on POE treatment to remove lead from drinking water here
