Thread by @pdacosta

THREAD—"Flint is an extreme case but not unique." nyti.ms/30H5ljO

"A troubling number of cities across the country — Pittsburgh, Chicago, Portland, Ore. — are struggling with elevated lead in their drinking water.

"It’s one of the legacies of the profit-driven and largely unaccountable lead industry that thwarted science, fought regulations and forced its use in our gasoline, paint and plumbing.

"Now Newark, a city with three times the population of Flint, is facing a similar problem of lead in its drinking water."

"Newark’s water samples reveal lead levels that aren’t 'borderline' numbers or wait-and-see numbers. The amount of lead in Newark’s water is among the highest of any municipal system of its size across the country.

"Some levels in the city are in the hundreds of parts per billion. And now there is a concern that the lead-clearing filters are not working as well as they should."

"What can Newark citizens expect? If they’ve paid attention to drinking-water crises of the past 20 years in our country, they’ll see politicians who are in denial, utilities that don’t want to be held accountable, health officials who demand 'proof of harm' before taking action

"....and victims who are dismissed and even blamed.

The most telling example of what can go wrong — desperately wrong — can be learned from taking a close look at the Washington water crisis in the nation’s capital.

And you thought I’d be telling you all about Flint, right?

"There was a water crisis in Washington in the early 2000s, the kind of public health tragedy that government regulations are meant to protect us from. And it occurred right under the noses of our most powerful institutions.

"Unless that piece of history becomes more well known, and studied, it will continue to repeat itself."

"Lead in the Washington water? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. 'How could something like that take years to address?' As a pediatrician, I know lead is the worst kind of poison. Permanent. Life-altering.

"A neurotoxin, lead can have serious consequences on the developing brain. For decades, levels that the lead industry wanted us to believe are O.K. we know now are not. There is no safe level of lead exposure for a child.

“'Scientists and activists in D.C. tried to be heard — and were ignored,' Elin said angrily. 'Lead was in the D.C. water for years. More lead than you could imagine. More lead than I want to think about.'"

"After the water treatment in Washington was changed in 2000, authorities did routine sampling and test results showed high concentrations of lead in the public drinking water. As in Newark and Flint, the public was never notified. Even the city government wasn’t told.

"For the next four years, toxic levels of lead flowed freely and in heavy amounts in all four quadrants of the District — from Georgetown and Spring Valley to the farthest reaches of Georgia Avenue and Anacostia.

"It affected infants, children and adults; rich, poor and gentrified; working, middle and upper class; white and black. There could be as many as 42,000 children in Washington who were in the womb or under 2 years of age when they were exposed...

"... children who may have experienced inexplicable developmental delays, behavioral problems, low test scores and blunted potential from the impact of lead in their drinking water. Nothing was done for them.

"Nothing was done about the biggest villains in the Washington water crisis, either. All of them escaped conviction or consequences. Nobody went to jail. Nobody lost their job. Many were promoted."

"Flint and Washington and Newark are all viewed as black cities and have a shared history of segregation, redlining, race riots, white flight, economic decline, violence, a pernicious drug epidemic and a loss of local control.

"Newark’s water crisis, like Flint’s and even Washington’s, is an obvious case of environmental racism, a case of blindness to the people, places and problems we choose not to see.

If we stop believing that the government can protect us and keep all children safe, not just the privileged ones, what do we have left? Who are we as a country?"