Pittsburgh Homeowners Have To Pay Up If They Don't Want Lead-Poisoned Water

It’s been almost a month since a test revealed that the lead levels in Pittsburgh’s drinking water were high enough for the Environmental Protection Agency to take notice. The EPA’s so-called action level is 15 parts per billion, or ppb, and levels meeting or exceeding that were found in 17 percent of the 100 homes tested in the city. Even before that testing, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto had said Veolia ― a French company that manages energy, water, waste and other traditionally public services in partnership with municipalities around the world ― was at least partly to blame for problems with the city’s water supply. Veolia changed its corrosion control methods at the treatment plant after it was hired in 2014 to assist the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority.  Peduto says Veolia made this change, which he has called a “procedural error,” without the approval of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. Veolia is also currently under fire for potentially playing a role in a water crisis in a city about 300 miles away: Flint, Michigan.  Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed a lawsuit against Veolia earlier this summer, saying the company had “basically botched” the task it was hired to perform — address water safety in the city. Schuette alleges that the company, along with a second firm, worsened the situation. Veolia, which earns $33 billion ...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news