On April 7, the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water heard testimony on the problem of lead in the District of Columbia’s drinking water. The hearing follows a House Government Reform Committee hearing, held after the detection of elevated lead levels in D.C. water (see The Source, 03/05/04).
Subcommittee Chair Michael Crapo (R-ID) stated, “Clean water is everyone’s need and everyone’s priority,” adding, “We need to fix this problem, and we must fix it now.” Sen. Crapo highlighted the danger of lead exposure, noting that “lead poisoning delays development in children.” He mentioned the need for improved communication, and described the local problem of lead in drinking water as “a specific and serious example of a national issue.”
Ranking Member Jim Jeffords (I-VT) stressed the risks for children and pregnant women. “Children exposed to lead experience low birthweight, growth retardation, mental retardation, learning disabilities, and other effects,” he said. “It is also particularly harmful during pregnancy.” Sen. Jeffords asked why the federal government has not responded to research showing that exposure to lead below the current standard has an adverse effect on children’s intelligence levels, adding that he has requested a hearing in the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to “ensure that the Centers for Disease Control is aggressively addressing the problem of childhood lead poisoning.”
“There is no safe level of lead,” Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) asserted. She argued that the current safety standard for lead exposure “is in fact too high,” citing recent studies in the New England Journal of Medicine. “People need information,” Sen. Clinton stated, “so that a concerned mother…can find out what she needs to find out.”
Testimony from representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) focused on current measures designed to address the presence of lead in D.C. drinking water. Donald Welsh of the EPA outlined steps being taken by WASA and the D.C. government at the direction of the EPA: tap water sampling in schools, delivery of water filters to homes and buildings with lead service lines, notification of residential water sampling to occupants, and an enhanced public education plan.
Dr. Daniel Lucey of the D.C. Department of Health pointed out that very few people have tested positive for lead poisoning in recent tests conducted by his office. “None of the 201 persons we tested who live in homes with the highest measured levels of lead in the drinking water had elevated blood levels,” he noted, adding, “Only 2 of the initial 280 children in home care facilities with lead service lines had elevated blood lead levels.” Dr. Lucey said that only 16 of the 1,277 young children tested recently in clinics throughout D.C. were found to have elevated blood lead levels. Fourteen of those cases, he asserted, were due to “homes with dust and/or soil lead levels exceeding EPA/HUD (Housing and Urban Development) guidelines.”
Gloria Borland of Dupont Circle Parents conveyed the outrage of D.C. parents. “I’m sure if the Washington Post’s David Nakamura had not exposed this scandal, our young children today on April 7 would still be drinking leaded water,” she said. “Formula-fed infants may get as much as 40 to 60 percent of their lead exposure from water…When lead enters the brain of a child, it causes long-term learning and behavioral problems. Once the baby’s brain has been damaged by lead, it is irreversible,” Ms. Borland stated. Describing WASA as “dysfunctional,” Ms. Borland said that management at WASA must be changed, and called on the Senate to put WASA under federal control.
A comprehensive review of the effects of lead on children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers was given by Dr. Dana Best of the Children’s National Medical Center. She noted several critical points, including:
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Dr. Best said that according to a report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on blood lead levels in residents of homes with elevated lead in tap water in D.C., “a long-term decline in the blood levels of children living in the homes with lead service lines had halted in 2000, the year chloramines were added to water in the District of Columbia.” She described the results of this report as “disturbing,” and added, “The children of the District of Columbia deserve a safe environment in which to grow and develop into adults contributing to D.C.’s future.”
