Philly needs to show its water is safe

There's an interesting local story that's been building in a weird, circular way. Basically, the gist is this: In the wake of the catastrophe with lead poisoning in the Flint, Michigan, water system, people are asking questions about the way that drinking water is tested for lead right here in Philadelphia.

Don't panic: No one is alleging that the water here is orange or has the toxic-swamp qualities of the swill that was pumped through Flint for nearly two years. But Philadelphia -- one of the nation's oldest cities with an ancient infrastructure, including a high rate of lead water pipes -- demands a rigid testing system. And now some critics say that Philadelphia tests its water in a way that would downplay any real lead pollution, instead of providing an accurate picture.

In the weird way that news gets covered these days, some of the best reporting has come from outside sources such as The Guardian, the British-based website that now aggressively covers U.S. stories. Here's an excerpt from their latest:

Dr Yanna Lambrinidou, a medical ethnographer, said that water sampling methods used by the Philadelphia water department don't properly illustrate the level of lead in drinking water and could mask the sort of problems suffered in Flint, Michigan, where a state of emergency has been declared over the toxic, discolored water that made many residents ill.

Water testing instructions given out to Philadelphia residents include the requirement to remove the faucet's aerator, a small filter, from the nozzle of the tap prior to sampling. Testers are asked to run cold water through the tap for two minutes, known as "pre-flushing", at least six hours before the test.

Research suggests both of these practices reduce the amount of lead flowing into the sample. Tests conducted by scientists at Virginia Tech showed that of 21 samples taken from Flint households, 16 were found to have higher lead levels than the official results when tested under conditions that replicate how people use tap water.

While not illegal, the US Environmental Protection Agency has advised against these procedures as they hinder the test's objective: to find the highest possible lead corrosion level in a household's water supply.

The Guardian article quotes Lambrinidou as saying that Philadelphia's testing protocol is worse than Flint and that the city has spent "20 years minimizing lead levels in tests." City officials, for their part, are defending both their testing methods as well as the overall quality of Philadelphia tap water. The stakes are high. The Guardian says some 10-20 percent of the city may still be connected through 19th-Century lead pipes, while homes built before 1980 may have lead fixtures inside the home.

As folks following the crisis in Flint probably know, lead poisoning among children can cause irreversible damage. On lead, the big picture for Philadelphia -- like other older cities with high poverty rates -- is half-empty and half-full. Overall, the banning of leaded gasoline has caused blood-lead levels in children to drop from peaks in the mid-20th Century, which is welcome news. Yet The Guardian notes that studies continue to find that about 10 percent of kids in Philadelphia have blood-lead levels that the government considered "elevated" -- four times the national average. There are several potential causes -- lead paint in older housing units, for example -- but those numbers show that it's critical that citizens here know the water is safe.

City Council, with a prod from one of its new members, Helen Gym, is reportedly planning hearings on Philadelphia's tap water and how it's tested for lead. This effort can't begin fast enough. This city has enough problems on its plate without worrying whether it's safe to drink the water.