Robert Miranda (continued)

“In 2015, the community frontline groups Freshwater For Life Action Coalition (FLAC) and Get The Lead Out Coalition (GTLO) initiated a campaign to address the hazards that lead service lines presented to the health of Milwaukee residents. There were organizations that addressed matters of concern related to water such as our source water Lake Michigan, the rivers around the city, creeks and streams, etc. It was our organizations – not our water utility – who put the focus on lead in water.

For four decades, the city of Milwaukee consistently blamed children's high blood lead levels on lead paint, soil, and dust.Our elected officials rarely mentioned the other important sourceof lead exposure: lead service lines and in-home lead-bearingplumbing, despite a 1959 lawsuit in which a Milwaukee tenant sued their apartment building owner for alleged lead poisoning from the building’s lead service line.

This omission has had very real implications. For example, during the 1993 cryptosporidium contamination, Milwaukee residents were told to boil their water every day, without mention of the need to also filter it, since boiling can concentrate lead and place people at increased risk of exposure. Similarly, during Milwaukee’s record number water main breaks in 2014, Milwaukee residents were not told that the construction to repair these mains would physically disturb the plumbing of nearby buildings and that this would accelerate the leaching of lead in at least some people’s water.

Why would residents be told the truth about the hazard of lead in their water?

The LCR did not mandate such disclosure. Our water utility relied on the sampling protocols that the LCR requires it to use to comply with federal regulatory requirements. But after we reviewed the data from several years of those sampling events –that the city finally posted online this past month because we demanded that they do – we confirmed that lead has been flowing out of every single tap that our utility has tested. And yet, it has always declared our water “safe.” Yes. Lead in every test was detected. And yes, our water has always been declared “safe” because EPA has allowed it to do so.

The city rarely brought up lead-in-water issues until we, the citizens of Milwaukee, started pointing out that lead pipes are hazardous to our health. It was citizens organizing in Milwaukee, after witnessing the damage done to Flint,Michigan, that caused us to engage in efforts to look into the drinking water of our community.

FLAC/GTLO initiated a grassroots, public education campaign to inform our fellow community members of the dangers of lead pipes. We did the work the city of Milwaukee was not doing. Why must citizens have to do the work government should be doing to protect the health of our citizens? Amazingly, our work was met with resistance (and at times even ridicule and bullying). Rather than admit that the issues we were raising were valid, the city leadership at the time tried to dismiss us and distract Milwaukee residents with the deceptive assurance that our water utility was compliant with the LCR. That’s all they needed to say, while hiding of course the bitter fact that compliance with the LCR does not mean the water is safe.

We organized town hall meetings, we organized online news magazines. We organized hearings at City Hall for several years to break down the continued attempts by the city of Milwaukee to dismiss our assertions that lead-in-water had a role in lead poisoning our community.

FLAC/GTLO had to research, we had to dig up information that should be, and should’ve been accessible for any citizen to look up in order to show that lead-in-water is a hazard to our health and has to be addressed.

In fact, after the collapse of the lead program of the MKE Health Department, we were able to get a member of FLAC, Dr. Patricia McManus appointed as the new Health Commissioner of MKE, becoming the first African American woman to hold that position. Our hope in doing that was so that we could have better data transparency. Yet, upon her arrival to her new position, Dr. McManus announced that all computers had been removed or had suffered serious virus damage and that her office did not have any lead-related data.

We are not asking for lower lead in our water. We are asking for no lead in our water. Arming citizens with truthful information about the urgency of a filter-first approach and full lead service line replacement within 10 years will let us get to the health-protective place we need. Truth does not create public panic or distrust in tap water. Truth achieves awareness, enables informed decision-making, respects our right to self-determination, and allows us to take effective precautionary measures.  

It is imperative that the LCR, in its newest form, provides a comprehensive plan on how cities should inform communities about lead in water, the importance of prompt and full lead service line replacement, and effective precautions through the installation lead-certified point-of-use filters.”

· · ·

ROBERT MIRANDA is spokesperson for Freshwater For Life Action Coalition and Steering Committee Member of Get The Lead Out Coalition. Milwaukee Community Frontline Groups.