Hidden Costs
A few weeks ago, to the delight of my two children, a line of massive construction vehicles, including excavators and bulldozers, pulled up along the road leading into our town. The county was about to embark on a major infrastructure project: replacing nearly a mile of 100-year-old iron water pipes that have been increasingly prone to breaks. The upgrade got me a wondering, and I’ll admit, a bit worried: What were they replacing the iron pipes with? Thankfully, I learned, the answer was welded steel. Not everyone is so lucky. These days, many new pipes in the United States are made of PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, a type of plastic. These pipes are popular in part because they are cheap. But as with all things plastic, the bargain may come with other costs. According to a 2023 report by Beyond Plastics, Earth Island’s Plastic Pollution Coalition, and Environmental Health Sciences, PVC pipes can leach dozens of potentially dangerous chemicals into drinking water. These include chemicals that can harm our reproductive, developmental, and nervous systems, and that can increase the risk of cancer and liver damage. The dangers are real. But federal safety standards for water pipelines and drinking water don’t do nearly enough to mitigate these risks. We can do better. It’s time our infrastructure projects catch up to the science around plastics. It’s time our local decision-makers put people first. And it’s time our federal government implement regulations that ensure our tap water is safe, so that when the next pipeline replacement project begins in my town or yours, we don’t have to worry about the implications for our health.
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