The Get The Lead Out Coalition met at Milwaukee City Hall to demand that the City of Milwaukee remove all the freshwater service lead toxic laterals in 10 years or less, but Milwaukee Mayor Johnson says in 20 years.
By H. Nelson Goodson
Hispanic News Network U.S.A.
June 30, 2023
Milwaukee, Wisconsin - On Friday, the Get The Lead Out Coalition (GTLO), which has at least nine groups/orgs involved including Freshwater For Life Action Coalition (FLAC) held a press conference at City Hall And claimed that Mayor Cavalier Johnson plan to remove lead pipes falls short. Mayor Johnson wants to remove more than 66,000 freshwater toxic lead laterals removed in 20 years, in contrary, the GTLO wants it done in 10 years or less. (Full video of Press Conference: https://youtu.be/lleeUjQVM1o)
Recently, Mayor Johnson announced that his administration is going to remove 3,300 lead-service lines (LSLs/lead service laterals) this year, instead of the 1,500 his Milwaukee Water Works department declared just a few months ago. The GTLO Coalition says the plan falls short of expectations.
"How can Milwaukee declare itself a leader providing the cleanest, freshest water when tens of thousands of homes have lead service lines, making their water a health risk and putting children in harm's way?" said Rodney Washington, a member of Freshwater For Life Action Coalition.
Mayor Johnson now wants to remove these LSLs in 20 years instead of the 60-70 years City Hall has been advocating for the past couple of years. Twenty years, is still not good enough, the GTLO Coalition announced at the press conference.
"When you compare Milwaukee to cities like Detroit, Michigan removing 5,000 LSLs in 2023 and then stepping it up to 10,000 LSLs to be removed in 2024, and to Newark, New Jersey, which removed over 22,000 LSLs in less than three years, and Denver, Colorado, and Jackson, Mississippi, all removing LSLs at higher rate than Milwaukee, we need to ask: Why can't Milwaukee keep up with other cities?" said Robert Miranda, a member of the Get The Lead Out steering committee.
The groups say Milwaukee City Hall is failing Milwaukee residents because it lacks urgency and willingness to go after funding like other cities to remove more lead-service lines.
"Why hasn't Milwaukee signed up for the accelerator program? Why aren't our elected officials taking advantage of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into law in November 2021 and has a significant amount of money that can flow to the states through [the Environmental Protection Agency] to help with water and sewer systems in cities?" said State Senator Lena Taylor (D-Milw.).
Mayor Johnson, we do not accept your vision and we demand removal of LSLs within 10 years or fewer at no cost to single-family home owners and renters. FLAC/GTLO has been demanding this for the past 8 years. Anything short of this is simply lip service, the GTLO Coalition says.
Miranda posted in his Facebook account, If you're being told by Milwaukee Water Works to flush your water for lead before drinking it. Don't do that. Use filter. Flushing is unreliable.
Milwaukee Water Works (MWW) says flush to reduce lead exposures. Not prevent it. So is MWW promoting its ok to drink small amount of lead-in-water?
In 2017, the Milwaukee Water Works set a goal to remove 1,000 LSLs, but only met that goal once in 2019, so far, it has removed about 5,533 in 7 years. In 2017, removed 622; in 2018, 933; in 2019, 1,000; in 2020, 888; in 2021, 896; in 2022, 991 and in 2023 as of March, 113.
To check if you home or business is connected to a freshwater lead service line (lead toxic laterals) at: https://city.milwaukee.gov/water/WaterQuality/LeadandWater/Lead-Service-Line-Records
No comments:
Post a Comment