By Sheila Kaplan and Corbin Hiar Investigative Reporting
Workshop, American University Millions of Americans may be
drinking water that is contaminated with dangerous doses of
lead. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) knows it; state
governments know it; local utilities know it. The only people
who usually don’t know it are those who are actually drinking
the toxic water. The problem stems from a common practice in
which water utilities replace sections of deteriorating lead
service lines rather than the entire lines, commonly known as
partial pipe replacements. It is a course of action that can do
more harm than good. “It’s scary and the magnitude of this
problem is huge,” said Dr. Jeffrey K. Griffiths, a Tufts
University professor of medicine and public health, who recently
chaired an expert panel advising the EPA on the problem. “I
didn’t realize how extensive the lead exposure still remained. …
EPA is really deeply concerned about this …. This was not
something they expected.” Since the 1970s, lead