Government, Regulate Thyself

SF International School water fountains
after lead testing (Chronicle photo)

Yesterday's post was about asbestos concerns. If I had a child about to enter school (as does my acquaintance), I'd be much more worried about lead in the school drinking water.

Chronicle: 3 San Francisco public schools show high levels of lead in water.

District officials immediately shut down the taps and this week notified parents at West Portal and Malcolm X elementary schools and San Francisco International High School that water samples from at least one faucet or fountain at each site were too high — or above the recommended federal threshold of 15 parts per billion...

The water flowing into the school is safe, officials say. The lead is in the plumbing — the fixtures and pipe solders — and leaches into the water.

Average SF home price from Zillow.

Since antiquity lead has been suspected as a cause of brain damage. In the latter half of the 20th century plumbers and builders reduced the use of lead until it was banned by the Safe Water Drinking Act of 1986.

With some of the highest home prices--and property tax revenues per capita in the nation--one would think that San Francisco would have addressed this problem long ago. But one would be wrong.