LEWISTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched an effort to clean up lead paint in Lewiston-Auburn. Curt Spaulding, the EPA’s regional administrator in Boston, said the effort was unique to Lewiston-Auburn, the area with the highest number of lead-poisoned children in the state. The agency has put painting and renovation contractors, landlords and […]
lead
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine
Lawmakers call for changes, more money in lead cleanup
Two local lawmakers and Maine’s two U.S. senators are among the political leaders working to either secure additional funding for lead cleanup in Maine or to better protect children from becoming lead poisoned in the first place. State Rep. Jared Golden, D-Lewiston, said he and other policymakers are eager to protect children from lead poisoning […]
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine
Getting the lead out, poison prevention efforts expanding
LEWISTON — Shilo Mathieu is on the front lines in America’s decades-long struggle to protect children from lead poisoning. And what she’s been seeing recently in this city known for its lead paint problem is both heartening and foreboding. Mathieu is a family nurse practitioner at Lewiston’s downtown B Street Clinic, which serves the city’s […]
Posted inMaine
What happens when the state steps in?
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention will take a new and more influential role as the state moves toward a new law for blood-lead levels in children. The law change puts Maine in alignment with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for protecting against lead poisoning in children, and gives […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Tainted at the tap: Michigan guv seeks tougher limits
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — In proposing a tougher limit for lead in drinking water, Gov. Rick Snyder wants to lift Michigan from the depths of the Flint crisis to being a national model for lead monitoring that could help assess whether current rules are too lax. Nearly 1,500 water systems serving 3.3 million Americans have […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Michigan charges 3 officials in Flint water crisis
LANSING, Mich. — Two state regulators and a Flint employee were charged Wednesday with evidence tampering and several other felony and misdemeanor counts related to the Michigan city’s lead-tainted water crisis. The charges — the first levied in a probe that is expected to broaden — were filed against a pair of state Department of […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
High levels of lead found in drinking water across U.S.
GALESBURG, Ill. — This railroad town promotes its ties to Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and the poet Carl Sandburg. But Galesburg’s long history also shows in a hidden way: Aging pipes have been leaking lead into the drinking water for decades. Blood tests show cause for concern. One in 20 children under the age of […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, sj-web
Turner school has elevated levels of lead
AUGUSTA — Nine schools— all located in rural Maine — have unsafe drinking water because of high levels of lead. More than 11 percent of the Maine schools and daycare facilities that are required to be tested for lead had unsafe levels between 2013 and 2015, according to an analysis of test results by The […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
How the federal rule on lead in drinking water works
A federal rule that took effect in 1991 is designed to protect the public from unsafe levels of lead in drinking water. Some answers to common questions about how it works: Q: How often do water systems have to test for lead? A: Systems must test every six months until they have achieved compliance and […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Unsafe levels of lead found in school drinking water
Just a fraction of schools and day care centers nationwide are required to check for lead because most receive their water from municipal systems that test at other locations. State and federal lawmakers have called for wider testing. Among schools and day care centers operating their own water systems, Environmental Protection Agency data analyzed by […]