Doppler radar michigan flint3/1/2024 ![]() The dBZ values increase as the strength of the signal returned to the radar increases. So, a more convenient number for calculations and comparison, a decibel (or logarithmic) scale (dBZ), is used. Reflectivity (designated by the letter Z) covers a wide range of signals (from very weak to very strong). "Reflectivity" is the amount of transmitted power returned to the radar receiver. “We’re hoping this new rule will have a big impact.The colors are the different echo intensities (reflectivity) measured in dBZ (decibels of Z) during each elevation scan. “We now know that having literally tens of millions of people being exposed to low levels of lead from things like their drinking water has a big impact on the population” and the current lead rules don’t fix it, said Erik Olson, an expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council who challenged the original regulations back in the early 1990s. Those have significantly helped reduce lead levels, but experts have said they left loopholes that keep lead levels too high and lax enforcement allows cities to ignore the problem. The EPA enacted the first comprehensive lead in drinking water regulations in 1991. The push to reduce lead in tap water is part of a broader federal effort to combat lead exposure that includes proposed stricter limits on dust from lead-based paint in older homes and child-care facilities and a goal to eliminate lead in aviation fuel. Water utilities with dense networks of lead pipes - as many as 2,000 of them - could also get more than 10 years, the proposal says. A few cities like Chicago with lots of lead pipes may get longer. There are some exceptions to the 10 year lead pipe replacement deadline. Most cities have not been forced to replace their lead pipes and many don’t even know where they are. The proposal, called the lead and copper rule improvements, would for the first time require utilities to replace lead pipes even if their lead levels aren’t too high. “We can make a lead-free future a reality for all, no matter the color or their skin or their zip code,” it said. Cory Booker, D-N.J., representing states that have faced lead crises, agreed in a joint statement, citing both the new rule and the Biden administration’s infrastructure investments. “We’re bending the arc towards equity and justice on this legacy issue.” “We’re trying to right a longstanding wrong here,” said Radhika Fox, head of the EPA Office of Water. The Biden administration says investment is vital to fix this injustice and ensure everyone has safe, lead-free drinking water. After the crises, tap water use declined nationally, especially among Black and Hispanic people. Their impact reaches beyond public health. Lead crises have hit poorer, majority-Black cities like Flint especially hard, propelling the risks of lead in drinking water into the national consciousness. ![]() ![]() They are most common in older, industrial parts of the country. Lead pipes connect water mains in the street to homes and are typically the biggest source of lead in drinking water. The Biden administration has previously said it wants all of the nation’s roughly 9 million lead pipes to be removed, and rapidly. “These improvements ensure that in a not too distant future, there will never be another city and another child poisoned by their pipes,” said Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician and clean water advocate who raised early alarms about Flint. Pulling it off will require overcoming enormous practical and financial obstacles. It is the strongest overhaul of lead rules in more than three decades, and will cost billions of dollars. Millions of people consume drinking water from lead pipes and the agency said tighter standards would improve IQ scores in children and reduce high blood pressure and heart disease in adults. cities would have to replace lead water pipes within 10 years under strict new rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency as the Biden administration moves to reduce lead in drinking water and prevent public health crises like the ones in Flint, Michigan and Washington, D.C.
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