November 8, 2017 The Skanner Page 9
Portland’s Water Exceeds Limits on Lead
Water bureau is implementing strategy by 2022 to lower lead levels
By The Skanner News
T
“
Ideally,
all of our
customers’
household
plumbing
fi xtures
would be
lead-free,
but they
aren’t
Lead can cause seri-
ous health problems,
especially for pregnant
people and children six
years and younger.
In Portland, home
plumbing such as faucets
or lead-based solder can
contain lead, which is
then released into water
through corrosive action
of water passing through
pipes.
The city receives its
water through the Bull
Run watershed which,
according to the water
bureau, treats drinking
water by raising its pH
level to make it less cor-
rosive.
October’s testing is the
third time in fi ve years
that the city has sur-
passed federal limits on
lead in water.
Advocates say women are
‘fi nally taking their power’
By JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer
NEW YORK — In the
three weeks since the
string of allegations
against Harvey Wein-
stein fi rst began, an
ongoing domino eff ect
has tumbled through
not just Hollywood but
at least a dozen other
industries. It’s open
season on open secrets.
PHOTO BY PAUL GOYETTE
he Portland Water
Bureau
recently
released a report
from its twice-a-
year testing for lead in
water at 134 high-risk
homes – and the results
have raised eyebrows.
The fi gures showed
that 18 (or 13 percent) of
these homes – known to
have lead solder in their
plumbing – had lead-in-
water levels that exceed
the federal limits.
Test results showed
that the lead levels were
17 parts per billion, over
the limit of 15 parts per
billion.
If more than 10 percent
of high-risk homes ex-
ceed the state limit, the
water bureau must noti-
fy the public with strate-
gies to lower levels.
News
As Veil of Silence
Falls, Weinstein Eff ect
Keeps Growing
“Ideally, all of our
customers’
household
plumbing fi xtures would
be lead-free, but they
aren’t,” said Portland
Water Bureau director
Michael Stuhr in a state-
ment. “This is why we are
making improvements
to our system to further
reduce the potential for
lead at our customers’
taps.”
The results prompted
the Portland City Coun-
cil to authorize the wa-
ter bureau’s corrosion
control treatment – to be
in place by spring 2022 –
to help curb the levels of
lead in drinking water.
The Portland Water
Bureau and regional pro-
viders recommend the
following easy steps that
customers can take now
to reduce exposure to
lead in water:
1. Run water to fl ush the
lead out. If the water
has not been used for
several hours, run
each tap for 30 sec-
onds to two minutes
or until it becomes
colder before drink-
ing or cooking. This
simple step can re-
duce lead in water up
to 90 percent or more.
2. Use cold, fresh water
for cooking and pre-
paring baby formula.
Do not cook with or
drink water from the
hot water tap; lead
dissolves more easily
into hot water. Do not
use water from the
Make The Skanner
part of your daily routine
hot water tap to make
baby formula.
3. Do not boil water to
remove lead. Boiling
water will not reduce
lead.
4. Test children for lead.
Ask a physician or call
the LeadLine to fi nd
out how to have aa
child tested for lead. A
blood lead level test is
the only way to know
if a child is being ex-
posed to lead.
5. Test your water for
lead. Call the Lead-
Line at 503-988-4000
to fi nd out how to get
a FREE lead-in-water
test.
6. Consider using a fi l-
ter. Check whether it
reduces lead -- not all
fi lters do. Be sure to
maintain and replace
a fi lter device in accor-
dance with the man-
ufacturer’s instruc-
tions to protect water
quality. Contact NSF
International at 800-
NSF-8010 or www.nsf.
org for information
on performance stan-
dards for water fi lters.
7. Regularly clean the
faucet aerator. Parti-
cles containing lead
from solder or house-
hold plumbing can
become trapped in
faucet aerators. Reg-
ularly cleaning every
few months will re-
move these particles
and reduce the expo-
sure to lead.
8. Consider buying low-
lead fi xtures. As of
2014, all pipes, fi ttings
and fi xtures are re-
quired to contain less
than 0.25% lead. When
buying new fi xtures,
consumers
should
seek out those with the
lowest lead content.
“
fi lmmaker Brett Rat-
ner. (Weinstein has
denied all allegations
of non-consensual sex,
while Ratner has de-
nied each allegation
against him.) Her so-
cial-media avatar is a
simple photo of herself,
with a fi st raised high.
The posture and lan-
guage of revolution has
been adopted by others,
too, like actress Rose
More than anything what
made me want to come for-
ward is: I felt like fi nally
people were listening
Nearly every day
has brought new alle-
gations of sexual ha-
rassment, assault or
misconduct, and subse-
quent fi rings, dismiss-
als or the distancing of
men in various stations
of power, from highly
regarded media pun-
dits to celebrity chefs.
“There is no turning
back,” Asia Argento
said Wednesday on
Twitter. “All predators
will go down.”
Argento, the Italian
fi lmmaker and actress
who has said Weinstein
raped her, declared
that shortly aft er alle-
gations of sexual ha-
rassment were leveled
by six women against
McGowan, another al-
leged victim of sexual
assault by Weinstein.
At last week’s Women’s
Convention in Detroit,
McGowan
declared:
“Join me. Join all of us!”
What’s
unfolding,
women’s rights advo-
cates say, is a rolling
reckoning that’s gain-
ing steam with every
new revelation of sex-
ual harassment. What
began with just a hand-
ful of women standing
up against one of Hol-
lywood’s most pugna-
cious power players
has turned into a move-
ment of its own. Now
that some of the silenc-
es and stigmas around
See WEINSTEIN on page 10