Probably not. The water is acidic enough that it is dissolving the lead solder in older copper water lines. One solution is to run the water for a few minutes before use to clear out the dissolved lead. The best solution is to treat the water so that it has neutral pH and no metal dissolution occurs.
I should add that the wag becomes acidic somewhere upstream, and then makes its way to the Flint municipal water inlet. Whatever makes the wate acidic, and it might just be natural, is upstream somewhere.
"Remember that verse ’ The beginning of wisdom, is the fear of God’ "
Yep couldn’t miss it. It was chiseled in stone on the school library. Every time you’d go to the library you’d see it, and the future wife worked at the library.
They actually have lead pipes. The acidic water stripped the deposits off, allowing the lead to be dissolved into the water. The 1920 house I grew up in had a lead supply line, only found out long after I left…
VW was a special case. At the time they started cheating their diesels still met Euro emission standards, but not increasingly strict US standards, especially since we allowed more sulfur in our diesel fuel. Someone high up at VW declared that they still had to sell their existing diesels in the US without major changes. They knew that it would only be for a few years as eventually they would need urea injection to meet Euro standards, too. So someone decided to cheat, figuring no one would be looking very hard given how few diesels they sold here. And once they started, they kept on cheating, even on the models with urea injection (wouldn’t want to use too much). Shameful in every way. I would not be surprised to find that other companies cheated in one way or another, but it’s unlikely anything quite like the VW situation will be found. Other companies weren’t selling diesel cars without urea systems.
Yeah I read that on CNN Money. After 25 years he’s probably as glad to be rid of VW as they are of him. Can’t believe he really knew about it though. It was kind of a small club. Time to shake the dust off the boots and move on.
I work in compliance and it’s my specialty. Regulations are created because companies and industries get greedy and want to take advantage of people who don’t know better or because companies want to poison our environment with little care for the future. If LESS regulation worked then we would not have any regulations at all.
The argument that we need less regulation because companies won’t follow them or it costs too much to comply is like saying “let’s get of traffic laws because so many people don’t follow them”. In case any of you have not driven in countries with lousy traffic laws (or little enforcement) I will tell you that is is a frightening experience.
Lastly, VW could have complied with the emissions laws, just like any other car maker that now gets busted. The problem isn’t that diesels can’t be clean enough. It’s that it costs more to make a clean diesel that is powerful enough to meet consumer demands. They got greedy and cut corners and now they are paying. The EPA regulations are doing EXACTLY what they are supposed to do. My apologies to the shareholders of VW that won’t make all the money they thought they were going to.
He is quoted in the article as learning about it in the Spring of 2014. Other than that, he very well may not have known. It appears from his previous job (head of global sales) that he did not come up through the engineering organization. It seems to me that whoever organized the emissions scam would have wanted to keep the group in the know small to limit the possibility that someone would tell anyone outside VW. I doubt that he knew earlier than mid-2014 about it.
It’s true that very many regulations get created to protect consumers against greedy and unscrupulous companies, but I’d like to add some context.
The Constitution gives responsibility to ensure compliance with laws that the congress passes to the executive branch. Regulatory agencies are the tools that the executive branch uses to generate the regulations and compliance enforcement mechanisms necessary to enforce the laws. Regulatory agencies lack constitutional authority to enact regulations not covered by the law(s) that the agency was created to enforce. In short, regulatory agencies can only regulate what the law(s) mandate.
Just a few years ago the EPA sought approval from the SCOTUS to regulate automotive CO2 emissions despite the fact that they’re not covered in the Clean Air and Water Acts. They won the authority in a very split decision. Had there been more “literalists” on the court, rather than activists, I don’t believe they would have won approval. I believe they’ve exceeding their constitutional authority. The addition of CO2 emissions to their charter should have been vetted by the legislature, as our founders intended.
I know I’m wandering off into the area of activist vs. literalist supreme court justices. But my intent is not to go off on a tangent, but rather to clarify how regulations originate. Regulatory agencies cannot just create them of their own accord.
It seems the issue with diesels now is the emission of nano particles , studies have shown a correlation between the diesel emissions and heart attacks.I dont care how "clean " it supposedly is it will emit something ,matter is extremely hard to annihilate (virtually impossible ),There is a lot of chemistry involved in combustion. Cheat at your peril .
Don’t go driving behind one of those turkey trucks either with the feathers and bacteria flying behind it. Seriously keep your distance and the HVAC on recirculate.
Actually in 1950 we didn't have any EPA or air regulations and the air was great.
Where the heck was that - Middle of North Dakota.
Air quality of the 50’s and 60’s was HORRIBLE. I remember driving into the Cities from where we lived and seeing the cloud of smog over the city. Many times you couldn’t tell of it was cloudy or just a sunny day in the city because of all the smog.
I don’t know how anyone who lived in any urban setting in this country could HONESTLY say that air quality was good before environmental regulations.
Air quality has improved greatly since the 60’s…it could still be better.
“Air quality of the 50’s and 60’s was HORRIBLE. I remember driving into the Cities from where we lived and seeing the cloud of smog over the city. Many times you couldn’t tell of it was cloudy or just a sunny day in the city because of all the smog.”
Not to mention that cars were spreading a fine mist of LEAD everywhere they went. Yes, I am thankful for the environmental regulations that mandated pollution controls and got the lead out of gasoline.
