Drinking water; sanitation & hygiene | Good News for Humankind

Flint, Michigan at last replaces corroded pipes after lead crisis

By Peter Schulte / July 2, 2025 / Good News For Humankind

Flint’s lead crisis began in 2014, when the city began drawing water sourced from the Flint River instead of from Lake Huron. The river water was more corrosive than the lake water, and the city failed to take the additional steps needed to prevent lead from leaching into drinking water. In 2017, a federal court ordered the city to replace all lead pipes within three years. Eight years later is the project finally complete. State officials told a federal court this week that the city has excavated more than 28,000 properties in search of lead water lines and replaced nearly 11,000 pipes.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announces first-ever national regulations for “forever chemicals” in drinking water

By Peter Schulte / April 11, 2024 / Good news links

Commonly called “forever chemicals,” PFAS are synthetic chemicals found nearly everywhere — in air, water, and soil — and can take thousands of years to break down in the environment.

The EPA has stated there is no safe level of exposure to PFAS without risk of health impacts, but now it will require that public water utilities test for six different types of PFAS chemicals to reduce exposure in drinking water. The new standards will reduce PFAS exposure for 100 million people, according to the EPA, and prevent thousands of deaths and illnesses.

U.S.-China collaboration creates the cheapest and fastest way to desalinate seawater yet discovered

By Peter Schulte / September 29, 2023 / Good news links

“For the first time, it is possible for water, produced by sunlight, to be even cheaper than tap water,” said Lenan Zhang, a research scientist from the team from MIT and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. “This opens up the possibility for solar desalination to address real-world problems.”