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Why Plumbers Used Lead, And Why Getting Rid Of It Won't Be Easy

NPR
Published March 17, 2016 at 1:11 PM EDT
Tom Bigley, director of plumbing for the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, holds a piece of lead service line at a training center outside Pittsburgh. Though the center no longer teaches certain skills necessary to work with lead, students still have to know how to recognize and address lead lines because so many homes in the area still have them. (Irina Zhorov/WESA)
Tom Bigley, director of plumbing for the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, holds a piece of lead service line at a training center outside Pittsburgh. Though the center no longer teaches certain skills necessary to work with lead, students still have to know how to recognize and address lead lines because so many homes in the area still have them. (Irina Zhorov/WESA)

The drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan has turned lead a four letter word. But the heavy metal hasn’t always been so unpopular. In fact, for decades lead was a desirable plumbing material. Irina Zhorov from WESA in Pittsburgh explains how that came about and why replacing lead pipes would not be an easy or cheap undertaking.

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