Good morning and welcome to the Earl Ingram show.
As always, you can join us at 855-752-4842.
That's 855-752-4842.
You can text us at that same number.
Good morning to you, Cardi.
How you doing, man?
Man, I'm feeling pretty good, Earl.
Man, I like that pink on you, man.
I'm looking like the pink panther, man.
Listen, man.
Listen.
Everybody can't wear pink.
Every man can't wear pink.
I remember there was a time when if a man wore pink... Oh, wait a minute.
I can't say that.
Uh, it's, uh, you know, it's a different time.
anyway, uh, yeah, man, it's, uh, I was thinking before we get to our guests.
Okay.
I was thinking that we were late in March, man.
I don't know why I was thinking we were into the late days of March.
Maybe it was the warm weather, man.
Yeah.
But man, we're only, we're only at the 12th of March.
So we got a whole lot of this month left.
to get snow and ice and
Yeah, let's not bring that up.
Yeah, all the other that I said that old axiom March comes in like a line and goes out like a lamb It came well, you know, but anyway, it's what is it?
It's Wednesday, right?
Yes, okay.
All right.
It's Wednesday.
So that means we're joined by the coalition
Uh, uh, what is it, man?
The, the lead free water.
What is it, Robert?
out.
The,
campaign for lead free water.
Correct.
And joined by Mr. Paul Schwartz and then a flack
Robert Miranda.
Good morning to the both of you gentlemen.
How you
man?
how you doing?
today you're in the 70s
Yeah.
Yeah, but it can all of a sudden go down to 20,
Yeah, well, maybe that's a good thing that you're down there.
But anyway, clearly, man, we're still talking about lead 8-5-5-7-5-2-48-42 is not going away.
Robert, where are we at today?
No, it's not going away and clearly the situation as time goes on things that are more disturbing continue to be revealed and the evolving of what's been going on, especially at our MPS schools is disturbing to say the least.
In these last couple of weeks, we've been watching the health department commissioner and the NPS representatives and everybody and their mother out there in front of the cameras, telling the city the latest news as what's going on with the four affected schools and what they're doing to remove the lead from the schools.
A lot of the inside information is not being put out there.
And that is what the parents have been pushing.
They actually going to have another assembly this Saturday.
over at Bayview Community Center to address a number of topics that have come up.
And some of those topics involved how the maintenance plans and work orders and other issues at the schools are showing.
a clear disregard for doing what needs to be done in order to protect the kids from lead in water.
And some of these schools were waiting for their water results still.
Maryland Avenue Academy and
the Montessori school are still, we're waiting for those results.
But from what we have from Golden Maier and Coggle, we have seen the maintenance reports or work orders from those schools.
And they're telling, they're telling a very different story of what's going on with the water situation at those schools.
And for example, the water, the work orders from the schools at Gold of My Year example shows that for over three years, there wasn't any filtration changes or fixes or anything.
For three years, nothing was done to at least document what they've done in order to
make sure that the water is safe at the school.
Coggle is a little bit different.
Coggle shows that there has been some work done at the bubblers and filtration system is working properly and maintained, but it clearly also shows that it was erratically done every year.
and the documentation is not very good in regards to what these two schools have been doing in order to ensure the water is safe.
We're also getting reports from teachers at the schools who say that they've allowed our kids to go to sinks that do not have filters in them.
and fill their bottles up with that water that is not filtered.
Again, the reports that came out from the assessment showed that at least at the sinks, the kitchen sink, the sinks in the bathroom where kids are filling their water bottles up, show that lead levels in those sinks
at a couple occasions were over 25 parts per billion.
The school and the city touts that the buildings itself do not have lead service lines connected from the water main to the inside of the building.
What we don't know is how many of those buildings still have
lead premises plumbing.
And that has to be accounted for.
We need to know how many of those NPS buildings have lead pipes inside them.
You know, we've got lead pipes that can go up inside the walls that climb up the walls to link up with bubblers and sinks on second, third and fourth story floors.
You know, we need to have a good accounting of what
is actually going on because the lead is coming from somewhere.
The lead is showing in this water when they test it.
So we need to know how many of these buildings have lead premises plumbing in them as well.
You know, Paul, this is a massive undertaking when you're talking about a district with 150 schools or so.
You are in Washington, DC.
I'm sure you guys had to address.
issues with the schools and how that was handled.
I mean, it's one thing because the sunlight is shining on it right now.
And so they're gonna do everything within their power to try to make sure that they're dealing with this.
But how do you, long-term prognosis and long-term involvement, how was that handled?
the necessity of oversight, audits, and public education and the continuing role of parents and others in doing that.
In Washington DC, we have post-filtration testing.
We have a yearly report.
that is pushed out about what those results are on a public facing website.
There are still issues and it's still important to take into account the fact that premise plumbing or in the building plumbing in all of the schools are going to show lead coming out at one time or another.
We had two schools rebuilt from the ground up with new plumbing.
And before filtration testing showed results sometimes in the hundreds or thousands of parts per billion.
And that's because there is no plumbing that's made that doesn't have lead in it, including plumbing that says no lead that you can buy at a hardware store is by definition having lead coming in contact with water.
That's part of the federal definition.
And so vigilance.
about the maintenance schedules, vigilance about whether the filters are being swapped out as the directions show.
And you can get lemons, there can be filters that don't work, all of those things.
But I wanna add one more thing, which is that in addition to the schools being a source for lead and water, the types of home inspections that are done for kids with elevated blood leads,
really need to follow the science and take seriously the erratic or variable release of lead at the home.
That can also, in addition to the schools, be a source on this.
We
communities.
So Robert, there is no law.
right now that says landlords must provide those filters.
Is there anything in place right now?
Because a lot of times, as Paul just said, we talk about the schools, but where the kids are most of the time at home and then moving from place to place, especially people who struggle economically, there's nothing to protect them.
As we speak, I want to hear your thoughts on that.
855-752-4842.
Get the let out coalition is on board.
It's Wednesday.
Our phone lines are open as always.
We welcome back Paul Swartz.
He's the co-founder of the campaign for Lead Free Water and Robert Miranda of Flat and You on the Earl Ingram Show.
and behind all of the lies.
The ones destroying our children's lives.
We're walking, trying to rebrand ourselves as the fresh coast.
Having fun between the East and the West Coast.
The world needs to know about this dirty little secret.
Drinking water, poisoning, black brand of poor people.
That's pretty slick, Rob.
Welcome
back to The Earl Ingram Show.
As always, you can join us at 855-752-4842.
That's 855-752-4842.
Get the lead out.
Is on board with Robert Miranda from plaque.
and Paul Swartz for a campaign for lead-free water.
You know I was asking you guys.
I think was it was it you Robert that I was asking the question before we went to break.
There's no, there's no law or anything that the the only time property owners are advised or told to do something is when a home is targeted for an environmental assessment.
And when the environmental assessment takes place, that's when the homeowner has to comply with instructions that are made by the Milwaukee Health Department to help remediate the problem at the home.
The problem that I've experienced when I've spoke with many families during this process is that they have
witnessed many times where the water was never being tested.
And if it was being tested, it was maybe tested one time at one tap and usually that's the kitchen tap.
Then they are given filters if there is any lead in the water.
What also told by a lot of these families is that
if there are lead issues in the water they're persuaded to believe that the issue really comes from lead paint and dust and they're told that and in some cases that I have spoken with families with they are told that if they do not adhere to
supervising their children even more that they're supposed to be watching them because they are not watching them closely when they're going towards lead paint or crawling around the floor when there's lead paint issues at the house that they will be referred to child services.
And that causes parents to panic.
And parents that I've spoken with have expressed that to me over the years.
And I've heard that story and I've actually mentioned that a number of times during committee hearings when we talked about this.
But that sounds nonsensical to me, Paul.
What Robert just said, your parents, how can they detect or determine whether or not there's lead paint?
You know, because a lot of times it's so that powder.
is so fine, they can't determine how can they, and what's the process?
Paul and Robert, if I need to find out whether or not my tap has lead water, it has lead in it.
I mean, what is the process for a person who's dealing with this?
and dust part but you know with lead and water the first thing to assume is that it is lead in the water yeah that that well just first assume that there's going to be lead in the water because we don't produce indoor plumbing or or that doesn't have it in there and and the thing to understand is how to protect yourself from that by getting a filter
that is duly certified to remove the two types of lead, which is soluble lead like sugar and tea and lead particles or little chunks of lead that fall off and can have up to hazardous waste levels of lead in it.
And just for the audience to remember that the filters that you're looking for are screw onto the faucet or on the countertop and that they have NSF.
42 and 53 certification, and that should be on the box.
And if you install it right, if you operate and maintain it right, then you're going to pretty much near eliminate the lead exposure from water.
I think the paint soil and dust part of it, like you said, Earl, is, you know, it's a little harder for people to ascertain, and I'll turn it over to my colleague
I'm not an expert on this situation with lead paint and dust, but I am speaking from my interviews and my experiences with families who have gone through this process.
And many families do not really know how to identify what the lead paint looks like.
They don't understand that the differences between if they have lead paint in their house or not.
And so the education of the families in regards to identifying this is pretty much zero to none.
So the only time they really understand something is wrong and when they see that their child has.
some kind of
skill problems.
And that's when they start noticing and realizing that there is something wrong.
And it's not until the child has been diagnosed, then all of a sudden they start learning all the differences between lead.
and dust and lead in water and that by that time the child already has been harmed and poisoned and then you got to go through all the medical issues.
So there's nothing that gives residents families in the homes any prior knowledge or any.
information to help them identify beforehand if they're moving into a house that is lead paint based or has issues with dust or has lead pipes.
And that has to be hit right in the forefront before a person moves into a house or getting ready to rent
a house.
All right, 855-752-4842.
Hang on.
We'll come to you guys on the lines.
You're tuning into the Earl Ingram show.
did I lose you guys?
You know that it would be untrue You know that I would be alive if I was to say to you
to the Erlingram show, as always, you can join us at 855-752-4842-855-752-4842.
Text us at that same number.
You know, Freshwater for Life's Robert Miranda and Mr. Paul Swartz, who's the co-founder of the campaign for Lead Free Water, Get the Lead Out, is on board.
Let's go through the phone line.
Excuse me, the phone lines and David from MEC One.
Good morning.
You say what?
Good morning.
I just want to make a comment and I got a question for Jeff.
My first comment is by law, it's a federal law that a property owner, if they own a building that's pre-1978, they have to provide the tenants with a pamphlet showing, discussing about with lead and then with a lead report actually on the lease.
If they're not doing that, if the landlord is not doing that, it's not a criminal offense.
However, it could be a civil penalty.
So the tenant could write to the landlord and say, okay, this is not right.
I found something out and you get this correct and if you don't and you didn't provide this, they have that as far as that going forward.
My question, though, is back to the MPS school.
So during COVID, and this is what concerns me, the school district received $800 million in change of federal relief that was supposed to be used to fix existing schools from air conditioning and heating units to, you know, the water laterals and all that other stuff.
And unfortunately,
When the referendum was passed last year, an additional was at $265 million.
We did not have any accountability as to where the monies have been spent.
The state has said after the fact that MPS is not submitted with what they've done with all that money.
And so the fact that we're still having these issues and they're given a good chunk of change and of course,
the superintendent stepped down because of bad bookkeeping basically.
It affects these kids and the families in a bad way.
So my question is, is there anything that can be done with this?
Does the state have any ability of getting these numbers now finally as to what they actually did with the funds for the schools?
I think good questions, Dave.
You want to respond, Robert?
Yes, there was a public safety and health committee meeting that was held about two, three weeks ago where health department officials and NPS representatives attended to give accounting to the committee regarding this issue with NPS.
And there was a lot of discussion in regards to those monies.
MPS had no answers.
As a matter of fact, there was a lot of hymn and hawn and uncertainty as to how and where the money went.
Even the CFO didn't really have answers to some of the questions that the committee members presented.
I think that.
This with all the other issues is the reason why now Governor Evers has moved forward with pushing for some accountability in regards to the district.
Now.
This isn't something that should be surprised to MPS when it comes to the whole issue of lead and water.
And actually, your caller is absolutely right.
There is a law in regards to having the landlords report to those who are going to rent and lease the issue of lead-based paint concerns at the place they're going to rent.
The problem is, is that
that doesn't cover lead pipes, lead lateral service lines.
And so something has to be done to ensure that homeowner or property owners or leasees are also given information about what's going on with the lead service lines.
But getting back to MPS.
MPS, we're waiting for a response of that committee meeting.
to give some of the answers that to the questions that they were asked at that committee.
So right now we're waiting for their response and their answers to that.
In the meantime, the health department
is moving forward with inspecting schools now.
They're going to be, there's a couple of things they're doing.
They're going to be testing kids throughout the district for the next couple of weeks.
And then they're going to be going, I think they got 10 schools, they're going to be visiting and inspecting and doing investigations to see what the severity of lead contamination is at these schools.
What we're
uh wanting is to make sure that while they do this investigation uh that they do their due diligence when it comes to lead pain and dust but we also want them to uh investigate uh the plumbing uh issues at the school the filtration issues at the school
and what needs to be done to improve that and remove those hazards, as well as what they're going to do to improve educating their staff on this issue as it relates to let dust paint and the water.
And so
that's that's where things are right now.
You know, you know, Paul, what Robert is is asking for is clearly.
accountability and what should take place.
But when you're talking about a district with 156 schools and Robert, you're saying they're going to be investigating 10.
This is a monumental undertaking.
And is the county going to make sure they're going to follow them throughout this whole process?
or they're gonna at some point in time say, well, hey, this is bigger than what we can even deal with.
We're talking about the budgets of the schools and the health department.
Paul, I mean, I can see them if they can wiggle their cells out of this at some point in time doing it.
How do we hold them accountable?
We've had lead in the paint and in the dust and in the water and in the soils around our communities for, you know, since the, before the Civil War.
And we've seen diminishment of IQs and we've seen loss of life because of those exposures.
I think the question about resources and priorities and who's going to have accountability for the actions they're taking is a really good
one.
I
I think that moving forward, we need to demand that this become a priority and we need to set up.
the type of structures both within government and frankly outside of government in the community that when the news cycle moves and the eyes are diverted, that the institutions just don't have a party and not do their job.
And this is a struggle that we're having all around the country.
I'm sure all around Wisconsin, everywhere.
One thing that would be really helpful would be to write into law a oversight function that has independence from the health department, from the schools, from the water authority, and that has accountability measures and public facing accountability measures built in.
The priorities have to be shuffled around.
I think that for the last 30 to 40 years here in Milwaukee, we've seen this focus on building up Camelot.
We've seen a lot of our money, a lot of city dollars going towards building up the infrastructure downtown, building up the...
vanity of the city and just investing entirely on that kind of infrastructure and it's good that we're doing that to make the city look.
like a place where people around the world would want to visit.
But the problem is what is the cost?
And the cost is the infrastructure of neighborhoods, the stability of neighborhoods.
So we're putting in a lot of money to build skyscrapers, build new arenas, build the deer district, build the lakefront, build everything to make everybody want to come and visit Milwaukee.
But with all that money going there,
and the money that's supposed to be brought in, where is that money going to?
Where is that money going to fix up the areas that have, over the last 30 to 40 years, sacrificed the infrastructure for public health?
Where has that money been vested?
Now, we got a report that the sales tax that we just received has a $200 million windfall for the city.
And that was said last week.
Where is that $200 million going to go?
So, you know, the priority here has to be now, we have to take care of the health of our community.
We have to do something about the infrastructure of our community or else we're going to see things continue to deteriorate in neighborhoods outside of downtown.
You know, Paul, it's because the conversation that we are having is it kind of centered on and focused on.
urban centers in, you know, Washington DC and, and, you know, Milwaukee and, and, you know, a lot of people in this listening audience live in rural areas and they may not know or they may not have the organized, uh, kind of push that you're getting from campaign for lead free water and from, you know, coalition, uh, to get the lead out.
with Robert Miranda and Flack.
What do you want to say to people who are listening, which is the majority of our listening audience from rural areas in this state, about what they should do?
Well, I think the first thing to do is to recognize in terms of watering lead that it's in almost every building, whether you live in a small town or rural community or a mid-sized community, and that
getting a filter is something that you can do today that can end the exposure.
There is the necessity, as people have done forever in rural America, also to organize in communities to protect the health of people.
We stand open the campaign for Let Free Water to work with people from every community on these issues and public education is at the forefront of what needs to get done.
You know, just like people give up alcohol and don't drink caffeine and take their ascorbic acid when they're expecting a kid, people need to understand that you've really got to put a filter on the tap.
and that's true anywhere you live in the state of Wisconsin or around the country.
All right, 855-752-4842 is the number you are certainly listening to.
Get the let out with co-founder Paul Swartz campaign for Lead Free Water and Robert Miranda.
Get the let out coalition.
The number is 855-752-4842.
You can certainly join us.
Be...
Join us at eight five five seven five two forty eight forty two Texas at that same number co-founder of campaign for lead free water.
Mr. Paul Swartz Robert Miranda get the lead out coalition.
So Robert as we approach the spring and the warm weather in the warm days ahead.
What is the plan for again get the lead out coalition.
What what do you guys see as the most pressing issues and how do you ramp up.
Certainly, you know, when it's not sub zero outside, probably stand a better chance of being able to have dialogue and conversation with people when it's warm.
Well, there is efforts to begin organizing not only more assemblies and town halls and community teachings, but to also.
be patient to hear what comes back from a lot of these investigations and.
reports from MPS and the health department as to the troubles that they're facing and seeing the plans that they're going to put together to fix a lot of these issues.
In the meantime, the work needs to be done to.
inform and educate the community on what we are currently facing, what has happened, how this can continue to harm our community and our children if nothing is done.
And once we get that information from the Health Department and MPS, if it's something that is
meaning to our standards and our liking.
I think we can work together to make it doable and achieve a lot of the goals that they're looking to do.
But if there are things there that need to be improved or need to be addressed more vigorously.
We'll point those out and we'll get the community to contact their representatives and contact the elected officials and say, you know, we're missing this part.
We're missing that part.
We need to do something to improve here.
We need to do improve things here and there.
But until we get.
those reports back till we get those investigations and those plans back and read them over and see what they're going to do.
What we're going to do is just continue to organize and continue to educate the public and prepare for a mobilization if it needs to happen.
And that's the plan.
You know, Paul, it clearly, like you said, there's no quick fix.
This is a protracted struggle.
And so it's not going away, is it?
But I think we need to take stock that we have some victories.
We have parents organizing and spreading the news and reaching out to find out what's actually going on and what the Okie Doke is.
We've had.
Milwaukee public schools and small filters.
Now we just need to make sure that they're being used right and tested.
Like Robert said, we're open to hearing from officials what's going on.
But we're talking about decades and decades of the Okie Doke.
And so it's going to take a mobilized, educated,
bunch of folks joining together.
And it doesn't have to be everybody, but it has to be a committed group of people who are going to take this fight on over time.
And I just want to do a shout out to you, Earl and to Civic Media for providing this space to do in-depth discussions and to sort of look at how the sausage is being made out there.
It's really, really important to understand that you just don't
pass a bill, it becomes law and everything's okie-dokie.
We have work to do day-to-day in our communities over time, whether it's the lead issue or any other issue.
And so this Reyes Sunshine, that is the Eerlingroom show, is so important and we're really
appreciative of that.
Well, you know Paul and Robert, you know, Civic Media and the Eerlingroom show is committed to go as far as
We have to go to make sure that this really life changing information gets out to as many people as possible, because I don't know anything that's more important than making sure that children are safe, man.
I don't.
You can worry about their coming.
The Russians are coming, you know, the Chinese are coming and you spend trillions of dollars.
on nuclear weapons, because they're coming, they're coming to get us.
Hey, man, inside your house.
It's where the real worry is, man.
And you don't have to spend trillions of dollars to take care of that, man.
Robert, I, you know, never understood that,
Hey guys, thank you.
We'll see you in a week.
Thank you as always.
Up next, Dr. Robert Craig, Executive Director of Citizen Action in the news of the day, which is always plenty when we're talking about Donald Trump and his campaign.