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CBS Local
Britt Moreno See the full article. DENVER (CBS4) — You might have already seen the construction: 11 neighborhoods in Denver will have crews digging and working on their water pipes in 2021. Crews are replacing thousands of feet of lead pipes as part of a public health initiative to make the drinking water safe. “It has taken years of research, but we have been successful through the pandemic,” says Denver water communication specialist Jose Salas. He tells CBS4’s Britt Moreno that research teams track neighborhoods with a “heavy volume of children.” He says Denver Water targets neighborhoods with schools or daycares nearby — and that’s where they start working on replacing people’s pipes that connect to the main pipe underneath roadways. See the full article. Wired
Sidney Fussell See the full article. MORE THAN SIX years after residents of Flint, Michigan, suffered widespread lead poisoning from their drinking water, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to improve water quality and bolster the city’s economy. But residents still report a type of community PTSD, waiting in long grocery store lines to stock up on bottled water and filters. Media reports Wednesday said former governor Rick Snyder has been charged with neglect of duty for his role in the crisis. Snyder maintains his innocence, but he told Congress in 2016, "Local, state and federal officials—we all failed the families of Flint.” One tool that emerged from the crisis is a form of artificial intelligence that could prevent similar problems in other cities where lead poisoning is a serious concern. BlueConduit, an analytics startup that says it uses predictive modeling to find lead pipes, offered promising results in Flint, but the city’s complex politics ended its use prematurely. Now, four years later and 100 miles away, officials in Toledo, Ohio, facing concerns about lead pipes, want to use the technology. They hope to avoid the problems that surfaced in Flint by expanding community outreach and involvement. The Ohio Department of Health estimates that as many 19,000 children in the state have elevated levels of lead; children in Toledo tested positive for lead poisoning at nearly double the statewide rate, according to a 2016 report from the Toledo Lead Poisoning Prevention Coalition. See the full article. Argus Press
Sally York See the full article. OWOSSO — The city has adopted a new rule mandating the replacement of lead and galvanized metal water service pipes extending to local properties over the next 20 years, at no charge to residents. In addition, city officials have passed new ordinance language to reflect the high-tech water meters recently installed at properties throughout Owosso. Owosso City Council members approved both moves during a virtual meeting Monday. City Manager Nathan Henne said the service pipe program, mandated by the state through revised lead and copper rules, “reflects the new reality” that the city will no longer split the cost of service line replacement with residents, but cover the whole cost. “Now we will pay half again as much, on the city side, to address this,” Henne said. Revised lead and copper rules under the Michigan Department of Energy, municipalities throughout the state are required to replace private and public property water service lines that are made of lead or galvanized metal, which have been shown to contaminate drinking water. See the full article. WBAY
Kati Anderson See the full article. SHAWANO, Wis. (WBAY) - The City of Shawano is taking steps to remove lead water lines from homeowners’ properties over the next two years. “We’re planning on removing 200 to 250 lead service lines in the city of Shawano this year and hopefully about the same next year and get that taken care of,” Shawano Public Workers Director Scott Kroening said. It’s a process that’s been ongoing in Shawano for many years, but it’s become more urgent after three homes exceeded the maximum containment level for lead last summer. “We do testing in residential homes every other year. We do 20 homes that we test, and of the twenty, in 2020, in our third quarter testing back in July, we did have three exceedances. They were just barely over the maximum contaminant level,” Kroening said. See the full article. By Cathy Proctor
Yourhub See the full article In a year when so much was canceled or put on hold, one program remained steadfast for Denver area residents: the Lead Reduction Program. The first year of Denver Water’s groundbreaking public health initiative has been a huge success — despite the COVID-19 pandemic that hit just as the massive program was getting underway. “Achieving the many ambitious, first-year goals of the program — which is itself on a scale and scope that’s never been tried before — and succeeding while a pandemic unfolds around us is absolutely extraordinary,” said Jim Lochhead, the CEO/Manager of Denver Water. “Elements of this program have been implemented on smaller scales across the country, but nothing that’s this wide-ranging, involving so many lines, so many customers, and so many methods of protecting our families, friends and neighbors from the risk of lead.” See the full article Ever wondered what your water pipes are made out of? Use this City of Calgary map to find out12/8/2020
CHRISTIAN KINDRACHUK
Calgary Journal See the full article. Calgary homeowners and renters alike are able to find out what their water pipes are made of, thanks to a new interactive map published by the City of Calgary. The city’s Public Water Service Lines map provides information about the public portion of a water line — which falls within the city’s jurisdiction — but not for the private side, which is managed by the property owner. “The city’s Open Data portal is provided in the spirit of openness, accountability, and transparency,” reads a statement from Sheila Johnstone, media relations for the city. Residents can type in their address and see what material makes up the public service line that brings water to their property from the city’s water mains. Once it is typed in, information about the material type will appear, along with installation data information and pipe diameter. The map is included within the ‘lead and water service lines’ section of the city’s water services webpage, several clicks away from the City of Calgary homepage. See the full article. Water Quality Products Magazine
CRISTINA TUSER See the full article. Joliet, Illinois is starting another phase of its program to replace lead service lines. Approximately 800 lead service lines will have been replaced by sometime next year, according to Utilities Director Allison Swisher, reported the Herald News. Joliet is in the process of identifying lead service lines, which bring water from the city main to the house. The city currently has an interactive map on its website to help residents determine if their homes may have lead service lines. The city has not allowed lead to be used in service lines for more than 80 years, but it is still found in older homes. The Illinois EPA is providing approximately $4 million to fund the next phase of the lead-line replacement program. There will be a projected 600 lead service lines that will be replaced in Phase Two of the program, added Swisher. The total will be close to 800. Phase Two will focus on homes on the near East and West sides of Joliet. See the full article. Phil Goldstein
State Tech Read the full article Using a machine learning predictive model, the city will try to accelerate the identification of lead water service lines. Toledo, Ohio, made the replacement of 30,000 lead water service lines a key priority last year to improve public safety, and now the city wants to accelerate the effort by leveraging artificial intelligence. The city will develop a machine learning program to determine where lead pipes might be located and then identify and prioritize which homes need to have their pipes replaced first. As the Environmental Protection Agency notes, “lead is a toxic metal that can be harmful to human health even at low exposure levels.” “The most common sources of lead in drinking water are lead pipes, faucets, and fixtures,” the EPA states. “In homes with lead pipes that connect the home to the water main, also known as lead services lines, these pipes are typically the most significant source of lead in the water.” In recent years, cities across the country have made the replacement of lead water service lines a top priority, though the response has been sluggish in some cities. The EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree that there is no known safe level of lead in a child’s blood, and lead in children’s blood can lead to behavior and learning problems, lower IQ and hyperactivity, slowed growth, hearing problems, anemia, and even death. Read the full article WoodTv.com
See the full article. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A significant grant is coming to Grand Rapids to help make the city’s water safer. The Environmental Protection Agency is giving the city a $5.1 million grant to help replace lead service lines in 17 Grand Rapids neighborhoods considered to be disadvantaged. These areas have a concentration of lead pipes and have been known to mostly have old lead pipes between the main line and their homes. The grant’s goal is to help reduce how many homes have water flowing through those potentially dangerous pipes. “I strongly encourage residents and businesses to take advantage of the opportunity to have service lines replaced when approached to do so. Encourage residents to have plumbing inspected to you know if you have any other exposure,” said Bonnifer Ballard, executive director of the American Water Works Association-Michigan. Benton Harbor is also getting a $5.6 million grant. The nearly $40 million grant program is going to 10 cities. See the full article. Water Online
Pete Antoniewicz A white paper recently released by the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA) provides insights on how water utilities can better use data to manage uncertainty around remaining lead-service-line (LSL) customer connections. The document, Principles of Data Science for Lead Service Line Inventories and Replacement Programs, represents the organization’s commitment to making information accessible to assist state program administrators in protecting public health. It was developed for ASDWA by BlueConduit, a water-infrastructure analytics consulting company. Read the full article. |
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