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NBC News 12
See the original article. EAGLE RIVER - Nearly 80,000 homes and businesses in Milwaukee get their water through lead service lines. Ingesting lead can lead to brain damage, especially in children. But in the last few years, one Northwoods city has eliminated nearly all of its lead lines at no cost to property owners. "To have any lead going into people's homes, where they're bathing in it, where they're drinking it, is not a good thing," said Eagle River Mayor Jeff Hyslop. Hyslop says, a few years ago, more than 60 homes in the city still relied on lead lines. Leaders wanted to change that. See the full article online.
City clears two hurdles that make removing lead services difficult for communities INDIANAPOLIS (Jan. 24, 2019) – The City of Kenosha (Wisconsin) will be the first city in the state to utilize available funding for lead service-line-replacement projects, and has hired Zionsville, Ind., company 120WaterAudit to implement the program for the Kenosha Water Utility. 120WaterAudit will assist the city in overcoming another hurdle — information management – that impedes communities from addressing lead as a public-health issue. 120WaterAudit’s Public Water System Platform will streamline lead-service-line replacement using geographic, demographic, and customer data that is crucial to pinpoint properties that need to be addressed, and are critical to ensuring the city’s investment of funding and manpower achieves regulatory compliance. 120WaterAudit will enable the utility to better manage its lead service-line inventory. “Kenosha is a perfect example of a city digging in to tackle this problem, which is prevalent in so many communities across the United States,” said Megan Glover, chief executive officer for 120WaterAudit. “One of the hurdles to address the problem is finding funding, and the Kenosha team have diligently managed that hurdle – to the benefit of current and future residents.” Glover also added that another hurdle is managing information. Determining which homes to address, based on geographic location and ensuring the replacement process is compliant, are important pieces in the replacement process. Many firms that work to manage this information use spreadsheets, which makes it difficult to get projects like this off the ground and ensure compliance. 120WaterAudit, however, uses technology that compiles all of the necessary information for field and office teams, and streamlines the process for the immediate and long-term future. Environmental Defense Fund
See the full blog here. We recently finished a round of updates to our webpages recognizing states and communities leading the way in efforts to accelerate lead service line (LSL) replacement across the country. As we start the New Year, we wanted to summarize the good news from 2018 and highlight some opportunities for more success. Ninety-five communities are leading the way on LSL replacement programs:[1]
Lansing State Journal
See the full article here. Do you own or rent one of the tens of thousands of homes in the Lansing area built before 1950 or a newer one you think could have lead water service lines? You'll soon be able to say goodbye to your lead service lines. And your water utility will foot the bill. State rule changes from earlier this year require local utilities to replace all lead and galvanized water service lines between the publicly-owned water main and a resident's water meter by 2040 at an average replacement rate of 5% per year. Before 1950, many service lines — the small pipes that connect homes and businesses to the larger water mains under the street — were made of lead, which can leach off the pipe and into the water, potentially poisoning users. Galvanized pipes, or steel pipes dipped in a protective coating, also were common and can leak lead from the zinc coating and other harmful chemicals, as decades of water exposure cause corrosion and rust. Water Conditioning and Purification Magazine
See the full article online. By Kim Redden, MWS, MPH, Eric Yeggy, MWS and Kelly A. Reynolds, MSPH, PhD There are several water quality issues that are uniquely suited to a POU or POE solution. The Water Quality Association (WQA) discusses these issues at the WQA Annual Convention and over the past decades, the Water Quality Research Foundation (WQRF) has been funding research to further advance our understanding of these issues. This article focuses on one of those issues, namely the ongoing efforts to get lead out of our drinking water. The Recorder
See the full article online. Dozens of lead service lines connecting Amsterdam homes to the city’s water are expected to be replaced over the next few years through tapping state funds. Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara announced Friday that Amsterdam would receive up to $500,000 through the state’s Lead Replacement Program to replace residential lead service lines. The city will be fully reimbursed for costs associated with replacing the lines, including restoration of public and private property after pipes are installed, according to Santabarbara. He said the city qualified for funding after elevated leads were discovered earlier this year. Amsterdam has identified approximately 60 lead service lines in need of replacement to date, which is estimated to cost $5,000 to $10,000 per line due to varying site conditions and pipe lengths, according to Santabarbara. He said the replacement project is slated to start in the spring and is planned to be completed by the end of 2021. “It is a significant step in the right direction to addressing the elevated lead levels,” Santabarbara said. “Hopefully this round can at least address the lines that they’ve identified so far. It’s going to take a while, but the fact that they’re getting started next year is good news for the city.” Amsterdam Water Treatment Chief Plant Operator Randy Gardinier in an interview Wednesday said nine of the 60 samples collected from city homes in September were discovered to be above the regulatory limit, or maximum contaminant level (MCL), of 15 parts per billion. The percentage of samples exceeding the MCL triggered an action level violation, which requires measures to be taken to address the issue. Chelsea Record
See the full article online here. Lead pipes are often a hidden danger under the streets and sidewalks for a lot of families in Chelsea, but if the City can help it, that danger will be removed one pipe at a time. On Monday, the MWRA and the Clean Water Action Group awarded the City of Chelsea and GreenRoots for their early adoption of a program that removes, at no cost to the homeowner, lead water service lines while in the process of other infrastructure projects. Part of that award included a $100,000 grant to help continue the program and remove more lead water lines as the City encounters them during paving or sidewalk repair programs. City Manager Tom Ambrosino said it is a common sense operation, but one that goes the extra step in replacing the line for free – as it usually is the responsibility of the homeowner to pay for the replacement. Water Online
See the full article online here. DC Water today announced plans to work closely with the District government to implement a new lead service replacement program that offers free and discounted replacements of lead water service pipes on private property for thousands of homes across the city. This program will be implemented once it is funded by the District, which is anticipated in October 2019. The new program, approved by the D.C. Council late Tuesday and headed to Mayor Muriel Bowser for her signature, establishes a city-funded program to encourage the removal of lead service lines located on private property — the small diameter pipes that bring water from the water main into homes. Tucson News Now
See the full article online. It was devastating for Flint, MI - lead in the water nearly seven times greater than the EPA limit in 2015. Years later here at home, Tucson Water has been working to prevent that from happening to customers in their service area. “The safest approach is to eliminate the lead from the distribution system,” Tucson Water’s Fernando Molina said. In 2017 Tucson Water started its “Get the Lead Out” program, aimed at preventing lead exposure by removing lead service lines in the service area. The plan was to remove those service lines by the end of 2018. Public Health Newswire APHA Annual Meetings News See the original article online. Drinking water contamination was the focus of a Tuesday morning Annual Meeting session, where panelists from Lead Service Line Replacement Collaborative addressed the health risks of lead service lines that connect buildings to water mains under the street. Lead can enter drinking water when pipes and plumbing fixtures corrode. Young children, infants and fetuses are especially vulnerable to the pollutant, a neurotoxin that can impact all organ systems and contribute to cognitive impairment, behavioral problems and lowered IQ. Moderating the “Drinking Water and Lead Service Lines: Partnering to Protect Public Health” session was Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, executive director of the Children’s Environmental Health Network, who told attendees: “We have to reduce the exposure to lead in drinking water, and that begins with replacing the nation’s lead service lines — 6 to 10 million of them bringing water to taps across the U.S. It’s a tall order, but it has to be done to protect the health of our children.” |
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