Lead service line
Lead exposure is a public health hazard as it causes developmental effects in fetuses, infants, and young children.
The difficulty is exacerbated in many locations by ownership structure with a shared responsibility between water utilities and property owners, which requires cooperation between the two entities.
Some water utilities employ corrosion control as a short-term solution while working through long-term replacement projects.
[4] Lead water lines have also been known to be harmful since ancient times, though this is contested by industry trade groups within the United States.
The first portion of the service line is called a gooseneck, which connects to a valve at the water main and is required to be flexible to allow some movement.
[9][10] In colder-weather areas, the connection between the water main and the rest of the service line is subjected to expansion and contraction during temperature changes.
When stiffer service lines made of galvanized steel pipe were used, lead goosenecks were installed to connect to the water main to reduce breakage from such expansion and contraction.
[11] From the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, many communities started to realize the health risks of lead and began to phase out some lead-containing products.
Elimination has been extremely difficult due to the high cost of identifying, locating, removing, and preventing the many potential sources of lead in various water distribution systems in the United States.
In children, the effects of lead exposure include learning problems, slow growth, and lower IQ.
Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, and Belgium all had higher percentages of lead lines ranging between 15% and 51%.
However, many other European countries considered the practice of adding orthophosphate to the water supply to be undesirable, as it would result in sewage with higher concentrations of nutrient.
Water utilities in northern Germany had already been working on lead service line replacements since the adoption of the Directive in order to meet the 2003 standard.
[23] In 1992, the federal government set the guideline to have the Maximum Allowable Concentration (MAC) of lead in drinking water at 0.01 mg/L.
On 8 March 2019, Health Canada updated the guideline to lower the MAC of lead to 0.005 mg/L, one of the lowest values in the world.
Other actions may include installation of treatment, checking of source water, removal of lead-containing plumbing, and public education.
On the other side, there is a concern that the increased rates can cause hardship, and there is a public policy question on using ratepayer money to make private property improvements.
[11] For cities with a large amount of renters, it is difficult to complete a full lead service line replacement program without any forms of mandate through a local ordinance.
An advisory board of the United States Environmental Protection Agency concluded in 2011 that they had enough data to show that such practice could pose a public health risk.
It also provided guidance on homeowner notification before partial replacements and water utilities' commitment to follow-up tests.
[35] In 2017, a study of the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities concurred that partial replacements can aggravate the problem of lead exceedances.
A full lead service line replacement should be coordinated with the property owner as it may involve obstacles such as trees, driveways, and walls.
After switching the corrosion control chemical, the buildup in the city's distribution system started to disappear, causing leaching in the lead service lines.
The result of higher acidity caused the sodium silicate that was used successfully as a corrosion inhibitor for two decades to stop working.
During Mayor Emanuel's administration, the city consistently denied any widespread problems of lead in water, and continued the meter installation.
[67] In addition to potential issues with reconnecting lead service lines back to water mains, there were also concerns about how the city repaired damages.
A scientist who tested the water after the repair procedure was done on his home found an extremely high level of lead.
An EPA advisory board concluded that the procedure could be more dangerous than a partial lead service line replacement.
After 87 months of work, when the city had completed two-thirds of the water main replacement project, the total number of repairs using the procedure was still not available.
Irish Water replaced lead service lines at their own cost as part of their leakage reduction program.
