Things You Should Know About Lead in Drinking Water

In 2004, people throughout the Greater Lansing area learned about lead in drinking water. This brochure provides an update on what the Board of Water & Light is doing to address this issue and includes important new precautions customers with lead service lines should take.

Health effects of lead

Lead is a common, naturally occurring metal that is found throughout the environment in lead-based paint as well as in air, soil, household dust, and, sometimes, water. Lead can pose a significant risk to your health if too much of it enters your body. Lead builds up in the body over many years and can cause damage to the brain, red blood cells and kidneys. The greatest risk is to young children and pregnant women. Amounts of lead that won't hurt adults can slow down normal mental and physical development of growing bodies. Most health officials agree the greatest danger from lead exposure comes from old lead-based paint, but drinking water can also be a source.

Lead in drinking water

There's no detectable lead in BWL drinking water when it leaves our conditioning plant. But water is naturally corrosive and can pick up microscopic amounts of lead if it sits idle for extended periods of time in pipes, plumbing or fixtures that contain lead. Lead levels in drinking water are likely to be highest:

· In homes with lead service lines connecting the water main to the house

· In homes with lead indoor plumbing, or in homes that have copper plumbing joined by lead solder.

· In homes that have brass faucets or other fixtures.

Reducing water's corrosiveness

Lead gets into drinking water when the water sits for extended periods of time in pipes or fixtures containing lead. This exposure could come from lead service lines. But it could also come from water contact with interior copper plumbing joined by lead solder, or with brass plumbing fixtures in your interior plumbing. Even brass fixtures certified as "lead-free" can contain up to 8 percent lead.

Reducing the water's corrosiveness is an important key to keeping lead out of drinking water. In 2004 the BWL returned to using an additive called Aquadene, which had shown past success in reducing lead levels. The BWL also hired a nationally recognized consulting firm to review its corrosion control program and to recommend ways to lower corrosion even further.

Things you can do to reduce lead in your drinking water

Despite our best efforts, lead levels in some homes and businesses served by the BWL can be high. Fortunately, there are steps you can take on your own to reduce these levels.

All consumers:

· Flush your pipes before drinking. Anytime the water in a particular faucet has not been used for 6 hours or longer, flush your cold-water pipes by running the water until it becomes as cold as it will get. This could take as little as 5 to 30 seconds if there has been recent heavy water use such as showering or toilet flushing. Otherwise, it could take 2 minutes or longer. The more time water has been sitting in your home's pipes, the more lead it may contain.

· Use only water from the cold-water tap for drinking, cooking, and especially for making baby formula. Hot water is likely to contain higher levels of lead.

· Regularly clean particles from faucet aerators.

· Buy a lead-free faucet. The legal definition of "lead-free" still allows brass faucets to contain up to 8 percent lead. However, faucets marked with "NSF 61/9" and/or "California Proposition 65" meet stricter limits.

· If you're concerned about lead, have the water tested. Arrangements can be made for water testing through the Ingham County Health Department at 887-4312. A test costs about $20. Or, you may choose to install a water filter that is NSF-certified for lead removal. If a water filter is installed, replace filters at least as often as recommended by the manufacturer.

In addition, in homes with known or suspected lead service lines:

· If the water in your home has not been used for 6 hours or more, draw water for cooking or drinking after allowing the water to run for 7 minutes or for at least 2 minutes after another high water use activity such as bathing or washing clothes.

· As an alternative, use filtered water for drinking or cooking. The BWL offers free water filters and replacement cartridges to customers with lead service lines.

Replacing lead service lines

In 2004 the BWL's Board of Commissioners approved a plan to remove all 14,000 known or suspected lead service lines from its water system by 2014. As of May, 2005, fewer than 13,000 remained in our system.

Service line replacements are scheduled with the following priorities:

· Schools and daycare centers - There are no schools with lead service lines in our water system. Lead service lines feeding registered daycare centers were replaced in 2004.

· Children with elevated blood lead levels - Lead services supplying homes occupied by a lead-burdened child as identified by the Ingham County Health Department are put on the priority replacement list.

· Sensitive populations - The EPA considers households with pregnant women and children under age 6 to be the most vulnerable to lead exposure. If your household fits that description, call our Customer Service Center at 702-6006 and we'll put you on our priority replacement list.

· CSO project areas - Where possible, our lead service line replacement program follows the City of Lansing's Combined Sewer Overflow project and other planned street projects. This decreases situations where the same street is opened up more than once for improvement projects.

· Concentrated areas - Other areas with large concentrations of lead service lines.

EPA's lead regulation

The EPA sets upper limits or maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for most substances it regulates in a utility's drinking water system. These MCLs are set at levels designed to protect the health of customers. For most contaminants, testing takes place at the utility's treatment plant or in its distribution system. Lead is different, because it's not commonly found in a water utility's source water or its distribution system. Usually, lead dissolves into drinking water after the water has entered the customer's property. For lead, EPA has set an action level designed to measure a utility's effectiveness in controlling the corrosiveness of drinking water so that lead doesn't easily dissolve into it. That makes it different from maximum contaminant levels, which are based on protecting human health.

For lead, EPA requires that samples be taken from faucets inside the homes of a certain number of customers. These tests must be taken in homes likely to have the highest concentration of lead. That includes houses with lead service lines and houses with copper plumbing built just before lead-based solder was outlawed in the late 1980s. EPA's action level for lead is 15 parts per billion at the 90th percentile. That means 90 percent of the homes sampled for lead have to have a lead concentration of 15 parts per billion or less. Utilities that exceed the action level need to do more to reduce the corrosiveness of their drinking water, increase their public information campaign, and begin removing lead service lines, if they have any.

We're doing all three of those things, even though the BWL remains under EPA's action level for lead.

Our commitment to our customers

The BWL has always been in compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency's lead regulation. We are in compliance today with that regulation. But our commitment to our customers goes beyond simply doing what's required of us. This commitment has prompted the utility to:

· Undertake a project to remove all lead service lines in our system by 2014.
· Conduct extensive studies to identify the appropriate flushing time for BWL customers with lead service lines.
· Issue revised flushing advice for lead service line customers that go far beyond what's currently required by EPA.
· Provide free water filters and replacement cartridges to customers with lead service lines.
· Conduct more rigorous and frequent sampling for lead concentrations than is required by EPA regulations.
· Communicate regularly with our customers about lead in drinking water.
· Getting more information about lead in drinking water

If you'd like to learn more about lead in drinking water, we invite you to click here.

You can also click here to go to the Environmental Protection Agency's Web site or call its Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.