This week, the City of Lebanon Authority mailed letters to 2,300 customers informing them that their service lines could be lead and investigation is needed to confirm or rule out the presence of lead.
COLA’s finalized inventory of its 22,000 service lines — the pipes connecting a building’s plumbing to a water main in a street — revealed 165 service lines known to be lead. About 300 more customers with brass and iron service lines also were sent the letter as those lines could contain lead or lead joints.
“The service line pipe materials of the 1,800 others are unknown, or the data field in our records is blank, so they could have the potential for lead,” COLA executive director Jon Beers told the authority board Tuesday, Nov. 12. The meeting was pushed from Monday to Tuesday due to the Veterans Day holiday.
Beers cautioned that even if a service line is lead, customers’ water likely does not contain lead because of COLA’s corrosion control practices of adding lime and maintaining a high pH. Those reduce the likelihood of lead leaching into the water.
Also, COLA routinely tests for lead by sending random samples from its system to commercial laboratories for analysis, Beers said in an email Wednesday.
“All recent testing has shown no signs of lead in any customer’s water,” he added.
EPA set Oct. 16 as a deadline for water systems across the U.S. to identify lead service lines. Children can suffer lifelong health issues from lead exposure as the effects of lead poisoning are not reversible. Pregnant women and adults also are at risk from lead-contaminated drinking water.
Lead pipes and fittings were commonly used in water systems and residential plumbing in the past but were phased out starting in the 1960s because of the harmful effects of lead exposure. By the 1980s, service lines were generally plastic or copper.
COLA has posted a fact sheet with service line information as well as its service-line inventory on its website so that customers can look up their address and see the likely pipe material of their service lines.
Property owners can determine if their water contains lead by having it tested by one of several local laboratories that specialize in water testing. Should lead be confirmed, property owners should alert COLA so replacement of those lines can be prioritized.
The board also learned that one month into its new water supply and allocation permit from DEP, COLA has had to apply for a temporary relief of flowby requirements for the Swatara Creek intake because of lack of rainfall.
Lebanon is one of 35 counties under a drought watch, according to DEP. A drought watch calls for a voluntary reduction of water usage.
“Water supplies are low, and we are not meeting the new permit requirements on the Swatara Creek,” Beers said.
Since changing flowby requirements, DEP has reviewed only one other relief permit, so COLA would be the second, Beers said.
In other business, the board approved:
- Replacement of the East Weidman Street water main from Lincoln Avenue to 7th Avenue. Low bidder was AH Moyer at $1,187,817. The project is scheduled for 2025.
- Resolutions setting a High Strength Waste Surcharge Fee and sewer rates for industries that contribute high concentrations of waste products, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, as part of their operations. Only four industries will be affected, and only three will see an increased surcharge. Those are Godshall’s Quality Meats, the Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority, and Dean Foods.
- A resolution setting out requirements for how COLA will meter and bill customers for Consumptive Use — that is, for water that goes into a product or process and is not returned through wastewater.
- A resolution setting limits for industrial sewer discharges of metals, such as copper, silver, and zinc, and poisons, such as arsenic and cyanide.
The City of Lebanon Authority Board meets at 2311 Ridgeview Road, Lebanon, on the second Monday of each month at 3 p.m. The next meeting will be on Monday, Dec. 9. These meetings are open to the public and do not require registration.
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