Is there lead in your water? City workers are checking residential water lines

Water utility workers plan to dig holes in yards all across Bloomington to determine whether any water lines to households contain lead, which is especially harmful to children.

The work, which Bloomington City Utilities hopes to complete in about 18 months, is required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and ultimately will serve as a basis for a lead line replacement plan.

Local utility officials said the mere presence of lead pipes does not mean residents need to worry, but they emphasized the EPA says available science shows “there is no safe level of exposure to lead.”

“We don’t want to get rid of just some of it. We want to get rid of all of it,” said Tyler Steury, water quality coordinator for Bloomington utilities.

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The EPA says even low levels of lead in the blood of children can cause serious problems, including lower intelligence, and an Indiana University professor in an email warned of potential problems.

"Many cities have a 'ticking time bomb' hidden under all of the streets and yards — their drinking water pipes," said Gabriel Filippelli, executive director of Indiana University's Environmental Resilience Institute.

In a recent column, Filippelli wrote that children with lead poisoning "tend to perform poorly at school, which reduces their earning potential as adults." He wrote they also face a higher risk of health problems such as stroke, and research has found "strong connections between lead poisoning and incarceration rates for violent crimes."

Blood lead levels in children have declined in recent decades, primarily because of the elimination of leaded gasoline and most lead-based paints. In the 1970s, nearly 90% of children ages 1 to 5 had blood lead concentrations that under today's health guidelines would be a "level of concern," Filippelli wrote.

Today, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 2% of children have elevated blood lead levels, though Filippelli noted that higher levels disproportionately harm communities of color.

Holly McLauchlin, the local utility’s communications manager, said while CBU knows the composition of the large pipes or culverts that bring water to neighborhoods, the utility does not have an inventory of the composition of the smaller lines that carry the water to homes.

Before the mid-1980s, use of lead in water lines was common, she said.

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Lead testing a first step

The testing in Bloomington over the next 18 months will serve as a first step to replacing lead lines, though Steury said that will take years or longer. He said other communities across the country typically have adopted 20-year plans.

Initially, the local utility will check the lines at 150 homes across the city. At each location, workers will dig two holes to determine the composition of the city-owned portion — closer to the street — and the property owner’s portion — closer to the home.

A utility crew and Mayor John Hamilton recently demonstrated some new equipment the utility acquired to make lead testing easier. At a residence on Allendale Drive, in southeastern Bloomington, the workers deployed a hydro-excavation truck, which uses high water pressure to weaken soil and essentially turn it into mud, which can be sucked into the truck via an attached hose.

Utility officials said the new truck enables the workers to get to the buried water lines without having to dig holes, which would take more time and increase the risk of damage to water lines and underground infrastructure.

Utility officials said CBU spent $700,000 in American Rescue Plan Act dollars to purchase the truck and personnel to operate it.

Steury said, however, topography and the lines’ distance to the house sometimes make use of the truck impractical or impossible. In some cases, utility workers still have to dig through asphalt and concrete to get to the lines. Sometimes the work can be done with a crew of three, but more difficult inspections can require seven workers.

Once the water line has been exposed, a utility worker touches it with an XRF gun, which immediately provides information about the line’s composition. The line of the home on Allendale was made of copper.

Steury said the utility still is working on a way to notify residents of the findings and is considering hanging some information on front doors. So far, he said, workers have simply told people the results.

Utility officials said residents have to give permission before workers can start digging, and the crew has to leave the yards as it found them.

The crew has tested 30 homes so far and found just one where the line contained lead, though 80% of it was made from iron. Steury said the homeowner did not appear worried, as he had lived there for decades and his parents had lived there for decades before him.

Once the utility has gathered information from 150 locations, it will use a predictive algorithm from Ann Arbor, Michigan-based BlueConduit to determine the likelihood of the composition of other nearby water lines. If the collected data do not provide enough certainty for state officials, the local utility may have to do more testing.

The utility will publish a map of its final analysis. Eventually, it plans to provide incentives for property owners to replace their portion of the lead lines. McLauchlin said replacement can cost thousands of dollars, depending on factors including the length of the water line.

Flint crisis spotlights lead concerns

Lead can enter drinking water when plumbing materials that contain lead corrode, especially where the water has high acidity or low mineral content that corrodes pipes and fixtures, according to the EPA.

The topic gained national attention in 2014 because of a crisis in Flint, Michigan, where a state-appointed emergency manager switched the city’s drinking water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. According to USA Today, a sister publication of The Herald-Times, the measure was intended to save money but proved to be a disaster. Michigan officials acknowledged they failed to add corrosion-control chemicals during the water treatment process.

“After Flint River water began flowing, corrosive water caused lead to leach from joints, pipes and fixtures, causing a spike in toxic lead levels in the blood of Flint children and other residents,” the paper wrote.

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Steury said Bloomington City Utilities uses sodium hydroxide to keep the local water, from Lake Monroe, at a pH level of about 9.1 to 9.3. The EPA considers levels below a pH level of 7 to be acidic.

Steury said the local water’s pH level is high enough to prevent corrosion, which means even if lead lines exist in Bloomington, the harmful metal would not leach into the water.

Filippelli said the level of danger also depends on how frequently the lines are used.

"Stagnant lines can result in lead leaching into the water from the pipes, and when the line is first used, you get a slug of lead," he said. "This is most common in buildings like schools where they might go an extended time without water use (summer, holidays, etc.)."

Filippelli said while it doesn't hurt to replace lead lines in the home, he has enough confidence in the local water utility he has not replaced the pipes or a lead gooseneck in his house.

Projects like this are going on all across the country, he said.

"I think that nearly all of the time, though, the water company is diligent enough to maintain adequate inhibitors to reduce this risk," Filippelli said.

Boris Ladwig is the city government reporter for The Herald-Times. Contact him at bladwig@heraldt.com.