It’s been almost a decade since the Flint, Michigan water crisis showed the dangers of lead in public water. In that tragedy’s aftermath, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set a deadline for all public water systems to inventory their lines. That deadline came Wednesday.
The EPA established new requirements under the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions as part of the Biden Administration's Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan. This initiative, which took effect in December 2021, aims to address the pervasive issue of lead contamination in drinking water. The revisions require public water systems to create and maintain an inventory of service line materials, marking a significant step toward safeguarding public health and ensuring access to safe drinking water for all communities.
The city of Goshen says it has successfully met the requirements, following an extensive campaign to assess the materials of water service lines throughout the community.
Goshen’s century-old water system posed challenges, as early records were often imprecise. However, the city says it’s diligently worked to inventory all water lines to align with state and federal regulations. Goshen began collecting its inventory in 2016, years before it was mandated.
The Engineering Department, in collaboration with the Water and Sewer Department, utilized utility records, home visits, self-reporting, and online surveys to determine the materials of over 50% of Goshen’s service lines, serving more than 6,000 households.
To further identify the materials of remaining service lines, Goshen partnered with Abonmarche Consultants to conduct pothole excavations at 400 representative locations. This allowed crews to visually inspect both sides of the shut-off valve. With the help of BlueConduit’s predictive analytics, the city can now assign a material probability to each unidentified service line with 95% confidence. Earlier this week, Goshen submitted its comprehensive inventory to state agencies, well ahead of the October 16 deadline.
South Bend also turned in their inventory Wednesday. They faced many of the same challenges as Goshen, but on a larger scale. Eric Horvath, executive director of South Bend’s Public Works, said the city needed to use a predictive model to determine some of the lines. He believes South Bend is not alone.
“I think all cities will be in the same boat,” Horvath said, “where they just don’t know what’s underground and don’t have good records.”
Horvath said the predictive model uses many factors to determine the material of a property’s line, including age of the home and materials observed in neighboring properties.
South Bend residents with, or believed to have, lead lines will be notified by the city.
“We’ll be sending them letters,” Horvath said. “These letters will just inform them that there’s a potential risk there, and give them some resources that they can look at just to make sure they can protect their households as best they can.”
The EPA posted guidelines for developing and maintaining a service line inventory for all public water systems to use.