Thousands of Kingston residents opened their mail recently to see a concerning letter from the Water Department.
“The Kingston Water Department has identified that a part of or the entire length of the service line that delivers drinking water to yor house/building is made of lead”, read some of the letters.
2,711 households have been identified for their use of water pipes made of lead. An additional 2,056 households also received letters, though it has not yet been established whether they too have lead in their pipes. A map of affected areas of Kingston can be found if you navigate this online map.
The letter from the Water Department italicized the health effects of lead noting that exposure to lead in drinking water can result in permanent decreases in IQ and attention span among infants and children, coinciding with learning and behavior problems. Among adults, heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney or nervous system problems can crop up.
Assuming immediate replacement is not possible, the Water Department recommended:
- running the tap to flush the water pipes before drinking, bathing, or doing laundry or dishes
- the use of a certified lead removing water filter
- the regular removal and cleaning of the screen underneath the faucet head, called an aerator
- the use of cold water rather than hot, for drinking, cooking and making baby formula
Mayor Noble Urges Calm
“We know that these letters can be alarming,” Mayor Noble acknowledged. “and we want to reassure residents that precautions can be taken to keep your family’s drinking water safe.”
City resources have yet to be offered to replace lead lines, the condition and upkeep of which is the responsibility of the property owner, but Noble expressed his optimism that “State and Federal funds will be available for homeowners to access to help with this lead line replacement.”
Furthermore, the mayor recommended “contacting an accredited lab that can conduct testing”, if any resident was concerned about lead in their drinking water.
Why Lead in the Water is Bad
Once ingested, the highly toxic metal can impact brain development in children, resulting in permanent decreases in IQ and attention span. It can thwart kidney function in adults, leading to heart disease, high blood pressure and nervous system problems and finally interfere with the production of red blood cells necessary to carry oxygen to all parts of the body, pets included.
Even while the passage of the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1986 banned the use of lead pipe, solder, and flux in the installation or repair of any plumbing in a residential or non-residential facilities which provide water for human consumption, many of the legacy lead pipes have been left buried, still connected to water mains.
But as with lead-based paint, the use of which was banned from use in homes in 1978, the sweet-tasting paint remains, flaking off in millions of homes and apartments. Time takes time and remediation is not cheap.
The delivery of lead service notification letters to potentially affected residents were mandated by the federal government and complying with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Lead & Copper Rule Improvements, the Kingston Water Department was tasked with identifying possible lead service lines to private property in the city.
For more information on lead in drinking water contact: dohpws@co.ulster.ny.us / 845-340-3010
For more information on having water tested: laboratory@kingston-ny.gov
Water leaches lead from contaminated pipes while we sleep
Matthew Dysard, superintendent of the Kingston Water Department, drinks his tap water in a jug through a Brita filter, but not because he has concerns about his tap water. The jug is just a convenient container, he explains, with which to store his water in the fridge.
“I would still drink it [out of a jar] and put that in the fridge,” he says. “I like the water cold, and that’s just what we have.”
The quality of the water sent out from the water department to homes in Kingston is above reproach, Dysard insists. He points out that concerns over lead in the drinking water are related directly to what chemical elements the water can leach out from the privately maintained connector pipes, known as “service leads,” which connect homes and businesses to the city-maintained water mains.
This is where the pH level of the treated water coming through the pipes plays a pivotal role.
“So we add lime to our water as our corrosion control, to adjust the pH,” Dysard explains. “Our raw water [has a pH of about] seven. After it’s been chlorinated, treated, and come into the city, it’s closer to nine, nine and a half.”
A measure of how acidic a substance is, a pH of zero is rated the most acidic. Concentrated hydrochloric acid, which has a pH of zero, can eat through cast iron.
A pH of seven is considered neutral, and so tap water ideally has a pH between 6.5 and 8.5. It’s the range considered least corrosive.
At the other extreme is a pH of 14, the most alkali (basic), at which a substance becomes corrosive again. Lye, for example, used to make soap, is a corrosive soda capable of dissolving animal tissue.
Lead exposure time
Because the water typically sits in the service line overnight while residents are sleeping, Dysard said, this window of time represents the longest opportunity for the water to leach lead from a pipe contaminated with lead.
“Because the water that’s been sitting there has been exposed to lead for a longer period of time, the lead in the service line is what you don’t want to consume,” Dysard warned. He recommended opening the taps and flushing the water through the system in the mornings.
“A lot of times people get up and they’ll flush the toilet, they’ll wash their hands, then run the water to make sure it’s cool to the touch. At that point [when it’s cool to the touch], you’re getting the water from the mains in the street.”
Dysard expressed skepticism about the choice that some residents have made to rely on natural spring water for their drinking-water needs, even after boiling it before drinking.
“Personally, I would just flush my system for a minute or two and drink that water because with the spring there’s no guarantee that there’s no bacteria in that water. There’s no treatment. There’s no filtration. I mean, we have UV systems, we chlorinate, we filter.”
Cataloging lines is key
The water department bears the responsibility for maintaining an up-to-date inventory of all service lines, The department wants to be updated when service lines are swapped out. A catalog of known lead pipes is updated annually. Dysard hopes to see the number of lead connector pipes or “unknowns” reduced between now and the next submittal.
“We’re already seeing people that have received letters call in and say, well, no, my service was replaced in 1992 by this plumber, and it’s not really lead any more. So we can take them off the inventory. We have records going back to the 1890s, but there’s times when the homeowner has replaced it and not told us.”
For now, no funds have been announced to aid city residents in swapping out their lead connector pipes. Dysard expects the completion of the citywide lead service-line catalog, which took two years to complete, will reinforce a city request for state or federal funds.
“We’re looking at potential funding to help assist property owners in replacement,” Dysard said. “Typically, the feds will give it to the state. That’s how New York sends out drinking-water funds. It will most likely be filtered down through the Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC), through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.
For information on having water tested: laboratory@kingston-ny.gov
Websites providing information about chemicals in drinking water: epa.gov and ewg.org.
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