Get the lead out

About three weeks ago, the Town of Saratoga Public Works Department started collecting data to inventory all water service lines in order to meet a requirement by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA is requiring all communities to inventory their water service lines for lead content by October 2024.

“In 1986 Congress Amended the Safe Drinking Water Act, prohibiting the use of pipes, solder or flux that were not “lead free” in public water systems or plumbing in facilities providing water for human consumption,” as stated on epa.gov. “The Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR) requires water systems to prepare and maintain an inventory of service line materials. Initial inventories are required to be submitted to state [primary] agencies by October 16, 2024.”

Saratoga Public Works Department Director Emery Penner said all communities nationwide are required to inventory their water service lines. This includes residential and commercial properties. That means “everything.”

At some point, the town will be required to replace any lines containing lead from the main water line to the meter, Penner said.

“From what I understand the town is not going to replace everyone’s service line from the meter into the home,” he said. “I don’t know whether at some point the [property] owners will be required to replace their end of the line.”

The inventory will not disrupt water service to the properties, he said.

A few years ago, the town replaced some of the water service lines during an unrelated project and it plans to use that information in this inventory, he said. The town is also collecting data on the age of homes to eliminate properties built after the government “outlawed” the use of pipes containing lead.

He said the town may get some help from the state.

The state has been working with local engineering firms “to try to help get this done” and “the town is trying to partner with them and tap into those resources,” he said.

Some state funds are “rolling down for the whole process,” he said. “I am not entirely sure now” what money may be available to the town.

“It has been an evolving discussion as it goes along,” he said. “At some point once we’ve identified [where the lead is], and further investigated,” the town is going to replace the pipes containing lead.

The town’s inventory will include the whole line from the main water line to the individual properties, he said. “We will identify this on the customer’s side of the meter to an extent, but we are not going to dig up [their] lines.”

The town will replace the water line from the main line to the meter and notify the property owners as to what they found, he said.

“The state has got some funding to help us get the inventory [done],” he said. “After this inventory, I am not sure if the state will provide funding to the town to replace the pipes.” This is what the town knows now, “but it seems like it could change.”

The town will probably be seeking some assistance developing the inventory, he said.