116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Lead pipe notices mailed to Iowans
It's the next step in federal effort to remove the dangerous pipes
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Cedar Rapids and other cities have mailed notices to residents who have — or might have — lead-containing underground water pipes going to their homes.
The notifications are required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which recently announced a directive that aims to remove all lead pipes in the country and certain ones made from galvanized iron by 2037.
Lead is a neurotoxin that is dangerous — especially to children — if it is consumed. It was long used to plumb water into homes and other buildings because it is flexible and sturdy.
Public water supplies with the pipes use minerals to prevent lead from leeching into drinking water and regularly test to ensure those corrosion controls are effective.
But as long as the pipes exist, they pose a threat. More than 100,000 people were exposed to elevated lead levels a decade ago in Flint, Mich., when the city switched the source of its water supply and didn't use proper corrosion controls.
“Our goal is to ensure everyone knows that their water is safe, and if they have any concerns regarding their water quality, they may contact us to request additional testing," said Roy Hesemann, utilities director for Cedar Rapids.
The city sent notices about 9,000 service lines to homes and businesses where pipes are made of lead, might have lead, or are made of galvanized iron that at some point was downstream of lead and might have been contaminated by it. That’s about 17 percent of the total service lines in the city.
The makeup of more than 7,000 of those lines is unknown. The city has asked residents to attempt to identify the material of the pipe where it enters their homes and report it. About 400 people have done that, Hesemann said.
Other cities
Public water supplies were required to submit inventories of their lead service lines to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources last month.
The vast majority did, and the department has been working with a handful of very small suppliers — mobile home parks, for instance — to submit their information, said Corey McCoid, water supply operations supervisor for the DNR.
"We're finding less lead than I thought we would," he said.
The department is in the process of reviewing the data and does not yet have a total number of lead lines for the entire state.
Here are the number of pipes that might contain lead in some other Eastern Iowa cities, according to the information they submitted to the DNR:
- Anamosa: 1,032, about half of the city's total service lines.
- Central City: 138, about a quarter of the city's lines.
- Coggon: 101, about a third of its lines.
- Coralville: 84, about 1 percent.
- Hiawatha: 8, less than 1 percent.
- Iowa City: 2,938, about 11 percent.
- Marion: 1,195, about 8 percent.
- North Liberty: None.
- Tiffin: 1, less than 1 percent.
- Vinton: 2,950, or about 66 percent.
The true number of affected lines is likely less than those reported, but it might be years before the true number is known.
‘No foolproof way’
Knowing the material of the line where it enters a building is helpful, said Jonathan Durst, the water superintendent for Iowa City, but that doesn't necessarily reveal everything that lies between the building and a water main.
"There's no foolproof way to correctly identify all of the materials“ in service lines without digging, he said.
The city does not yet have an active program to reveal the makeup of its unknown lines, but it is offering to split the cost with residents who replace their lead lines. Iowa City will pay up to $5,000 per line.
Durst estimated that more than 150 residents have contacted his department since the notices were mailed, and that most of them want to test their water, which the city does for free.
Comments: (319) 368-8541; jared.strong@thegazette.com
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