Little lead taint noted in Arkansas water

6 state systems test above EPA standards, but 97% in accepted range, data show

The percentage of water utilities in Arkansas that have not exceeded the federal lead standard in the past three years is consistent with the national rate of 97 percent, according to data analyzed by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Nationally, that still leaves a significant number of utilities that have had problems with lead in recent years.

An Associated Press analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data found that nearly 1,400 water systems serving 3.6 million Americans have exceeded the federal lead standard at least once since Jan. 1, 2013. The affected systems are large and small, public and private, and include 278 systems that are owned and operated by schools and day care centers in 42 states.

In Arkansas, six of 207 utilities have exceeded the standard since 2013.

According to the EPA, drinking water with lead levels above the EPA standard that would prompt actions to mitigate the lead can cause delays in mental or physical development in children, including attention-span problems and learning disabilities.

The problem of unsafe lead levels came to light in 2015 after the water system in Flint, Mich., was declared unsafe. And lead-tainted water in Galesburg, Ill., shows that the problem is more widespread.

The railroad town promotes its ties to Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and the poet Carl Sandburg, but Galesburg's long history also shows in another way: Aging pipes have been leaking lead into the drinking water for decades.

Blood tests in 2014 showed 1 in 20 children under the age of 6 in Knox County had lead levels exceeding the state standard for public-health intervention, a rate six times higher than the Illinois average.

Lead levels have exceeded the federal standard in 22 out of 30 testing periods since 1992 in Galesburg, a community of 31,000 about 200 miles southwest of Chicago. City officials say the groundwater and water mains are lead-free, but the toxin enters the supply in service lines that deliver water from the streets to 4,700 homes. Lead-based plumbing fixtures that were common in homes built before 1980 also contribute.

"Most people in Galesburg are not really being told that there is a problem," said City Council member Peter Schwartzman, an environmental scientist who called the AP's findings alarming. "I'm very close to this and didn't know it. I feel ignorant."

In Arkansas, no utility has had more than nine rounds of testing in which the lead levels exceeded federal standards since 1992. Blood testing in children for lead also is not done consistently, and the state hasn't established a level that would be considered average, said Meg Mirivel, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Health.

Six Arkansas water utilities -- serving about 35,000 people -- exceeded the federal lead standard at least twice since 2010; 63 utilities have exceeded it at least once since 1992; and 144 utilities have never exceeded it since testing began, according to the data.

To be in compliance with the federal lead standard, a utility's water samples should test at 15 parts or fewer of lead per billion parts of water for at least 90 percent of the sample results. Above that number for more than 90 percent of samples triggers action to reduce lead levels.

To be clear, the EPA has not determined any amount of lead in water is safe, only acceptable.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported previously that two utilities had elevated lead levels in their most recent water samples, Delight Waterworks and Harrison Waterworks. But data going back further indicates that lead also has been a problem for Houston Waterworks in Perryville, Keiser Waterworks in Manila, Community Water System at Greers Ferry and North Howard Regional Water Association in Umpire.

All six utilities have implemented measures to reduce lead levels or are implementing them, Mirivel said.

Testing is conducted at the tap in some homes. Utilities are responsible for testing in certain older homes that are considered high risk, although tests are conducted by the homeowners, who are given instructions on collecting the sample. The utility then takes the sample to the county health unit, which then sends it to the state agency that oversees drinking water. In Arkansas, that's the Department of Health.

Sometimes, officials have said, errors in sample collection can cause lead levels to test higher, such as when hot water from the tap is tested. Hot water can be more corrosive to pipes, introducing more lead into the sample, said Mike Messer, customer service and compliance manager for Community Water System, which serves more than 15,000 people.

Samples also can't be taken from a tap where a water softener is used, and the faucet must not have been used for six hours before the sample was collected. The Health Department also urges people to turn off ice makers and avoid getting the test sample from a leaky faucet.

Unlike many other contaminants, lead often is introduced into a water supply after water leaves a treatment plant and runs through corroded pipes or faucets and comes into contact with solder used to join pipes.

Congress banned the use of lead solder containing greater than 0.2 percent lead and restricted the lead content of faucets, pipes and other plumbing materials to 8 percent in 1986 to cut down on lead poisoning, which occurs when the metal builds up in the body over a period of months or years.

After a utility has a lead score exceeding the action level, the utility or the Health Department is required to research the quality of the water in the system. If the utility's score is above the action level a second time, the utility must find a way to fix what is causing lead to get into the drinking water.

The EPA's 1991 Lead and Copper Rule is under scrutiny after the high lead concentrations were discovered in Flint, and the EPA is working to revise the rule. Among the problems with the rule is the amount of time utilities have to respond to the test results.

Critics say the current rule has not done enough to protect public health or to inform homeowners about risks. Dozens of systems have exceeded the standard 10 times or more in the past quarter-century, including in Portland, Ore., and Providence, R.I., the data show.

In response to the concerns raised by the situation in Flint, the EPA last month ordered state water regulators to keep a closer watch on lead levels. The agency is expected to issue a stronger rule next year designed to keep lead out of drinking water.

But the ultimate solution is expensive: It will take billions of dollars to replace millions of miles of lead pipes throughout the country. Those are the lines that connect water mains to homes, schools and businesses, remnants from a time when little was known about the danger lead posed to humans.

In Arkansas, water mains are not as old as in other parts of the country, Mirivel said. Solutions to reduce lead levels in Arkansas are typically the introduction of zinc orthophosphate as a corrosion inhibitor into the water supply or raising pH levels. A lower pH is typically more acidic and more corrosive. Such measures would reduce corrosion of water mains and the older plumbing in homes.

Many utilities test high for lead even after introducing corrosion controls.

Community Water System in Greers Ferry has had two rounds of testing above the EPA action level since 2010. The system installed corrosion controls in 2004, Messer said.

"One thing people need to keep in the back of their mind ... [is] this really isn't a scientific test from start to finish," Messer said, noting that one homeowner taking a sample with hot water can be the difference between testing below the action level and above it.

Messer said the lead found in the testing is not coming from the water supply but likely from older plumbing in homes where lead solder was used. The utility swabs the plumbing in homes and compares that with homes where water was sampled, he said.

Mirivel said determining an official cause for the higher lead levels found in the six utilities' water is difficult because the testing occurs in private homes.

"It may be due to pipes in people's homes that we have no control over," she said.

Community Water System injected the orthoplyphosphate chemical to prevent corrosion of the pipes the water runs through, Messer said. Additionally, the system is monitoring pH levels in the water.

"We're doing what we can to try to diminish the problem for sure," Messer said.

On Aug. 11, 2008, the Health Department notified Delight Waterworks that it was requiring the utility to install corrosion controls. The utility installed the controls on Aug. 11, 2010, according to Health Department documents.

Delight Waterworks has had five rounds of tests in which the lead levels exceeded the EPA action level since 2010, according to the data analyzed by the Democrat-Gazette.

On Aug. 11, 2012, the Health Department asked that pH levels be kept at 7.0 to 9.5 in the water system. On Feb. 9, the department informed the utility that it should maintain pH at 7 to 8 and maintain orthophosphate levels at 1.5 milligrams per liter to 2.5 milligrams per liter because of the high lead levels.

Houston Waterworks, now part of the Perryville system, installed corrosion controls July 31, 2011, after tests showed high lead levels in 2009 and earlier. Just before controls were installed, the system had a lead score above the action level at 24 parts per billion. In 2013, the utility had a score of 40 parts per billion, but in February this year the utility's latest test showed a much lower level of 1 part per billion.

On Jan. 15, the Health Department sent a letter to Harrison Waterworks asking for corrosion controls to be installed by Nov. 4, 2018, after testing in 2014 and 2015 showed high lead. Later this year, officials intend to inject zinc orthophosphate into the distribution system to create a protective layer on water mains and plumbing to prevent corrosion and leaching of lead into the taps.

A Sept. 9, 2014, letter from the Health Department to the North Howard Regional Water Association ordered the utility to install corrosion controls no later than June 17, 2017, after the utility's latest test results showed an exceedance of lead. In January, the utility also showed an exceedance for copper. Short-term exposure to high amounts of copper can cause gastrointestinal distress and long-term can cause liver or kidney damage, according to the EPA.

As for Keiser Waterworks, the utility had been required to install corrosion controls by March 31, 2017, but switched its water source in 2015 from groundwater to water from Osceola Waterworks. The utility and the Health Department will continue monitoring its test results.

Information for this article was contributed by Ryan J. Foley and Meghan Hoyer of The Associated Press.

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