Researchers Say Partial Pipe Replacements May Make Lead Issues Worse

Since the crisis in Flint, MI, there have been ongoing discussions around how to better equip cities and protect their residents against the harmful effects of lead in drinking water.

Cities have taken precautions, not just replacing aging pipes, but enacting rules that will benefit younger generations and avert crises similar to Flint.

For example, the Philadelphia School District recently decided to expand its drinking water program after detecting high levels of lead in nearly 50 school drinking outlets.

Unfortunately, replacing aging infrastructure may not always be the answer. According to The Dayton Daily News, a rush to replace aging pipes could have the “unintended consequence of exposing residents to dangerous levels of lead.”

Though replacing mains and service lines may be the answer in some case, replacing the older pipes, some attest, can increase the amount of lead in water “because of corrosion that gets disturbed in the lead pipes that run into a homeowner’s property.”

For years public water systems have worked towards the expensive process of replacing the old mains and service lines. Though “in most cases the replacements don’t include the connecting pipes that run on private property — and are made of lead.”

This means that the new lines are leading water into the existing lines that enter into homes and businesses in that region. The Dayton Daily News, serving Dayton, OH, noted that critics have pointed out that these replacements can increase the lead levels in the structures, and added that they feel that their public officials are not going enough to warn people of the danger.

“Consumers have no choice on this,” Marc Edwards, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech and a pivotal advocate for citizens in Flint, told The Dayton Daily News. “The fight never seems to end here, because governments do not do a great job at fixing problems they’ve created.”

The U.S. EPA said that “it is assessing the effectiveness of replacing only part of the water infrastructure, commonly known as partial service line replacements.” The agency added that the  “federal guidelines also require water systems serving more than 50,000 people — such as Dayton’s — to implement a corrosion control program through chemical treatment to the drinking water.”

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