EPA To Portland: Lead Levels 'Aren't Good Enough'

A deadline is bearing down on Portland, OR, as the city attempts to get its lead levels in drinking water under control.

U.S. EPA officials told the city in April that its lead levels are too high, according to The Oregonian.

"EPA was very clear that current lead levels at the tap aren't good enough, and they expect Portland’s schedule for implementing optimized corrosion control to be aggressively timed," said a note from a meeting from state regulators.

The message from the EPA followed media reports that Portland had “the highest reported lead levels of any large water provider nationwide,” according to The Oregonian.

“Portland is an outlier nationally because the state in 1997 approved a unique plan allowing the city to minimally treat its water with chemicals. Lead is hardly detectable in Portland's water supply and the city doesn't have lead service lines. But water from the Bull Run [watershed] is corrosive and prone to leaching lead from lead solder found in some plumbing,” the report said.

Now, officials at Portland Water Bureau face an August deadline to begin reversing the problem. The city is expected to produce a schedule for how it can lower lead levels, The Oregonian reported.

How will the city address lead concerns? Options are still under consideration. Portland Commissioner Nick Fish, who oversees the Portland Water Bureau, told The Oregonian: “Until we've completed our assessment, we don't know what's the best option.”

“Fish cautioned Portland may not simply add more chemicals to the water to reduce corrosion. Officials could explore options for ‘more robust outreach and education,’ more water testing or potentially some sort of program that helps homeowners replace lead-tainted plumbing,” the report said.

Portland also underwent a lead scare in schools this year. An investigation by a local law firm found that Portland Public Schools “kept such poor track of lead it was impossible for district officials to understand water quality within their own buildings,” according to The Oregonian.

“Without federal mandates for testing water systems in school buildings and with the Flint, MI, water crisis at center stage of the debate, Gov. Kate Brown recently called on Oregon's 197 school districts to craft procedures for testing lead, radon and other chemicals at their campuses by this fall,” ABC News reported.