POTTSTOWN — Borough officials would like you to grab a penny, a magnet and go down into your basement if you have one.
That’s what you will need to try to identify the type of water service line you have coming into your home. It’s part of a years-long project to find lead water service lines and replace them with pipes that do not carry a risk of brain damage, nerve damage, stunted growth in children, learning disabilities and even impaired hearing.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, lead can be harmful to human health even at low exposure levels.
“The EPA has set the maximum contaminant level goal for lead in drinking water at zero. Lead is a toxic metal that is persistent in the environment and can accumulate in the body over time. Infants who drink formula prepared with lead-contaminated tap water may be at a higher risk of exposure. The large volume of water they consume relative to their body size increases their risk.”
The most common source of lead contamination in water is a lead water service line coming into the house, household plumbing fixtures, welding solder, and pipe fittings made prior to 1986, according to the CDC.
That’s where the borough comes in.
Although public funds cannot pay to change the plumbing in your house, they can pay to replace the water service line from the water main under the street into your home.
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to announce that “the Environmental Protection Agency is issuing a final rule that will require drinking water systems nationwide to replace lead service lines within 10 years. EPA is also investing an additional $2.6 billion for drinking water upgrades and lead pipe replacements, funded by the landmark Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” according to information provided by the White House.
Last year, thanks to $1.3 million in state funding, the borough identified 200 lead water lines and replaced 100 of them.
This year, the borough is using $2.3 million from Montgomery County to continue the effort to identify 550 lead service lines, 150 of which have already been replaced, according to Borough Manager Justin Keller.
Whenever the borough tears up a street these days for a water or sewer project; or if PECO does the same for new electric or gas lines, the borough looks for evidence of lead water service lines going into homes and replacing them, so the newly re-paved street does not have to be torn up again.
However, the borough also wants to know where clusters of lead water lines can be found in order to plan for future projects, Keller told council at a recent meeting. “The borough is dedicated to continuing this effort for the next 10 years and obtaining grants to replace the deficient lines,” Keller said.
Keller said the borough has no database to identify how many lead service lines may lie beneath the surface in the borough, slowly poisoning residents.
“Our immediate focus is on areas with concentrations of properties improved between the late 1800s and the 1950s, as they are more likely to contain lead service lines based on the age of the buildings,” Keller told MediaNews Group in response to a Mercury inquiry. “In the current phase of this project, we have so far investigated a total of 619 properties, identifying 204 lead water service lines that require replacement. This reflects a lead service line hit rate of approximately 33 percent in areas with a high likelihood of containing lead infrastructure based on the age of the buildings.”
“We’re asking residents to identify lead lines in their neighborhood to help assist us in prioritizing areas for lead replacement projects,” said Keller. “Once we get a list of them in the borough, we can help identify the hot spots.”
The borough has set up a checklist on its website to help you located and identify your water line. The webpage also has a short form you can fill out and submit to the borough, which will make an appointment to come out and confirm the lines is lead.
To identify where your water line is, find the water line service in the sidewalk in front of your house. It usually has a round metal cover. Imagine a direct line from that cover into your home. The line will come into the house in the basement if you have one. If you don’t have a basement or crawl space, it is likely in a closet or under the kitchen sink on the first floor.
It will be attached to your water meter.
And this is where the magnet and the penny come into play. And the borough has posted an on-line check list to help residents identify the type of water service line into their home.
There are four main types of water service line, lead, plastic, copper and galvanized steel. A magnet will stick to the steel, but not the copper, the plastic or the lead.
If you scratch a copper line with the penny, it will have a copper color, like the penny as it may have turned green over time. If you scratch the line coming into your house with the penny, and it flakes off and reveals a shiny silver color, the line is made of lead.
Keller told council the website is already working and the borough is beginning to get input from residents about their water lines.
