U.S. Water News Online
WASHINGTON -- Officials of the city's water authority came under criticism recently at a congressional hearing into elevated lead levels in some tap water.
``It's clear that the (District of Columbia) Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) was highly ineffective at informing the public of the magnitude of the problem,'' said Donald Welsh, regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has now ordered WASA to test all of its lead service lines.
WASA has also been instructed to provide faster notification to customers of the results of water testing. The agency must also add a sense of urgency to its public statements about the lead issues. WASA was criticized for placing lead warnings in a little-read newsletter enclosed in bills.
The district gets drinking water from the Washington Aqueduct, which also supplies Arlington County, Va., where elevated lead levels turned up in tests on five homes. But while an estimated 20 percent of WASA's 130,000 service lines contain lead, none of the Arlington homes use lead lines. That leaves a mystery as to how lead got into the water.
``We do not see a direct link between elevated lead levels and the use of chloramines,'' said Thomas P. Jacobus, general manager of the Washington Aqueduct. In November 2000, the Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the aqueduct, switched from chlorine to chloramines, a compound made up of ammonia and chlorine molecules, in part to comply with federal standards.
In early 2001, tests began finding lead levels exceeding 15 parts per billion in thousands of homes served by lead service lines in the district. The 15 ppb is an action level established by the EPA, which triggered the need for WASA to take certain steps including stepped up testing, consumer notification and line replacements.
WASA chairman Glenn S. Gerstell said he is certain the lead leaching into the tap water is not originating in WASA's mains.
Pregnant and nursing women and children under six have been advised not to drink unfiltered water, and all D.C. residents have been advised to let water run for at least 10 minutes before using it for drinking or cooking.
``I want to know whether D.C. is a canary in a coal mine,'' said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., raising the question that other communities around the country may be experiencing similar problems.
``People need to know if their water is safe, and if not, what is being done to make it safe,'' said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., chair of the House Government Reform Committee. ``Somewhere between the source and the spigot, something's going wrong.''
Dozens of residents came forward to claim free water filters and get their blood tested in response to last month's discovery of lead in the drinking water.
The city's Emergency Management Agency distributed about 300 filters at the D.C. Armory and Reeves Center to residents who have lead service lines and are pregnant, nursing or have children under the age of six.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority to provide bottled water or filters for some 23,000 city homes believed to have lead service lines.
Also, about 100 residents had their blood tested for lead exposure at two clinics in the city.
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