U.S. Water News Online
BOSTON -- More than four thousand Boston city properties have aging lead pipes that could be exposing city residents to higher lead levels than federal law allows.
Many of the 4,500 properties with lead pipes are in neighborhoods that already have high rates of childhood lead poisoning.
For the most part, the lead levels in those homes are unknown, but the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority released tests results for a small sampling of the properties that show levels exceeding federal standards, according to The Boston Globe.
Environmental groups urged more aggressive action from city and MWRA officials.
"It's important to us that the people at risk are communicated with and told how to avoid this exposure," said Peter Shelley of the Conservation Law Foundation. "We need more homes to be tested."
Lead primarily effects young children, who can experience lower IQs and other developmental problems because of lead.
Old paint in homes contains lead, as does brass plumbing fixtures, but lead pipes could make an existing lead poisoning problem worse, scientists said.
Joel Schwartz, a professor of environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health, said lead in drinking water rarely contributes to large amounts of lead exposure to people.
But lead in drinking water, he said, probably contributes to a child's overall lead exposure because in New England, "we tend to have corrosive water and old pipes."
The 47-community MWRA system complies with federal standards, but nine communities, including Boston, had some properties that exceeded the standard, according to a sample from 440 homes.
The authority's small sampling in Belmont, Framingham, Malden, Medford, Norwood, Quincy, Somerville, and Watertown also showed levels of lead exceeding the 15 parts per billion allowed by law.
"We are concerned about it," Stephen Estes-Smargiassi, planning director for the water resources authority, which oversees the region's water system. "We are working with homeowners... We call the ones with high lead levels."
The problem is complicated. In Boston, property owners, not the city, own the pipes that hook people's properties into public water mains.
Inside a dwelling, brass water fixtures can contain lead, and MWRA officials say such fixtures are more likely than pipes to contribute to lead in the tap water.
Running tap water for at least 15 seconds before using it for drinking or cooking flushes out most lead that has accumulated in the pipes.
Homeowners can also try to isolate the lead source to fixtures or old pipes and replace lead pipes that run from their house to their property line. Boston officials have started a program that contributes $1,000 to the estimated $2,000 replacement cost.
The Boston Water and Sewer Commission has removed all but about 1,000 of the publicly owned lead service lines, pipes leading from water mains to people's property lines. And the MWRA gives zero interest loans to communities to replace pipes.
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