Milwaukee – Property owners of tens of thousands of Milwaukee homes built before 1951 should install faucet filters capable of removing lead from drinking water, declared Mayor Tom Barrett this week.
“I strongly urge anyone who lives in a home built before 1950-’51 to get a filter,” Barrett said at a public forum on drinking water held at Marquette University Law School.
About 70,000 city residences, receive water from street mains through a lead pipe known as a lateral.
In the 12th Aldermanic District there are 5,585 homes impacted by lead laterals poisoning the water.
Milwaukee Water Works treats Lake Michigan long used as the source water for the city with corrosion control measures designed to prevent leaching of lead from lead pipes to prevent contamination of drinking water. However, during a presentation at the public forum on drinking water held at Marquette University Law School, the scientist who helped expose the crisis in Flint, Michigan stated that the corrosion control measures the city does is not a 100% guarantee of clean water.
“As long as the lead pipe is there, no one should consider the water safe” to drink, said Marc Edwards, a professor of environmental and civil engineering at Virginia Tech. Edwards has led independent investigations of lead contamination of drinking water in Flint, Mich., and Washington, D.C.
The Milwaukee Water Works has requested that residents of older homes flush their water especially, if a faucet has not been used for six hours or longer, such as overnight.
Flushing water out of a kitchen faucet for a few minutes before using it for drinking or cooking also can reduce the risk of contamination, but it does not eliminate it, Edwards said.
Edwards said Wednesday that the costly replacement of all lead laterals in Milwaukee could take 20 or 30 years, or longer. As an interim measure to protect public health, Edwards recommended use of filters at kitchen taps to remove the lead.
Use of the filter will prevent lead poisoning until lead water pipes can be replaced throughout the city, Edwards said.
Public Works Commissioner Ghassan Korban said it would cost at least $2.1 million for the city to purchase one $30 filter for each of the 70,000 residences served by a lead lateral.
Flint officials distribute filters to the public at no cost.
Milwaukee Ald. Bob Donovan said that he would schedule a meeting of the Common Council’s Public Safety Committee to discuss the safety of drinking water. In a statement, Donovan questioned why Barrett had not previously warned residents about the danger of lead in water.
The city owns the lateral from the water main to the property line; the property owner is responsible for the section between the property line and the residence.
The community group Freshwater for Life Action Coalition (FLAC) sent City of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett a letter requesting that he direct the Milwaukee Department of Public Works (DPW) and Milwaukee Water Works (MWW) cease partial lead service line removal (PLSLR) in Milwaukee.
PLSLR is done when Milwaukee DPW work crews removes part of lead service lines the city says its responsible for, but leaves the rest of the lead service line on private property in tact.
“Studies in recent years have pointed out that the practice of partial lead service line removal has had “unintended consequences”, said FLAC spokesperson Robert Miranda. “The partial replacement technique can backfire and substantially increase lead levels for months or longer according to studies done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
FLAC states that removing the city portion of the lead service line, the disturbance of the pipe, because of cutting and shaking, can contribute to lead leaching into the water for months.
New EPA and CDC findings point out that partial replacement of lead service lines may be linked to an increased incidence of high blood lead levels in children.
Lead is a neurotoxin linked to lower IQ and behavioral issues when consumed by children and has proven to leach from lead pipes leading delivering water into older homes in Milwaukee built before 1950.
In a meeting with Freshwater for Life Action Coalition (FLAC) members in June 2016, city officials stated that they have taken precautions against one concern PLSLR causes when two different metals are connected together causing what is referred to the “galvanic effect”. DPW insulates the two different pipes preventing a battery like effect from happening.
“However, when pressed to answer what precautions have been taken to prevent leaching of lead when lead pipes are disturbed during the cutting and jostling of lead pipes during the partial removal, the bureaucrats were unable to provide an answer”, said Miranda.
“The City of Milwaukee must enact a moratorium on partial lead service line replacement immediately in the interest of public health like they did when they halted water main removal in areas with homes that have lead service lines. At worst, the partial replacement technique can backfire and substantially increase lead levels for months or longer”, Miranda said.
