Until recently, states and counties were not required to report blood lead testing data to the CDC (and most didn’t do so voluntarily), making it hard to determine high-risk locations or raise public awareness. Many cities lack comprehensive maps of where lead service lines are located. Lead gets into drinking water via lead pipes, fixtures, and faucets as they corrode. As of 2016, about 7% of households served by U.S. community water systems were estimated to have lead service lines, and the Biden administration estimates that around 400,000 schools and childcare facilities are currently exposed. Because no safe blood level has been identified for young children, all sources of lead exposure for children should be controlled or eliminated. EPA has set the maximum contaminant level goal for lead in drinking water at zero because lead can be harmful to human health even at low exposure levels.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean your pipes are busted, cracked, or broken. There are a few steps you can take right now to help prevent damage over the next few days. When working with these materials, the biggest difference is that the ABS pipe has a one-step process for connecting pipes, while the PVC process has two steps. ABS pipes can be bonded instantly with a block of special cement, but PVC pipe ends must first be treated with a purple primer before its cement can be applied.
Contact your water utility to have your water tested and to learn more about the lead levels in your drinking water. EPA’s Public Notification Rule requires public water systems to alert you if there is a problem with your drinking water. EPA requires water pipes all community water systems to prepare and deliver an annual water quality report called a Consumer Confidence Report for their customers by July 1 of each year. Contact your water utility if you’d like to receive a copy of their latest report.
With ABS pipe, connections have to be made with a special cement, while PVC has to be primed and then cemented together, making PVC connections a two-step process rather than one with the ABS piping. When water goes down your drain, some of it gets trapped water pipes in the “U” portion of the pipe. This water stops sewer gases, smells and even vermin from coming through your pipes and into your home. Although the smell alone would probably drive you from your home, it is the sewer gases that are dangerous.
In children, low levels of exposure have been linked to damage to the central and peripheral nervous system, learning disabilities, shorter stature, impaired hearing, and impaired formation and function of blood cells. EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree that there is no known safe level of lead in a child’s blood. In 2016, the Food and Drug Administration extended a rule that gives the FDA regulatory authority over all tobacco products, including pipe tobacco.
Water from deeper in the system, in some cases had two- or three-times higher lead concentrations than the federal limit. The river water was naturally more corrosive and would need to be treated. They stopped the necessary treatments, and the protective coating inside the city’s lead pipes melted away, carrying toxic doses of lead to residents’ faucets. Utilities of all sizes have pushed the EPA to be more forgiving about lead pipes. They worry that more stringent regulations — without more federal money — would force them to replace more pipes than they could afford. The rule says that when gathering samples, utilities must fill a bottle with the first liter out of the tap after water has remained unused in the plumbing for six hours.
In 2019, Michigan’s new lead rule took effect with testing requirements that resemble the ones Del Toral and other EPA scientists advocated for nearly a decade. Utilities now must collect an extra sample, which is more likely to include water resting inside the lead pipe. Michigan samples both the first and fifth liter out of the tap, and reports the higher of the two samples.