ND North News

There are thousands of water service lines in Minot, providing water to homes and businesses. But what are those service lines made of? That’s what Veronica Meyer is trying to find out.

Meyer, a project manager in the Public Works Department, is among City of Minot staff members working to identify lead water service lines through a project that is part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s ongoing push to remove lead from the nation’s drinking water systems.

The federal Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act went into effect in January 2014. The act has reduced the amount of lead content in water systems and plumbing products by changing the definition of lead free in the Safe Drinking Water Act from not more than 8 percent lead content to not more than a weighted average of 0.25 percent lead with respect to the wetted surfaces of pipes, pipe fittings, plumbing fittings, and plumbing fixtures. The SDWA prohibits the use of these products in the installation or repair of any public water system or facility providing water for human consumption if they do not meet the lead free requirement.

The federal Lead and Copper Rule Revisions took effect in December 2021, which triggered the need for communities to take inventory of water service lines.

As part of the program, the EPA created an interactive mapping system for cities across the country to document the type of water service lines in use. The map includes different colored categories for lead, assumed lead, galvanized requiring replacement, non-lead, and unknown. There’s a lot of grey on Minot’s map, though, meaning there’s a high number of properties where the City doesn’t know what type of water line was installed.

Minot’s map and a link to a lead service line survey is available at https://geohub-minotnd.hub.arcgis.com/pages/division-water.

“It’s a pretty straight-forward map, but it shows we have a lot of work to do to identify what types of water lines are in our community,” said Meyer. “The survey is also very easy to fill out and submit to us.”

The City has reviewed all its records related to water lines, and that information has been entered into the map. Now, officials want to update the map as accurately as possible before it’s submitted to the EPA by October 2024.

“There’s nothing that says we can’t submit the information we have right now,” Meyer said. “But there are so many unknown lines, and when you have unknowns, the EPA assumes those lines are all lead. That affects us at the City because it requires us to do more sampling and testing. The more locations we can positively identify, the better off we are as a community because if we have to hire people to do more testing, that has a direct impact on the City budget.”

That’s where members of the community can help.

There are several methods homeowners can use to determine what type of water service line is in their house. First, locate the water service line entering the structure. Typically, these are found in the basement, and have a valve and water meter installed on the pipe after the point of entry.

-Scratch test. Carefully scratch the surface of the pipe with a flathead screwdriver. Each type of pipe will produce a different scratch. If the scraped area is shiny and silver, the pipe is lead. If the scraped area looks like the color of a penny, the pipe is copper. If the scratched area remains a dull gray color, the pipe is galvanized steel.

-Magnet test. A magnet will stick to a galvanized steel pipe, but will not stick to copper or lead pipes.

-Tapping test. Tapping a lead pipe with a coin produces a dull noise. Tapping a copper pipe or a galvanized steel pipe with a coin produces a metallic ringing noise.

Meyer said the year your home or building was constructed can also be a clue about what type of water lines were used.

“It’s pretty safe to say that if your home was built before 1985, you could have lead lines,” she said. “If it was built after 1985, you should be good as far as lead lines go.”

If you’ve successfully determined what type of water service line is in your home, you can easily submit that information to the City through the online survey form. Public Works officials will review the submitted information, and add it to the interactive map.

The goal is to find out how many lead water service lines exist in Minot, and then plan how to replace those lines. Older neighborhoods in Minot, like Eastwood Park, are likely to have a higher level of lead lines.

Meyer said the City is researching the potential for loan forgiveness through the state of North Dakota for replacement of lead lines.

“If you’re really uncertain as to what type of line you have, the City is willing to help accurately identify your line,” Meyer said. “When our inspectors are out in the community, we’ll ask permission from homeowners to check their water lines if we’re already there for another reason. We want our map to be as updated and accurate as possible.”

Original source can be found here