Thousands of Iowans' drinking water threatened by lead contamination
MacKenzie ElmerDecember 20, 2016
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Across the country almost two thousand drinking water systems have failed lead testing since 2012. A USA TODAY Network investigation found harmful levels of lead in homes, schools, and other public buildings. USA TODAY NETWORK
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Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect new information from NextEra.
More than 6,000 Iowans may have been exposed to drinking water contaminated with high levels of lead within the last six months.
Iowa Department of Natural Resources data show that 13 rural water systems exceeded federal lead limits during that time period. Five other systems, most serving neighborhoods or mobile home parks, failed to test at all for the presence of lead.
Millions of Americans face lead-contaminated drinking water because the nation’s enforcement system does not make small utilities play by the same safety rules as larger water systems, a USA TODAY Network investigation found.
Utilities with 50,000 or more customers must continually protect against pipe corrosion, which can cause lead contamination. But smaller systems can discontinue treatment once lead levels drop below federal limits.
Nationally, an estimated 4 million people drink water from systems that skipped tests or didn’t do them properly, USA Today found. And an estimated 100,000 people get their drinking water from utilities that discovered high lead levels but failed to treat the water to remove the lead in the last six years.
The water crisis in Flint, Mich., this year spurred the Environmental Protection Agency to dig deeper into how states are monitoring and testing for lead, which can cause irreversible brain damage, lowered IQ, behavioral problems and language delays, especially in children.
More coverage of Iowa's struggle with water quality:
Over the past 20 years, there have been no instances of Iowa children with elevated levels of lead in their blood due to water, according to the the state's Department of Public Health. But too much lead can also cause infertility in women and increased blood pressure in men.
Mary Mindrup, head of the EPA's Region 7 drinking water management branch, which encompasses Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri, said she is confident the state is “correctly following the rules.” But some experts say the rules aren’t good enough.
Only a small portion of the 1,830 Iowa water systems registered with the EPA were flagged for high lead levels this year, but not all systems are tested annually or even biannually.
Federal law requires cities with 50,000 people or fewer to take 20 tests from a water system twice a year. If readings are normal, the city can qualify for reduced monitoring: 10 tests at 10 different locations — such as private homes — every three years. Towns with fewer than 3,000 people can receive a waiver to test every nine years if they meet certain criteria.
“I don’t think the regulation is adequate," said Richard Valentine, a civil and environmental engineer at the University of Iowa. "It’s like saying, 'It’s OK if only 10 percent of your airplanes crash; you’ve got good safety.' If you've got one failure, you've got one hundred (more). You've got to find out why, where and sample a whole bunch more times and do something about it."
The EPA announced on Nov. 30 that the agency will revisit its lead rules. Mindrup declined to go into detail about the changes, expected to be released in early 2017, but the first priority calls for strengthening water infrastructure financing and management for small and disadvantaged communities.
“The EPA has always been concerned about smaller systems just because the economics are different ... than larger systems,” Mindrup said. “But we want to ensure that regardless of the size of system, everybody is receiving water that is safe to drink."
Iowa towns failing lead tests
Two of the 10 homes tested in September by the Kalona Water Department, which controls drinking water for a city of 2,363, registered levels of lead three times higher than the 15 parts per billion the EPA considers to be safe. As required by federal law, the city mailed notifications to every customer on the water supply and alerted schools, nursing homes, hospitals and the media.
The city was on a reduced sampling plan, but the new readings mean it must double the number of sites it tests.
“We do our testing on the water main and it comes back fine. Predominantly, it’s the service line that feeds the house (where higher levels are found),” said Ryan Schlabaugh, Kalona city administrator.
Cities stopped using lead piping for water mains in the 1950s, but copper service lines feeding individual homes often contain lead. In 1986, Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act, prohibiting the use lead solder to connect pipes.
"I don’t think there’s a state in the country that could tell you how many miles of lead pipes they have — and that is part of the national challenge," said Ken Deason, the EPA's Nebraska drinking water coordinator.
Des Moines Water Works has a public map marking areas the utility believes use lead service lines.
Another water utility that tested high for levels of lead in the last six months was NextEra Energy, which supplies water to Iowa's only nuclear power plant near Cedar Rapids. Its groundwater system, which serves hundreds of employees, tested at levels eight times higher than the legal limit. The company has also been knocked for failing to properly test in the past six years.
DNR data show that Jewell Water Supply, in Hamilton County, which serves 1,215 people, tested at two-and-a-half times the recommended limit for lead this year.
Attempts to contact representatives from NextEra Energy and Jewell were unsuccessful.
After this article was published, NextEra contacted the Register to report that two water fixtures tested in July at the plant exceeded safe lead levels. Those fixtures were replaced that same month and subsequent testing showed the water returned to normal, said Peter Robbins, nuclear communications manager for NextEra Energy Inc.
Another three systems that exceeded limits serve neighborhoods in Shueyville, Churdan, Council Bluffs, Blue Grass and Livermore.
“There are things homeowners can do to mitigate it," Schlabaugh said. "Like running their spigot for 30 seconds until it’s really cold ... and (adding) filtration systems that can be added to the spigot."
Kalona, a growing town south of Iowa City, has a full-time water operator to tackle the problem.
The nation’s Safe Drinking Water Act allows smaller cities to hire employees with limited training to run their water systems even though the risks for people drinking the water are the same, USA Todayreported. And some systems lack operators entirely.
"It’s a complicated chemistry, and you have to have educated people running these systems," said Valentine, who trained Iowa water system operators.
Officials in West Virginia, for example, labeled more than a dozen systems “orphans” because they didn’t have owners or operators. Enforcement efforts for those utilities amounted to little more than a continuous stream of warning letters as utilities failed to test year after year. Meanwhile, residents continued drinking untested — and potentially contaminated — water.
The Iowa DNR permanently revoked one operator's certifications in March. Michael Goldsmith ran Corning Municipal Utilities for 16 years until the DNR discovered he wasn't doing all the required tests and even falsified some, according to an administrative consent order.
Twenty-seven systems in Iowa either don’t have a properly certified operator, or there’s no one running the system at all.
You can't run a system without an operator, Valentine said. It's like driving a car without a license.
Warning system lacking
A lot of dependency is placed on individual homeowners or landlords to know what's in their water.
Iowa goes beyond federal requirements by mandating that public water systems test for lead as a part of its operating permit process. Utilities are expected to find customers to volunteer to have their water tested. Homeowners fill a water bottle, let it sit for six hours and send the sample back to the utility.
If a system fails to report test results, the DNR issues a “strike” that is supposed to trigger a public notice alerting customers that the system operators missed a test, said Anne Lynam, a senior environmental specialist with the Iowa DNR.
Tests that come back showing excessive lead should also trigger a public notice.
In Iowa, that amounts to a pamphlet, created by the EPA, Lyman said. It suggests flushing the water system twice a day, using cold water for cooking and drinking, and checking for corroded lead solder around home plumbing systems.
The final suggestion is to switch water sources by buying bottled water for drinking and cooking.
Systems are supposed to send out these notices within 30 days by mail. A strike is recorded in what’s called an annual consumer confidence report compiled by the DNR. Customers get a copy included with their water bill.
"It is important for people to pay attention to the results. It is important, when people get those notifications, that they don't throw them in the trash or recycling bin," Mindrup said.
When the system works
Story City is the only city in Iowa that's done a total lead service line replacement. It failed lead tests five times since 2010, according to USA Today data, and treating the city's plumbing system wasn't working.
It took 12 years, but now the city is lead-pipe free, City Manager Mark Jackson said.
The city implemented a reimbursment program to help homeowners pay to replace lead-contaminated lines running from city water mains to individuals' homes. The city reimbursed about half the cost to replace the lines, Jackson said.
