Lead tests are back

Results show 45 percent had lead, with 12 percent above ‘action level’

Stephen Crane
Posted 4/7/17

The results from lead testing in Pinedale were published this week, and they show that 12 percent of the tested faucets were above the “action level” established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Lead tests are back

Results show 45 percent had lead, with 12 percent above ‘action level’

Posted

PINEDALE – The results from lead testing in Pinedale were published this week, and they show that 12 percent of the tested faucets were above the “action level” established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

According to the town, 143 customers signed up for the free lead tests, which were offered on the heels of an EPA violation last fall, in which the federal agency cited the town for not using an approved corrosion control treatment (CCT) method. The town of Pinedale returned to its approved CCT method and offered free lead testing to all of its customers.

On Wednesday, the town issued a release, which shows that a total of 65 faucets tested positive for lead. Of those, 48 faucets – or 33 percent of all those tested – were below the threshold while 17 faucets – or 12 percent – tested above the “action level” threshold of 0.015 mg/L.

According to the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule, water providers must ensure that lead tests above that action level do not drop below the 90th percentile. In other words, “no more than 10 percent of your samples can be above … the action level,” according to the EPA website.  

It’s unclear what, if any, ramifications there may be from the EPA, and a call to the EPA on Thursday was not returned by press time.

At the Pinedale Town Council’s Feb. 27 meeting, mayor Bob Jones gave an update on the testing and said, “We’re turning (the results) into the EPA. It doesn’t count toward anything but at least we’re letting them know.”

And in the town’s release this week, the town labeled the 12 percent above the action level as “slightly higher but fairly consistent with past testing over the years.”

The town, meanwhile, is hoping to change its CCT from sodium silicate back to soda ash, which is the method it used without EPA approval going back to April 2015 and the reason for its violation last fall.

“We have hired an engineering firm that is working with the EPA and DEQ (Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality) to design a system that should be more effective than the sodium silicate system we are currently using,” the town said in its release. “We are waiting for final EPA approval to implement the design changes to our treatment process.”

According to Jones, the EPA has said the sodium silicate is not providing its intended protective coating, which is the reason the town hopes to switch CCT methods, particularly since it’s much more expensive than soda ash.

“In talking with the EPA, there’s no coating effect that we’re getting out of the sodium silicate like we thought,” he said at the Jan. 23 council meeting, when asked about the continuing drop in lead levels at Sublette County School District No. 1, which had multiple sources test well above the action level last year. “It’s actually the higher pH that we’re running (that’s causing the drop).”

Whether the EPA approves that method remains to be seen. But in the meantime, the town is recommending that concerned customers take additional action of their own.

“To eliminate lead in your water, you must remove the source,” the town said in its release.