After Corbin City Utilities customers received letters recently informing them of the possibility of lead being present in certain service lines, General Manager Ron Herd said that he is confident that an upcoming statistical analysis will show that this is not the case.
“Based upon a recent inventory conducted by Corbin City Utilities Commission, we would like to notify you that the drinking water service line leading to your residence is currently of an unknown material,” reads the letter that many CUC customers have found in their mailboxes in recent days. “Service lines installed before 1988 were sometimes made of lead, so there is the potential that the service line is made of lead.”
When asked to clarify, Herd assured, “We have never found lead in our service lines. We test for lead every so many years, and we have not had anything that violates the legal limits.”
So, what exactly is the purpose of the letters?
According to Herd, this is part of a federally-mandated effort that is aimed at “significantly reducing lead exposure for all people and eliminating inequities in elevated blood lead levels across population groups and life stages (see: EPA Strategy to Reduce Lead Exposures and Disparities in U.S. Communities at www.epa.org).”
Herd said that these efforts were developed mainly as a response to the Flint, Michigan water crisis that grabbed national headlines several years ago. According to him, part of the plan is to cut down on the legal limits of lead exposure that is allowed to exist in water supplies. Trying to eliminate lead from water supplies is a good thing, of course, but it is also going to require some additional testing and evaluation of existing infrastructure.
Herd said that lines in the CUC’s service area that pre-date the outlawing of the usage of lead materials have been identified, and that while he cannot guarantee at this time that there is absolutely no lead present anywhere in the city’s water, he said, “I highly doubt that we have any lead.”
Statistical analysis to hopefully prove no lead is present
Herd said that, in the coming months, the CUC plans to conduct a statistical analysis where a certain percentage of service lines will be identified and physically tested for the presence of lead. Should the results come back as he expects, then he will be able to say with certainty that there is statistically no lead present in the city’s water.
In the meantime, the letter that was recently sent out to customers outlines methods for how to proceed should you suspect the possibility of lead contamination in your water. If you received a letter, call CUC at (606) 528-4026, ext. 1 or visit the commission’s website at corbinutilities.com and select “Water Identification Letter” under the Resources tab.
Other resources that can assist citizens in determining their service line material include visiting the Check Your Pipes Kentucky website at eec.ky.gov, visiting the EPA’s Protect Your Tap website at epa.gov/protectyourtap, or contacting a state certified laboratory to request a test for lead.
