No level of lead exposure is considered safe, but some homes in Lawrence are leaching small amounts of lead into water that residents are drinking and cooking with.

The toxic metal is especially harmful for infants and children, and neurological damage from exposure can result in lower IQ and behavioral problems.

While the water leaving the city’s treatment plant is lead free, it can be contaminated with lead after it passes from the city’s water main into the privately owned plumbing lines of homes, schools and businesses. The city regularly tests the lead levels and takes steps to reduce contamination, but responsibility also falls on the property owner. Because of that, the city cannot guarantee residents’ water will be lead free.

“Your differences can be from house to house, even from faucet to faucet,” said Jeanette Klamm, a management analyst with the city.

The city has recently started an education effort about lead in drinking water and actions residents can take to reduce their exposure.

City test results

As required by the Environmental Protection Agency, the city tests tap samples for lead every three years, and those results are included in the city’s water report. However, the threshold for federal water safety and public health are different.

Though the city remains below the federal “action level” of 15 parts per billion, that threshold is not meant to be a health standard. Instead, the EPA has set the goal for lead in drinking water at zero ppb.

The city tests 30 tap samples for lead every three years, Klamm said. While some tap samples tested by the city are at zero, others were as high as 9.6 ppb. Because the levels in Lawrence remain below the action level of 15 ppb, the city has remained off the list of cities with excessive levels of lead.

“We’re always under that limit,” Klamm said. “We are not finding lead out there during those samples. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t homes out there that have lead in them.”

For the city, Klamm said the tap sample results are more about the quality of the water supply, and ensuring the proper level of additives are present to reduce contamination. Like other cities, Lawrence adds an anticorrosive phosphate to the water supply to help stop leaching from lead plumbing in noncity property.

“We add phosphates to basically coat the insides of those pipes, to makes sure that they’re not as corrosive,” Klamm said. “From a quality standpoint, we are doing everything and then some that we can.”

Sources of lead

Homes, schools or other properties built before 1986 are more likely to have lead in their plumbing, and lead can be found in multiple places in the plumbing system. The city has replaced its infrastructure, but it doesn’t do any work past the property line.

“Our water mains are lead free, and we’ve tried to make sure that everything that we have on our side is lead free,” Klamm said.

Once the water leaves the city’s water main, ensuring it is lead free falls largely on the property owner — homeowners, landlords, business owners and school districts. While the additives the city puts in the water greatly reduce the amount of lead that can leach from private plumbing, they cannot guarantee lead-free water.

The city’s sample results indicate that the typical source of lead in water comes from corrosion of household plumbing. Klamm said that’s the result of water sitting in the plumbing of properties that contain lead.

The most substantial sources of lead are the property owner’s portion of the service line, as well as interior plumbing. The service line is underground and draws water from the city’s water main to the property. Additional sources can include faucets, fittings and the soldering used to bind pipes throughout the system.

“It’s really a public education process at this point, because it’s within their home,” Klamm said.

Effects on health

The EPA has set the safe lead-contamination level at zero because it can be harmful to health at low levels and accumulate in the body over time.

The threshold of zero is part of the Safe Drinking Water Act. The act requires EPA to determine the level of contaminants in drinking water at which no adverse health effects are likely to occur. Those health goals — called maximum contaminant level goals — are nonenforceable and based solely on possible health risks, according to the EPA.

The EPA states that the effects of lead occur at lower exposure levels in children than in adults, making young children, infants and fetuses particularly vulnerable. It has set that level at zero for lead in drinking water because even low levels of lead in the blood of children have been linked to damage to the nervous system, resulting in lower IQ, hyperactivity and behavior and learning problems.

In addition to water, lead can also be introduced to children through lead paint, which was banned in 1978. Because of both lead paint and plumbing, children living in older homes are most at risk for exposure to lead, said Kim Ens, director of clinic services for the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department. Ens said that children with the highest levels are usually being exposed to multiple sources.

“Depending on how high the blood level is, it can affect their development and cause all kinds of long-term problems,” Ens said.

Many physicians test children for lead, and Ens said some symptoms of lead exposure include abdominal pain, constipation and anemia. She said because of the neurological effects, the health department works with families to eliminate all sources of lead in the home.

“Any bit of lead in a child, we don’t want it,” Ens said.

Other cities

The water crisis in Flint, Mich., brought national attention to lead contamination. After switching the city’s main water source from lake to river water — which was later found to be more corrosive — the level of lead leaching from pipes rose sharply. Because corrosion additives weren’t used at Flint’s water treatment plant, the levels of lead increased over time.

Lawrence has two major water sources: the Kansas River and Clinton Lake, according its annual water quality report. Occasionally, water is also drawn from six ground water wells.

All cities are required to test for lead and other contaminants in their water supply. In Eudora, the water comes from ground water wells, and the same report indicated that lead levels in the water range from 2.8-21 ppb for the last test completed. According to the report, the measure of 21 ppb was the only site that tested over the 15 ppb threshold.

In Baldwin City, the range is 1.2-2.6 ppb. Baldwin City’s water is treated by the City of Lawrence, but all of it comes from Clinton Lake. For both Eudora and Baldwin, the report indicated that the typical source of lead in water comes from corrosion of household plumbing.

Recommendations

The city’s education material contains information for those who would like to ensure low levels of lead in their home’s water supply.

The city-provided guidance says that because lead is a soft metal it can be scratched easily, and residents can test their interior plumbing by attempting to scratch it with a key. Residents can also collect water samples from their taps, and send them to a laboratory for testing.

Plumbing and faucets were only required to be completely lead free in 2014, so a majority of homes could improve their water quality by replacing their faucets. For those who find their water has high lead levels, one option is to replace the plumbing, Klamm said.

“If you own the home and you can afford to, you need to replace the lines, replace your fixtures, replace your faucets, because that could be where there’s lead,” Klamm said.

Of course, replacing the actual plumbing can be expensive, with just the property owner’s portion of the service line having the potential to cost more than $1,000.

Apart from replacement, the level of lead contamination can vary based on how residents use water. The city recommends that residents only use cold water for drinking and cooking. In addition, to ensure they are using water that comes from the city’s water main instead of water that has been sitting in the home’s plumbing, the water should be allowed to run to flush out the sitting water.

“If there is any doubt, that is the first line of defense,” Klamm said.

Ens recommended letting the cold water run for at least a minute before drinking, cooking or mixing with baby formula. She said if parents are concerned that their child has been exposed to lead, their physician can do a blood test.

The city mailed information about lead in drinking water to all residents, and additional facts and recommendations can also be found on the city’s website.