Does Phila. test enough homes for lead in water?
Philadelphia Water Department officials went on the defensive Friday in the wake of a report that raised questions about the small percentage of city homes tested for lead and the collection methods used to sample drinking water.
Philadelphia Water Department officials went on the defensive Friday in the wake of a report that raised questions about the small percentage of city homes tested for lead and the collection methods used to sample drinking water.
There are roughly 50,000 homes in Philadelphia with lead service pipes connected to water mains. And yet, the Water Department tested tap water for lead in only 134 homes, according to a 2014 state-mandated summary report of sampling and testing compliance.
Those homes, scattered throughout the city, were deemed "high-risk" under federal guidelines, meaning they were built before 1950 and had either lead service lines or lead solder used in plumbing.
City water officials have said they depend on residents to volunteer to participate in the water sampling program. The 2014 report says that the city mailed more than 8,000 letters to homes in older sections of the city and that only 334 people applied to participate in the sampling program. Of those, 134 eligible homes were tested.
Gary Eight of the state's 21 counties are being overseen in consolidated fashion by three courts.Burlingame, director of the Water Department's Bureau of Laboratory Services, acknowledged that the city has struggled to retain and broaden the sample pool, given that the program is voluntary and that many residents are not comfortable with having their homes inspected and their water sampled.
A report by NBC News on Friday suggested that Philadelphia did not place enough focus on high-risk homes in its tests for lead, sampling just 34 homes with lead pipes.
City officials contested the NBC report and issued a response rebutting its claims.
"The basic facts of this article are simply inaccurate," said Mike Dunn, spokesman for Mayor Kenney. "For example, all 134 homes in the survey were high-risk as defined by the EPA."
In its rebuttal, the Water Department said its "testing far exceeded" the state minimum that 50 homes be surveyed. Of the 134 homes the city tested, 34 had lead service pipes and the other 100 were known to have lead solder used in plumbing.
Eight of the 134 had lead levels either at or above 15 parts per billion, the "action level" that requires the city to warn residents of risk. In those cases, the Water Department worked with customers to understand the source of the lead level and to educate them about mitigation, Dunn said.
Though residential service lines made of lead were banned in 1986, they remain in homes whose owners cannot afford to pay for improvements. Water flowing through lead pipes can pick up measurable amounts of the toxic metal.
According to public health advocates, the city has been using antiquated testing methods that underestimate the amount of lead coursing through plumbing.
Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech researcher and nationally known expert on municipal water quality, said the Water Department was gaming the system by using faulty sampling and lead-testing protocols - the same protocols that led to health crises in Flint, Mich., Washington, and Durham, N.C.
"This has to stop," Edwards said Friday.
Edwards, whose research was key in exposing the crisis in Flint, said he believes Philadelphia officials need only look to other cities across the country to realize their sampling and testing methods are not only flawed but put people's health at risk.
Health advocates have criticized the Water Department for not using "real world" conditions to test, specifically by asking residents to remove aerators from faucets before taking samples. In 2008, the EPA issued a guideline against removing aerators before testing.
"It's guidance. It's not regulation,," Burlingame said. "We are following what we know is good science for Philadelphia."
Burlingame added that he believes it is best to take the aerator off so particulates, which could get caught in an aerator screen, flow unimpeded into the water being sampled.
High levels of lead can pose serious health threats, particularly to young children and pregnant women. Blood-lead levels in children, which are checked by physicians, have been declining in recent years, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Local health officials have said that the primary lead poisoning problem in Philadelphia remains dust and chips from lead paint in older homes. Lead paint was banned in 1978.
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