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Village responds to lead tests

Mayor: ‘It’s the homeowners responsibility’

SARANAC LAKE — Village officials say they will adjust the pH levels of the village water system in an attempt to reduce the amount of lead leaching from some homeowners pipes.

But Mayor Clyde Rabideau also put the onus on the homeowners who still have lead pipes or pipes containing lead solder, saying they need to get their pipes replaced. To speed up the process, the mayor said the village may offer loans of up to $5,000 each to help defer the costs of replacement.

The initiatives announced at Monday’s village Board of Trustees meeting came less than a week after village officials learned the state Department of Health had cited the village for exceeding the “action level” for lead in its water system for the second time in three years.

The DOH violation notice, issued Wednesday, is based on samples collected earlier this year at 20 homes in the village. Three of the 20 samples tested higher than the 15-micrograms-per-liter threshold; only two are allowed to exceed it.

Rabideau, who owns a construction company, said Monday that the DOH tests this year specifically targeted houses built in the 1970s and ’80s.

“When I started construction in the ’70s and up until 1986, we used a lead-based solder to solder all the copper tubing for potable water,” he said. “That lead can leach into potable water in one’s household.”

Lead can cause serious health problems, and lead-contaminated water sources have been big news this year in places like Flint, Michigan and Hoosick Falls, New York. Rabideau stressed that the DOH violation notice doesn’t mean the village’s drinking water source has lead in it.

“Lead is a scary thing this day and age, and we understand that,” he said, “but we want people to know that the system is OK. It’s the individual homes.”

Nevertheless, the village plans to take at least one step on its own to try and reduce lead levels for some homeowners: curbing the acidity of the village’s water supply.

Water with low pH levels, less than 7.0, can be acidic and corrosive. Acidic water can leach metals from pipes and fixtures, like copper, zinc and lead. Rabideau said the pH of the village water system is currently 6.8, which is still within federal guidelines for drinking water systems, but he said the village plans to treat its water to bring it closer to a pH of 7.0.

“We’re trying to adjust our pH levels to be perfect,” he said. “System-wide, we’ll add what we need to go from 6.8 to 7.0 to reduce the acidity, which contributes. Even at 7.0 there will still be some leeching.”

The village could install backflow prevention devices to keep any lead-tainted water from getting back into its system, but that could be costly, the mayor said.

Instead, he said the affected homeowners should replace their piping.

“From the corporation shutoff, out by the curb, it’s the owners responsibility to have proper piping all the way through their house,” the mayor said. “We want to work with the homeowner to make sure they get their pipes squared away and that they test within the limits the next time around.”

Replacing pipes in a house could be expensive — between $10,000 to $15,000, Rabideau said — so the village is working to find ways to reduce those costs.

“I’ve asked (village Community Development Director) Jeremy Evans to look into grant funding opportunities to help local homeowners upgrade or replace their plumbing so they don’t have any lead,” he said. “I’ve also asked him to look into the feasibility of taking $100,000 out of (Community Development Block Grant) money that we have on hand and offering that as a zero percent interest loan to homeowners, up to $5,000, to help defray the costs.”

If a homeowner can’t or doesn’t want to replace lead-tainted piping, Rabideau said the village could shut off their water, “but that is the very last thing we want to do.”

Village water customers who are concerned about lead in their drinking water should let their water run before they drink it or purchase a filter for their faucet, Rabideau said. The DOH notice requires the village to provide its water customers with educational information about the health effects of lead.

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