The Flint Test: Municipalities Talk Corrosion Control

Why old pipes do not necessarily lead to lead in drinking water.

2016-03-water-pipe-pixabay.jpg

By Andrea Fox, Gov1 Senior Editor

Whether you are Phoenix, Ariz.; Jackson, Miss.; Tulsa, Okla.; Newark, N.J.; or somewhere else in the United States, chances are you might be taking the Flint Test.

Flint, Mich. has probably taken the most headlines for water since news of a public health crisis caused by lead poisoning from drinking water broke in early 2015. Now, many water quality headlines around the country include phrases like, “Why we aren’t like Flint” and “but, we’re no Flint.”

Like Flint, thousands of municipalities nationwide have older pipes. But unlike Flint, the pipes aren’t necessarily poisoning children. The reasons: chemistry and utility practices.

A widely quoted Chemical & Engineering News article by editor Michael Torrice, How Lead Ended Up in Flint’s Tap Water, said:

“[Pipe] corrosion occurs when oxidants, such as dissolved oxygen or chlorine disinfectant, react with elemental iron, lead, or copper in the pipes1.”

Do you have corrosion control? Is your water corrosive to lead and copper pipes?

If you are the city of Phoenix, according to the city’s Deputy Director of Water Services Randy Gottler, you are carefully maintaining “an effective corrosion control program per federal lead and copper regulations,” he told the Phoenix Business Journal2. What’s more, your region’s water may not that be that corrosive by nature. If you are the city of Tulsa, you are in a similar situation—a not-so-corrosive water source and you are controlling corrosion by calcifying your pipes3.

But if you are city of Jackson, you may be failing the Flint Test--at least at present. You’ve got actionable levels of lead in drinking water samples, and you can’t convince your city council to approve a corrosion control study that might help you figure out how to comply with your Mississippi Department of Health consent order4.

“Protecting our citizens is the priority. The issue of public drinking water should not be a pawn in anyone’s political agenda,” said Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber this week.

For a visual on the Flint Test, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) on-scene coordinator in Flint recently shared corroded and non-corroded water pipe samples with Michigan Radio.

Review pipe samples with and without corrosion and listen to a podcast explanation

Sources
1 http://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i7/Lead-Ended-Flints-Tap-Water.html?hootPostID=8193d251b08fccd2f2d485b52e8dfb06
2 http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/blog/health-care-daily/2016/03/why-phoenix-and-tempe-officials-say-water-supply.html
3 http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/why-we-aren-t-like-flint-city-council-gets-update/article_5c91e6da-9938-5d6b-bee8-7f2f459f9d4d.html
4 http://wjtv.com/2016/03/10/jackson-city-council-votes-no-to-corrosion-control-study/

Andrea Fox is Editor of Gov1.com and Senior Editor at Lexipol. She is based in Massachusetts.

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