SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Water System (SAWS) will conduct free line service inspections to identify lead and galvanized water lines on the same day President Biden set a 10-year deadline for cities to replace the piping.
The effort is led by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Lead and Copper Rule Revisions, which finalized the rule on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
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EPA’s new rule replaces a looser directive set by former President Donald Trump’s administration, which did not include a universal requirement calling for lead pipe replacement.
Up to 9 million homes are served through legacy lead pipes across the country, many of which are in lower-income communities, according to EPA estimations.
Lead — a heavy metal used in pipes, paints, ammunition and many other products — is a neurotoxin that can cause a range of disorders, from behavioral problems to brain damage, according to the Associated Press. Lead lowers IQ scores in children, stunts their development and increases blood pressure in adults.
SAWS said in an email on Tuesday that, since the 1980s, the utility had removed any lead service lines from the utility-owned side of the system it had encountered.
However, according to the SAWS email, the EPA’s ruling specifically affects lead issues on the customer’s side.
Starting Oct. 16 and continuing for several weeks, customers with lead or galvanized service lines in the SAWS service area will receive a letter from the utility. Customers who have opted for email communications will also receive an email.
Those who are identified as showing lead-free service lines will not be contacted.
Customers with homes built before 1989 and who register with SAWS could be eligible for a free inspection, the email said.
SAWS said it may need to dig a hole, inspect meter boxes or investigate exposed pipes in crawl spaces to identify the type of line on a home’s site.
However, customers can conduct the inspection themselves with the help of a licensed plumber before submitting the documentation, SAWS said.
“There are more than 600,000 customer service lines in San Antonio, more than half of which are made of unidentified service line materials,” said Kirstin Eller, SAWS Potable Water Quality Supervisor. “This monumental task requires an extensive effort that can only be achieved by physically going to our customers’ homes and inspecting service lines individually – which is why we need their help.”
SAWS said it expects to release its service line inventory online beginning Oct. 16.
The EPA ruling also changes how lead amounts in water will be measured, calling for “rigorous testing of drinking water and a lower threshold requiring communities to take action to protect people from lead exposure in water,” an EPA news release said.
Along with its ruling, the EPA announced $2.6 billion in water infrastructure funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Luke Metzger, the executive director of Environment Texas, praised the EPA’s ruling but called for support to halt lead pipe contamination in schools.
“Parents should know that the EPA has missed a major opportunity to safeguard water at school, where our kids go to learn and play each day,” Metzger said.
The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.
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