NAHANT — The Town received an update on its lead water service lines project from Department of Public Works Superintendent Zach Taylor, who noted that they are continuing to search for the unknown pipes.
“Last year, (the) EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) passed some regulations requiring all cities and towns nationwide to inventory their water service pipes to figure out the material of each of the pipes in town,” Taylor said.
He stated that over the last year, the Town has inventoried all of the pipes using historic records. He added that an inventory has been created, but there are still unknowns due to limited information.
“Each year, the Town’s required to send out letters to people who are still either unknown or have confirmed lead or galvanized pipe. So, those letters are going out this week,” Taylor said.
He said that every year the list of unknowns grows shorter and fewer letters need to be sent out.
“It’s just a requirement every year to send out the letters to inform residents that they do have an unknown pipe. It doesn’t mean that it is lead, but there’s a possibility that it could be. That’s why the letters are going out,” he said.
Taylor said on the customer end, the DPW is going through a water meter project, and during that project, they plan to identify all of the customer side of the service line.
“The utility side, or the town of the service line, is a little bit more challenging because you don’t have direct access to it,” he said.
Taylor said it requires potholing and digging where it can’t be identified over existing records.
In the next year, the EPA is planning to issue recommendations and requirements for replacing lead and galvanized lines, as well as additional requirements for identifying unknowns.
Board of Selectmen Vice Chair Eugene Canty asked if the lines get replaced with copper ones, and Taylor confirmed that it is copper or plastic, but typically copper.
“We don’t think we have a lot of lead in town. We just don’t have really good records. The lead ban was passed in 1986. If you have a house that was built prior to 1986, there is a possibility that the service could be lead. But what we’ve been finding is a lot of copper lines and a lot of brass lines,” Taylor said.
He noted that, historically, brass was widely used along the coast.
Selectman Patrick O’Reilly asked what the plan was to identify unknowns moving forward, and Taylor said they were continuing to review old plans and assigning dates to existing watermains.
“We’ve been able to rule out entire streets on the utility side end. You have to get into the basement to either do a scratch test or a visual test to figure out the residential side,” he said.
Through the water meter project, the DPW will be able to identify the residential side.
