Owners of roughly 500 residential units in Cheboygan will be contacted in the coming weeks to confirm the material in their water service line as part of a federal mandate designed to ensure the replacement of lead materials.
The effort is part of an initiative where the city is partnering with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Get the Lead Out (GLO) program. That program identifies and plans for the replacement of lead service lines in communities across the U.S. for homes built before the late 1980s, when lead was a possible material for water systems.
This initiative in Cheboygan is being paid for with an EPA-funded federal grant with very little spending from the city’s budget, said Cheboygan’s Director of Public Works Jason Karmol, who also oversees the city’s water department. Cheboygan was selected as a grant recipient in part because it is designated as a disadvantaged community, he added.
“We need to know all the (water) service line inventory we have in the city,” Karmol said.
The approximate 500 residential units will help fill the remaining gap of inventory knowledge designed to root out the replacement of any remaining lead water service lines.
The majority of Cheboygan homeowners with older homes have already self-reported their water service line information, or the city has the information from services that have been performed.
Karmol and other members of the Cheboygan Public Works team will have a booth at this Saturday’s Cheboygan Farmers Market at Festival Square. The booth will provide residents with more information about the GLO initiative and impact on them, he said. It will be open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. with staff members available to answer questions.
The EPA is contracting with General Dynamics, which represent the GLO initiative. General Dynamics contractors and Cheboygan Water Department team members will go door-to-door to interview homeowners for the information needed. Homeowners who are not reached will be left a self-reporting card that can be returned to the city. Karmol said a few buildings in the city will need to have updated information recorded on possible lead impact as well.
Karmol said the city and the GLO initiative are focused on buildings constructed from around 1920 through the late 1980s.
The federal law most often credited with banning lead pipes and lead-containing plumbing materials was the 1986 Safe Drinking Water Act. It prohibited the use of pipes, plumbing fittings, solder and flux that were not considered “lead free” in public water systems and in residential or commercial buildings supplying drinking water.
“Everything that was built new after about 1988 should not have lead as part of their (water) systems,” Karmol said.
Cheboygan and municipalities around the state not only have to adhere to federal mandates around lead pipes and accessories but requirements from the state’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE). Karmol said EGLE’s guidelines are stricter.
“We follow the strictest guidelines as part of our mandate,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Cheboygan partners with EPA on ‘Get the Lead Out’ water service program
Reporting by M. Alan Scott, Cheboygan Daily Tribune / Cheboygan Daily Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By M. Alan Scott, Cheboygan Daily Tribune | USA TODAY Network
