NEWS

Lead tests prompt action in Doland

John Hult
jhult@argusleader.com
Doland tested high for lead in the tap water in 2014, prompting the city to begin adding corrosion control chemicals to the water supply.

No one in Doland seems to know when the city stopped using its corrosion control system to prevent lead from leaching out of aging pipes and into residents’ tap water.

Maintenance manager Dave Buchholz knows the polyphosphate wasn’t flowing when he started in 2012. His predecessor recalls using it sometime before that, but he doesn't remember when.

What is certain is this: In the summer of 2014, three tests showed elevated levels of lead in the city’s tap water.

Those tests gave the Spink County town of 180 the dubious distinction of being the only one in South Dakota whose water system currently falls short of the Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for lead.

The “action level exceedance” set in motion a series of requirements for further testing and forced the addition of the corrosion control chemicals to the water supply.

The city sent letters to residents in December of 2014 warning them to run their taps for 15 to 30 seconds before taking a drink. The letters told of the brain and kidney damage lead can cause if too much is ingested and recommended changing any taps with brass- or chrome-plated fixtures.

The notices now appear in quarterly water bills, and will until the lead readings return to normal.

Lead taints drinking water in hundreds of schools, day cares across USA

Correcting the problem, Doland officials said last week, was as simple as re-attaching the spigot that pumps polyphosphate into the water supply at a rate of 4.3 gallons per million gallons of water. Cost is not an issue: In a typical year, the city might use 9 million gallons.

The 55-gallon plastic drum from which the chemical flows has been in the basement at city hall for years. Unfortunately, Buchholz said, a water tower upgrade last summer slowed the hookup as the city waited on contractors to finish installing the pipes that move water from its underground storage tank to its water tower.

The chemical started flowing again in October, and January tests showed a drop in lead levels, but state water quality officials say it will take time for the chemical to work its way through the system.

Mayor Craig Schroeder’s not sure why the chemical stopped flowing, either, but he’s glad to see the progress.

“We got after it, and it came back good,” Schroeder said. “Stuff like that, you have to take it seriously.”

Testing required for every water system

Schroeder himself wasn’t particularly worried about the water, even though his own home produced one of the high-lead samples.

“It had always come back good before,” Schroeder said. “I never stopped drinking the water.”

All water systems in the U.S. are required under the EPA’s lead and copper rule to submit water samples for testing at least once every three years. The water samples are collected by homeowners, like Schroeder.

The sample sites are chosen by the local water system from a pool of high-risk homes – those with lead service lines running from the water main to the home or houses with lead solder, for example. Homes built before 1986 are more likely to have lead solder than newer homes.

“We’re looking for the worst case possible,” said Mark McIntire, project engineer for the Department of Natural Resources.

Not every high test is counted, though.

Dan Buchholz, a maintenance person for Doland shows the water monitoring system in Doland.

The homeowner who collects a 1-liter sample is supposed to wait 6-8 hours before drawing it, the assumption being that water that rests in pipes overnight is most likely to show signs of dissolved lead. Irregularities in sample collection – such as when a homeowner collects a sample after a vacation, for example - can cause false results, DENR Drinking Water Program Director Mark Mayer said.

“If those steps aren’t followed accurately, the results might be erroneous. That’s why (the EPA) allows some of the samples to be excluded,” Mayer said.

To trigger regulatory action, more than 10 percent of the sampled homes must exceed the action level. The math can work against small towns like Doland, because systems serving fewer people are required to test fewer samples.

Most of the water systems flagged nationwide for exceeding the action level in the past three years serve only a few hundred people, according to a USA TODAY investigation.

Only five homes are tested in Doland. The highest test result in 2014 – 35.1 parts per billion – was thrown out, but two others were over the 15 ppb threshold, including the mayor’s house.

See whether your water system failed EPA lead testing

Now, the city must re-test every six months until its 90th percentile results fall below the action level twice.

Doland is only the most recent city to be flagged for an exceedance in South Dakota. The lead and copper rule was instituted in 1991. Initially, there were 45 systems in South Dakota forced to add corrosion control for lead or copper to comply.

Since then, 32 systems have exceeded the action level at least once. Those communities were required to send out public notices, similar to the ones Doland residents got in the mail in December of 2014.

Bringing a system back into compliance takes time, Mayer said, as it takes time for corrosion control chemicals to work through the system. The January results were a good sign, he said.

“That was a good indication that their corrosion control system is effective in taking care of the lead levels in the water,” Mayer said.

Joe Remily, a city councilor in Doland, discusses the city's water troubles. Doland's water tested high for lead in the tap water in 2014, prompting the city to begin adding corrosion control chemicals to the water supply.

Concerns, precautions on the ground in Doland

The lead notice was of particular concern for Doland Superintendent Jim Hulscher. That the city was upgrading its water tower and replacing water mains in 2014 and 2015 helped ease his concerns, however.

“With young kids, you get kind of nervous right away. I have kids of my own, so yeah, I was kind of nervous at first,” Hulscher said. “Upon talking with the city and looking into it a bit, it didn’t seem like that big a worry.”

The school’s maintenance manager took additional tests at the school and flushes out lines before children arrive, Hulscher said.

Ironically, the water system upgrades delayed the addition of corrosion control somewhat, Buchholz said. The city was replacing its water tower and the pipes that connect it to an underground storage tank.

“The state gave us two years to get something done with it,” Buchholz said. “At that time, we were still working with the contractor to get things back to where they were before so we could put the chemical back in.”

Got lead in your water? It's not easy to find out

The city was in the process of replacing 20 blocks of water mains at the time, as well, part of a project that had been planned prior to the lead testing. When that happened, the city replaced any lead service lines it found with PVC pipe from the center of the street to the property line.

Some service lines from that point to the home taps are still lead, Buchholz said, although he’s not sure how many lead service lines there are citywide. The lines beneath the property are the responsibility of the homeowner.

“We have no control over what the homeowner does,” Buchholz said. “We can recommend they replace it, but a lot of people can’t afford that.”

Jim Holmquist was surprised when he saw the notices, given that he’d just watched crews replacing water mains.

“It seemed a little odd, because they’d just replaced everything,” Holmquist said.

John Holmquist discusses Doland's tap water issues earlier this month.

Holmquist had some experience with lead already. During a renovation project in 1998, his contractor told him he had a lead service line running to his house. He paid to have the service line switched out for a PVC pipe, but the gap remained.

“I was able to get everything changed out on my property, but the city didn’t replace (their line),” Holmquist said.

How USA TODAY ID'd water with high lead levels

For years, Holmquist was conscious of the possibility of lead build-up, running the water before using it for drinking or cooking.

Joe Remily lives along highway 37 on the west edge of town. The city council member, like the mayor, says he never stopped drinking the water.

“I wasn’t worried about it,” Remily said. “I’ve drank the water here my whole life.”

Remily was aware of the test results, though. He doesn’t recall the issue ever coming up at a city council meeting, but he saw the notice in his water bill, just like Holmquist did.

Doug Stickler hadn’t seen it. Stickler was the maintenance supervisor before Buchholz took over in 2012.

“A lot of times, I don’t even open the bill,” Stickler said. “I just go down and pay it.”

Stickler does remember the barrel in the city hall basement that now pumps polyphosphate to correct the issue he wasn’t aware of until last week. He doesn’t remember when the pumps stopped.

The concerns about lead aren’t top-of-mind for residents of Doland, but they are for Mayer and McIntire. The failure of state, local and federal officials to correct lead problems in the city of Flint, Mich.,have refocused the state agency on lead testing follow-ups, Mayer said.

Inspectors like McIntire review test results and follow up occasionally on individual tests that go wildly over the action level or don't match with a test site's history – even when those results are excluded from a city’s rating.

“If you get a new one and say, ‘This guy has always been a zero and now it’s a 15,’ I want to know what’s going on,’” McIntire said.

The Flint water crisis and situations like the one in Doland – where corrosion control stop without an obvious explanation – has also brought additional attention to the state’s inspection methods, Mayer said.

“We’re re-crafting the corrosion control questions on our site inspections,” Mayer said. “We feel like we do a pretty good job inspecting and enforcing the rule, but there’s always room for improvement.”

John Hult is the Reader's Watchdog reporter for Argus Leader Media. Contact him with questions and concerns at 605-331-2301, 605-370-8617. You can tweet him@ ArgusJHult or find him on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ArgusReadersWatchdog