Warren councilman says water tests for lead should be more representative of city

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Councilman John Brown wrote a letter to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency asking that Ohio law be changed to require water departments such as Warren’s to conduct water tests that reflect a “more accurate cross-section of our community.”

Brown, D-3rd, said his review of the routine water testing Warren did last summer showed that the south side of town went nearly untested, with only one home included.

A handful of homes in the Northwest area were tested and two in the northern part. The remainder of the 30 locations were on the east side of town and in Howland, which also is a Warren water customer.

Brown’s ward is in the northeast part of town.

Brown said he analyzed census data to calculate that 2,750 children under the age of 14 live on the south side.

Health officials say lead can cause serious health problems, especially for pregnant women, infants and children. Because of concerns about it, lead-based paint was banned in 1977, and leaded gas was phased out in 1986.

An examination by The Vindicator of information on the county auditor’s website for the ages of homes on the south side showed that many were built in the first couple of decades of the last century – a time in which lead service lines were the most prevalent.

Officials have said the biggest reason for elevated lead levels in drinking water is lead leaching from lead service lines that run from the city’s water main under the street to a home. Most of those lead lines date to the early part of the century, though some were used into the middle of the century.

Franco Lucarelli, Warren utilities director, has said that the water department is limited in the locations it can test by the cooperation of city residents willing to allow water employees into their home early in the morning to obtain a sample. Morning is the best time because the sample must come from water that has not run for at least six hours.

That is one reason some of the homes sampled belong to people who work for the water department, Lucarelli said. He did not return a phone call seeking comment for this story.

“Current regulations relating to testing seem to be inadequate in helping homeowners identify and correct problems with older plumbing,” Brown said in the letter.

Heidi Griesmer, deputy director of communications for the Ohio EPA, said Friday that the OEPA does not require testing to be evenly done throughout a city. The focus is on testing the homes that are most likely to have high readings, she said.