Ohio EPA gets lead maps from all of region’s water suppliers

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Every public water supplier in Mahoning and Trumbull counties apparently provided the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency with a publicly available map showing whether homes on specific streets are at greater risk than others for lead in their drinking water.

In fact, according to the website where the maps can be viewed, only 18 of 1,878 water systems in Ohio failed to turn in such a map by Friday. The deadline was Thursday.

The maps are a requirement of a state law enacted in June, after lead levels rose in Sebring and Flint, Mich., causing a health scare. The maps show areas known to contain or likely to contain lead-service lines. Having lead-service lines increases the chances that a high level of lead will come out of the faucet in a home.

But Joe Tovarnak, water superintendent for Campbell, said he doesn’t believe the lead level in any of the drinking water in Campbell is elevated because of the high pH level of the water coming out of the treatment plant, despite the high percentage of lead-service lines in Campbell.

After the Sebring crisis, Campbell tested its schools and other random locations and “our lead level was very low,” he said.

When pH levels are high, then the pipes acquire a layer of scale on the inside that protects the water from coming in contact with the lead in the pipes. Contact with the lead “leaches” it from the pipes and delivers it into a faucet, Tovavnak said.

Lead can cause serious health problems if too much enters a person’s body through drinking water or other sources, the EPA says. It can cause damage to the brain and kidneys and poses the greatest risk to infants, young children and pregnant women.

Scientists have linked the effects of lead on the brain with lowered IQ in children. Adults with kidney problems and high blood pressure are more at risk than other adults, the EPA says.

Tovarnak was contacted Friday afternoon when it appeared Campbell was one of the 18 water systems in Ohio that had not turned in its map.

But Tovarnak said he had provided the map Dec. 5 and believes his was one of the first ones in Northeast Ohio the EPA received. He was checking into the problem of why the map wasn’t available online late Friday.

As for what the map means, Tovarnak provided a copy showing streets highlighted in yellow that have a high probability of having lead-service lines, meaning the line that runs from a water main to a person’s house.

Campbell’s water mains are not leaden, but because of the age of the city, a large percentage of the service lines are, he said.

Much of the information used in the maps came from the city’s water-distribution workers, who actually work with the lines, Tovarmak said.

There actually are two parts to the service line – the part that runs from the water main to a service box and the part that runs from the service box into a person’s house.

Tovarnak said the city has to change the part of the line it controls closest to the water main.

But replacing the lead line on the customer’s side is the property owner’s responsibility, he said.

Tovarnak, who has been with the water department since 1997, said the Campbell map does not provide each household with an indication of whether it has a lead-service line, only an indication of whether that street is likely to have some lead lines.

For example, if new homes went onto a street that generally has lead-service lines, the newer homes probably don’t have lead lines, and that kind of detail isn’t reflected in the map, Tovarnak said.

A map for the Aqua Ohio Struthers service area did not appear to be functioning. A call to the Aqua Ohio office was not returned late Friday.