PASCO, Wash. – The City of Pasco is taking action to ensure the safety of its water systems following new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) focused on lead contamination in drinking water.
The EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Improvements require cities to identify and document the materials used in pipes throughout their areas. Other rules include annual reporting, public education materials, and the complete removal of any lead pipes.
Pasco has over 22,000 service lines supplying drinking water to homes and businesses. The city has logged about 65% of these lines so far, with officials estimating the logging of every service line within the next two to three years.
Derek Wiitala, Division Manager with the City of Pasco, says the city is committed to the new regulations.
“We’re going to stay on it until we’re 100% complete,” says Wiitala.
The new regulations went into effect Oct. 16. Valerie Baron, National Policy Director at the Natural Resource Defense Council, highlighted the importance of the EPA’s improvements.
“It makes good on the promise of safe drinking water by requiring that utilities throughout the country get the lead pipes out within ten years,” said Baron.
Wiitala added that Pasco does not expect to find any lead pipes, but will act accordingly if they are located.
“Our confidence level’s high that there aren’t any. But until we actually verify those, we can’t definitively say that we don’t have any. And that’s what the process that we’re working through,” he stated.
The NRDC estimates that Washington state has more than 22,000 lead or galvanized pipes. However, the group projects that nearby cities such as Kennewick, Richland, West Richland, Yakima and Walla Walla do not have any service lines containing lead.
“There’s no safe level of lead”, says Baron. “This rule takes important steps to protect families from that poison in their drinking water glass.”
