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EPA says D.C. water agency properly responded to lead test results
(Published February 9, 2004)

By MELISSA FERRARA
Staff Writer

The Environmental Protection Agency has not alerted the public to high lead levels found in drinking water at some D.C. homes because, according to a spokesman for the federal agency, the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) was found to be properly addressing the problem.

"WASA has done what [the EPA] requires," Roy Seneca, press officer for the EPA, told The Common Denominator.

Seneca said the EPA did not act on concerns brought to the agency by a former WASA employee, Seema S. Bhat, about lead levels because it found WASA was working within federal guidelines.

Bhat, a water quality manager at WASA, was fired from her job last March after she repeatedly reported D.C. water quality problems directly to the EPA. Her job status is currently under appeal.

Seneca said WASA has provided information to the public, increased sampling to properly assess the problem, informed residents of the testing results and initiated the replacement of the hazardous lines – each a requirement of the EPA – since informing the EPA of the lead problem in 2002.

Some government officials are privately criticizing recent stories published in The Washington Post for causing unnecessary hysteria in the community over what appears to be a limited problem. D.C. residents, representatives of environmental organizations and several D.C. City Council members harshly criticized WASA during a council hearing yesterday for allegedly failing to take proper actions when they discovered lead levels that exceeded legally acceptable limits in drinking water at some homes.

WASA officials maintain there has been no effort to hide the results of lead testing in D.C. drinking water from the public, and they point to an extensive outreach effort to inform residents of the dangers of lead.

The public outcry apparently was prompted by WASA’s mailing of notices about elevated lead levels to about 4,000 single-family homes that were included in tests in late 2003. WASA officials, while still investigating the cause of the problem, believe it may be related to antiquated lead pipes that still deliver water to about 23,000 of WASA’s 500,000 D.C. customers.

Lead pipes and copper pipes with lead solder in older homes may also be contributing to the problem, officials note. A fairly recent change in the method of disinfecting the District’s water supply also is being investigated to determine if new chemicals are creating greater corrosion in lead pipes.

Ingestion of lead, over time, has been linked to serious health problems, including damage to the brain, red blood cells and kidneys. Young children are especially susceptible to these risks.

"We certainly didn’t do anything to hide this information," said Johnnie Hemphill Jr., assistant to WASA’s general manager for government relations. "We have done everything we were supposed to, from beginning to end."

In the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Annual Report of Water Analysis in 2002, lead testing throughout the year did not provide hazardous levels of the metal in the Washington Aqueduct, which provides drinking water to WASA for distribution in the District. When WASA found elevated lead levels in some August 2002 test results, it contacted the EPA. Then, according to the EPA’s Seneca, WASA followed all applicable federal regulations and requirements.

Hemphill said WASA "focused on limiting the number of affected customers and did an outreach program on the dangers of lead."

The authority sent a 12-page booklet, entitled "Living Lead-Free in D.C." and jointly published with the D.C. Department of Health, to its D.C. customers in October 2002 as an insert in The Washington Post and The Washington Times and separately mailed the information to non-subscribers of the papers. Hemphill said other outreach methods included telephone calls to some customers, free lead testing offers, door hangers and inserts about lead with water bills. WASA also offered, at one point, a $25 or $50 stipend to customers to urge them to participate in voluntary lead testing of their home’s water, he said.

Residents can call WASA’s lead hotline at (202) 787-2732 to inquire about lead, testing and other services.

Hemphill suggested that residents concerned about lead should flush their water, letting it run for a few minutes before drinking it. He also advised against using water from the hot water tap for drinking or cooking, because hot water pipes are likely to have a higher concentration of lead.

In the District, lead service lines are typically connected only to single-family homes, making it extremely unlikely for the lead problems to affect large buildings, such as schools or apartment buildings, Hemphill said.

Through a line replacement program, which has been in effect since May 2003, the number of lead service lines in the District is down to about 22,500, said Keith Givens, a WASA spokesman.

The authority is testing lines for lead prior to replacing them, digging holes throughout the District and testing lines as D.C. Department of Transportation projects reveal them. As lead service lines are found, they are replaced, officials said.

"It’s hard to dig 540 holes and pretend you’re hiding something," Hemphill said.

Hemphill noted that this is not the first time lead problems in the District’s water have been noticed, but it is the first time the problem has been widely found since WASA was created in 1996.

"Since testing didn’t show a change, we are going on the operating assumption that there was a sudden spike and now we are investigating what caused it," Hemphill said. "It’s clearly a challenge for WASA and homeowners, but it isn’t a crisis."