Claremont
“We have taken a proactive stance on the issue,” Assistant Director of Public Works Vic St. Pierre told the council on Wednesday night.
The public works department tested all of the water fountains in the city’s six schools and found there was no lead in 44 of the 52 fountains. Lead amounts found in the eight other fountains were “well below Environmental Protection Agency limits,” according to the water department’s report.
The water fountain at the Fiske Free Library also was tested, but no lead was found.
St. Pierre and City Councilor Bruce Temple, the city’s former public works director, said the problems in Flint were not the result of lead in the Flint River, but rather a failure to properly treat the water for the corroding effect in the pipes.
“It was a blatant mistake and a failure to treat properly,” Temple said.
St. Pierre said Claremont treats its water with sodium bicarbonate to improve pH balance and corrosion control.
The EPA “has now allowed us to test every three years instead of annually for lead and copper because of our record of past tests,” the department’s report said.
St. Pierre also explained the steps the city is taking to replace all service lines that have lead or old iron pipes and fittings.
“None of our (water) mains have lead. We are sure of that,” St. Pierre said. “If there is any lead, it is in service lines (which go from the main to the curb) or in the house.”
The city is changing all service lines in the streets to its 3,600 connections and has about 114 more left to do, St. Pierre said.
The city is not responsible for any portion of a service line on private property or the possibility of lead in a house, which could be found in the solder connecting the copper pipes in homes built before 1980, St. Pierre said.
Another contaminant in the news as of late is perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, a toxic chemical that has been found in drinking water in several towns, including North Bennington, Vt., and Merrimack, N.H.
St. Pierre said public works contacted the state Department of Environmental Services and was told it was not necessary to test for PFOA because the 4.3-square-mile watershed that feeds the city’s main water supply, Whitewater Reservoir, is wooded and no one in the area has used the chemical.
The water department also must change all water meters because of lead in the brass fittings on the meters. No lead is allowed under new EPA guidelines.
“Just the materials for this project are over $600,000,” the report said, adding that 119 meters had been changed as of April 23.
St. Pierre said water rates need to be increased in order to keep the improvements going.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
