Water Currents - Local  Water News

2005 Lead and Copper Testing Begins

Mandated testing progressing smoothly

The Oregon Health Division (OHD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have mandated that every public community water system in Oregon and the United States perform Lead and Copper Corrosion testing on a set schedule.  Some communities, due to elevated lead and copper levels, are required to test yearly, while others, like Lake Oswego, need to perform testing every three years. 

Lake Oswego began monitoring of 60 at risk homes in 1990.  At risk homes are homes that were built with copper plumbing and lead solder joints, or built just before the lead solder ban of 1985 went into effect.  In our first rounds, we had identified over 120 homes that fit our testing criteria, selecting 60 for testing.  Testing consisted of having the Customer fill a provided 1 liter bottle with water from the kitchen sink, first thing in the morning.  The customer then called the Water Plant and left the bottle outside the front door where plant operators would collect it and take the sample to a Laboratory for testing. 

Our first rounds of testing were 6 months apart.    Test results showed that we were in violation of the Action Levels for acceptable amounts of lead.  The State of Oregon required that we install corrosion control equipment at the Water Treatment Plant .  The installation was finished and in operation in July of 1991.  The first round of sampling after the installation was below any Action Levels.  Each round of sampling after that got better and better.  Sampling frequency was reduced to once a year, then to every third year, the lowest level of monitoring.  Numbers of sample sites were reduced from 60 to 30.

We have been using the same homes as sample sites since 1990 and have seen no changes in lead and copper levels, except improvements, every testing round. 

We would again like to thank the participants in this years testing round for their cooperation and participation.

Lead and Copper Testing Update

Testing for this round of lead and copper has been completed and the results are once again good.  All homes tested were well below the level at which extra action must be taken. 

Once again our thanks to the testing participants, who have made this process possible.

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