(4/22) For those who showed up at the April Town Council meeting in hopes of getting clarification on how the Town was going to address the State mandate to identify homes connected to the Town’s water systems with lead pipes, came away empty handed – but not due to the lack of effort on the part of Burgess Heath Barnes and Commissioner Bill Rittelmeyer.
Barnes said that he has been researching the requirements placed on municipalities to identify homes and about the only thing he knows for sure is that the Town is required to submit a report by October 16th listing what material, e.g. copper, lead or galvanized steel, is used to connect every home to the town’s water system.
"I honestly don’t know how we are going to do the survey or how much it is going to cost the Town," Barnes said. "The one thing I do know is, as of right now, there is no requirement – yet – that will require a homeowner to replace any lead pipes we find between the shutoff valve outside a home and the water meter in the house."
In response to a question asked by a resident, Barnes clarified that the State mandate is limited to only inspecting the pipes up to the water meter: "We are not required to inspect all the piping in the house," he said.
Rittelmeyer, who raised the alert on the issue at the March Town Council meeting, reiterated that while the Town had to report on the material used to connect all homes, no matter what their age, the only homes that needed to be inspected were homes built before 1972.
Fortunately," said Rittelmeyer, "most of the homes in Woodsboro are in developments that were built after 1972 and long after the State had banned the use of lead water pipes; however, almost all of the homes on Main Street, 2nd Street, and Creagerstown Road – the old town portion of the Town - were built long before the new codes went into effect, and we have no idea what types of pipes are in use to connect those homes to our water system."
Up until 1952, when the Town built the present water and sewer system, each house and building in the Town was on its own well and septic system. A majority of these homes used lead water pipes to connect the wells to the homes due to their ability to withstand corrosion. When the Town installed its water system, it often connected to the existing lead pipes.
Woodsboro must identify the composition of the lines to every house in the Town’s water service system and categorize the service line material as "Lead", "Galvanized Requiring Replacement (GRR)", "Non-lead", or "Lead Status Unknown", Rittelmeyer stated.
Because Maryland banned the use of lead water pipes in 1972, the MDE Lead Pipe Inventory criteria calls for Towns to prioritize the inspection of water pipe connections for homes built before 1972. However, the inventory still requires a certification for all homes, which will require the Town to document that homes built after 1972 were built to the updated code.
One of the options Barnes proposed is to provide documentation for all homes constructed after 1972 as proof of the absence of lead, and then simply list the status of the rest of the homes in Town as "Lead Status Unknown" on the report.
"That will at least allow us to meet the October report deadline and give us time to formulate a plan to inspect all the houses that do need to be inspected next year. The Town is required to send the State an updated report every year," Barnes noted.
Once the inspection process does get underway, the Town must notify the homeowner if they discover that their connection to the Town’s water system is through lead pipes, with a recommendation to replace the pipes. Replacement, however, will be at the expense of the homeowner.
"Every year we must notify the owners of homes with lead pipes, as well as the State. How long that will go on for before the State takes actions to require the removal of the pipes and who will have to pay for it, is anyone’s guess," Barnes said.
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