MONROE — Residents in the City of Monroe may soon see a future free of lead service lines.

The city announced April 8 that they are working collaboratively with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to hopefully initiate a citywide lead service line replacement between 2021 and 2023 through public grant funding.

The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Natural Resources started a new lead in drinking water program which requires all communities over the population of 3,000 to do an inventory of lead service lines. 

“The lead is going to be in the water via the ground and via the service lines,” Monroe Water Utility Supervisor Mike Kennison said. “Service lines are the big contributor and that’s why the EPA and the DNR are having us do inventories of the entire city inside and out.”

To verify residential water service line materials throughout the city so that all lead service lines, both public and private, can be located and replaced, the City of Monroe is asking all residents to complete an online service line material survey. 

The survey can be found at www.monroeleadsurvey.com, but those without Internet access can call the utility office at 608-329-2591 with the answers to each of the survey’s nine questions: what is the resident’s utility account number, the address of the home, the email of the owner or resident, phone number of the customer, approximate year the house was built, type of service pipe entering the home, internal plumbing material, if the home has a water softener and if it has a filter for faucets or the whole home.

Along with the survey, the city provides residents with illustrations and photos to walk them through the process of identifying service material types using scratch, magnet and tapping tests. They consist of scratching the pipe using a screwdriver or similar object, applying a magnet to the pipe, and tapping it with a coin.

Using the tests, it is possible for the naked and even untrained eye to differentiate between copper, lead and galvanized steel pipes.

TESTING YOUR PIPES

To quickly check a pipe’s material using only a screwdriver, one needs simply to scratch the pipe using the tool. The scratched area’s color will help determine what type of service line is entering the home.

A scraped copper pipe will be the color of a penny while a lead pipe will be shiny and silver. Galvanized steel will be a dull gray when scratched.

More recently built homes may have white or blue plastic pipes.

For those with a magnet on hand, another way to confirm a pipe’s material is with a magnet. Though a magnet will stick to galvanized steel, it will not stick to copper or lead.

Tapping a home’s pipes with a coin can also tell the owner what type of pipe they are working with. Tapping a coin to copper or galvanized steel pipes will produce a metallic ringing noise, while a lead pip will produce a dull noise instead.

Lead service lines are oftentimes the most significant source of lead in a home’s water, according to the EPA. Using the grant funding to replace Monroe’s lead service lines is a necessary step in lessening the risk of lead poisoning for Monroe residents.

The health effects of even low levels of lead in the blood of both children and adults are consequential.

“It all comes down to the health effects that lead has on people, especially young children,” Kennison said.

According to the EPA, lead in the bloodstream can cause behavior and learning problems, lower IQ and hyperactivity, slowed growth, hearing problems and anemia in children.

In adults, lead can have cardiovascular effects such as increased blood pressure and hypertension, as well as decreased kidney function and reproductive problems in both men and women.

Residents who are concerned that their pipes may contain lead, particularly those in older homes, can protect themselves by purchasing a water filter or letting water run for two minutes before using tap water.

“That will greatly reduce the amount of lead in the water,” Kennison said.

Once the city’s inventory is complete, the next step will be to extract the lead and replace affected lines.

“This is going to be a big thing down the road here, trying to get rid of all these lead service lines in town,” Kennison said.