Is your water being properly tested for lead?
Long-term lead exposure can cause health problems
Every year, residents receive a report in the mail from their water supplies usually saying their lead levels are safe.
But critics argue those tests are misleading, which poses a problem in Pittsburgh, where thousands of lead pipes take drinking water to homes.
Every three years, water suppliers are federally required to go into communities to find homes where they can test for lead.
The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority reported only two of 50 homes tested in 2010 had levels of lead in the water that were higher than allowable limits.
"Very seldom do we find elevated lead levels. It's pretty stable," said Dr. Stanley States, water quality manager of the PWSA.
But Channel 4 Action News' Jim Parsons found 40 of the 50 homes tested in 2010 belonged to PWSA employees, including former CEO Michael Kenney.
When asked why employees were chosen, States told Parsons, "Because we have access to their homes. We can ask who will let us take samples rather than going to the phone book and calling 50 people."
States, who also had his home tested, said he doesn't see a conflict of interest.
"Absolutely not. They're all required to live in the city, and we pick from all over the city, so it's a good representation," he said.
But Parsons found the PWSA's own records show entire sections of the service area that were not tested for lead.
In the 16th and 17th wards in the city's South Side, and in the North Side's 22nd ward, not one property was tested for lead.
The Hill District's third ward also wasn't tested.
But in the 10th ward, located in Lawrenceville and Morningside, 11 homes were tested for lead -- more than 20 percent of all homes tested citywide.
Myron Arnowitt, the Pennsylvania director for Clean Water Action, said the PWSA's testing practices are legal.
"They can choose employees homes. They choose the same homes when they do it the next time. They're required to do it. They don't have to switch homes," said Arnowitt. "It's actually a very poor system for finding out if there's a problem."
Federal regulations require water suppliers to test homes that are at high risk for lead -- States said that means homes built before World War II, when water service lines were made from lead.
"We have a lot of lead service lines, thousands of lead service lines," said States.
But six of the homes tested were built after World War II -- one of them constructed in 1980.
In addition to the required testing every three years, PWSA also tests for lead whenever a homeowner asks them to do it.
In 2009, 32 homeowners asked to have their water tested. Nine of those 32 homes had lead levels that exceeded the federal standard. None of the homeowners was a PWSA employee.
"I'm not really happy. I'm not happy," said Carole Austin, who lives with her granddaughter on a street in Highland Park where a neighbor requested lead testing.
The levels were high, and PWSA notified the owner, but no one ever told Austin or her neighbors until Parsons did.
"They have never once given us notification, and I'm concerned, so I'm going to have it checked now," said Austin.
States said the PWSA doesn't notify neighbors because the lead is probably leaching from pipes or faucets inside the home being tested.
He said lead service lines aren't usually a danger because they're encased in decades of mineral build-up called "scale" that doesn't allow the lead to escape.
But Arnowitt said Parsons' investigation is proof to him that better testing needs to be done.
"We should treat this like a public health problem. What would the health department do if there was an outbreak somewhere? They would investigate; why is this happening? Is it happening to more people than we are seeing? How do we stop this? That's how we should treat lead in drinking water in Pittsburgh," said Arnowitt.
The Allegheny County Health Department said homeowners who suspect they have a lead service line leading to their home, which means it was built before World War II, should flush their tap water for two minutes in the morning before using it.
Anyone who lives in the city and wants the PWSA to test their water for free should call 412-782-7553.