5-11-16 lead water pipes-fdl

Several years ago, long before the crisis in Flint, Michigan, Madison became the first community in the nation to replace all lead water pipes. Several other Wisconsin communities, including Green Bay, Wausau, Kaukauna, Marshfield and others either have replacement programs under way or are exploring the cost. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) now looks to Wisconsin, specifically to Madison, for information that will help other communities across the nation dealing with lead pipes.  Fond du Lac Public Works director Jordan Skiff says the city has had a program in place for several years to try to minimize the impact of lead in drinking water.  “We started adding polyphosphates to our water many years ago.  This kind of provides a coating on the pipes that prevents the lead from leaching out,”  Skiff told WFDL news.   Skiff says since 2005 the city has been replacing lead pipes during street reconstruction.  But unlike Madison, in Fond du Lac,  the lead pipes from the street to homes have not been replaced.  “We haven’t done that in the past.  In light of the concerns in Flint and some of the other stories that are coming to light we are certainly  not opposed to that,”  Skiff said.  “Its a program that we haven’t set up yet and we haven’t heard a loud outcry from our public that they would like to see us invest in a program like that.”   In Madison the battle to replace the lead pipes dragged on for years before the project began.  The huge and expensive program didn’t get national attention until the crisis in Flint, and now the Madison Water Utility is able to share expertise to help other communities undertaking the project. The city finished the project,  replacing more than 8-thousand lead water lines, in 2012.  Meanwhile Skiff says the City plans to take drinking water samples this year to check for lead and copper levels.