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Safe Water Engineering, with University of Michigan Water Center - Graham Sustainability Institute, developed a suite of resources to help local elected officials understand the Michigan Lead and Copper Rule when it was revised in 2018.
This blog post summarizes new requirements for low lead “lead-free” plumbing devices, outlines what to look for when shopping for new plumbing materials, and it identifies older materials that might put you at increased risk of lead exposure.
Most Michigan water utilities that have lead service lines are required to collect Lead and Copper samples every year between June 1 and September 30. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) starts posting data here when they find water utilities that exceed the lead action level (15 ppb) at the end of each sampling period.
The Michigan Senate and House are considering bills to protect kids from lead in drinking water. The Filter First bills call for schools to provide filtered drinking water stations, and to test water from the filtered drinking stations annually to ensure the filters are working properly. Filtered drinking water stations, often called hydration stations, are drinking water fountains with bottle fillers and filters that are certified for lead removal.
"Benton Harbor: From Lead Crisis to Lead-Free” published in Journal of American Water Works Association, September 2023
The Graham Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan and Safe Water Engineering, LLC recently conducted a program evaluation of a water leak repair pilot program initiated by the State of Michigan to repair leaks in individual homes in Highland Park and Benton Harbor, Michigan.
Perhaps you’ve read the recent article in The Guardian regarding the shocking levels of lead found in Chicago’s drinking water. The article was based on data from results of water tests conducted for Chicago residents between 2016 and 2021. And while much of the data has been publicly available for years, Chicago itself has never released an analysis of the results.
To get this conversation off the ground, and with funding from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Safe Water Engineering prepared a white paper, Deconstructing the Cost of Lead Service Line Replacement, to describe and quantify the cost of bold, large scale lead service line replacement (LSLR) programs that include resident-focused outreach and risk mitigation activities.
Safe Water Engineering, LLC completed a third-party assessment of DC Water’s Lead Free DC Lead Service Line Replacement Plan (LFDC Plan) to ensure that, as proposed, the plan will achieve both DC Water and the District’s lead water service line replacement goals, including the removal and replacement of all lead water service lines by 2030, prioritization of vulnerable populations in any prioritization model, and fiscal responsibility.