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Understanding Lead Corrosion Control and Drinking Water Sampling
Citation:
Schock, M. Understanding Lead Corrosion Control and Drinking Water Sampling. Healthy Communities: Get The Lead Out, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 10, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation is intended to provide a high-level overview of the most important principles of corrosion control treatment (especially for lead), and an introduction to diagnostic and exposure water sampling, for a semi-technical audience. This will help members of the public and the public health community to make informed decisions on potential choices in the future for improvements in corrosion control treatment by their city, and to enable them to take appropriate samples to find and fix lead problems and get a better assessment on the amount of lead risk from drinking water in houses and buildings across the city. The information is intended to be used by private citizens, city health agencies, the water system and their consultants.
Description:
Lead sources vary in size and volume and do not react the same way to water quality, making treatment difficult. The presentation covers the main treatment approaches suitable for municipal water treatment, and their water quality constraints. The presentation gives an overview of the principles of diagnostic sampling of the water to locate leaded plumbing materials and the interplay of volume and spatial resolution, plus the need for multi-elemental water analysis for better Pb source identification. The last topic covered is the very limited set of choices for water sampling that is available to estimate actual lead risk to consumers.