By James Windell
It’s no secret that lead in drinking water poses serious health hazards – particularly for children.
It is also common knowledge that lead pipes were no longer being installed in U.S. homes after 1986 when federal law banned their use in any plumbing supplying drinking water. Unfortunately, most cities have a great many homes constructed prior to 1986 that still have lead pipes supplying water to those homes. South Haven is one of those cities.
But the City of South Haven with the help of Five-Star Energy Service has been trying to do something about this for more than a year by conducting inspections and replacements of lead service lines. While many homes in South Haven have had their water services lines inspected and the lead lines replaced, Five-Star Energy Service still has hundreds more homes to inspect.
That is a concern to Dana Burd, Director of Public Works for South Haven.
“There has been a fair amount of work done about that,” Burd says. “In fact, there have been 629 replacements at our last count. And there have been 418 verifications of houses with no lead pipes. But still there is somewhere around 1000 houses that need to be inspected.”
Burd says that homeowners who have not had an inspection need to receive contact information so their residence can be scheduled for an inspection. A brief inspection by Five-Star Energy Services will be able to determine if the water line is lead and needs to be replaced. If a lead service line is identified, the homeowner qualifies for a replacement through the Lead Service Line Replacement Program. There is no cost to the resident for either the inspection or replacement.
Some residents have not responded to several attempts to schedule an inspection and may receive a formal written notice indicating that if access is not scheduled, their water supply could be shut-off for non-compliance.
Residents can contact a Five-Star Energy Service representative to schedule an inspection by calling Keith Ellison at 262-403-6686 or Dustin Guminski, with the City of South Haven Energy Department, at 269-637-0732.
