Reserve also coping with alert over lead in water
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh isn’t the only Allegheny County municipality facing a state alert over lead-contaminated water.
Reserve, which buys water in bulk from the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority for some 3,300 residents, saw recent lead test results eclipse a federal threshold, triggering notifications to customers and extra regulation as the township determines its next steps.
Ron Neurohr, president of the township’s board of commissioners, pledged “whatever it takes to resolve” the matter, but it isn’t certain what the solution may involve. PWSA expects lead levels to plunge when it introduces a different anti-corrosion chemical, orthophosphate, at its water treatment plant in Aspinwall.
The authority is waiting on approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection to make the chemical switch. Reserve, in the North Hills, maintains its own water distribution system, separate from PWSA as the supplier.
“To my knowledge, the issue isn’t that critical at this point, and we don’t want it to be critical, either,” Mr. Neurohr said. “We’re taking all preventive measures that we’re being told to use.”
It wasn’t immediately clear last week how many Reserve water customers may have lead service lines. DEP took action there late last year, after routine tests at 35 customer sites with lead lines turned up three locations above a federal action level for the metal, public records show.
The results were high enough to put Reserve narrowly in “exceedance,” according to the DEP. The department ordered the township to submit a study by March 2019 to “determine the optimal corrosion control treatment for its water system,” spokeswoman Lauren Fraley said in a statement.
After that, she said, the township would have to build treatment facilities in line with drinking-water regulations. Reserve also has the option to monitor for lead and copper every six months before March 2019. If two rounds of results show lead below the action level, a study and new facilities would no longer be required, Ms. Fraleysaid.