PWSA plans to treat water to reduce lead levels by late summer

A treatment that promises to curb lead hazards in tap water could be introduced in Pittsburgh within months.

The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority expects to start treating water with orthophosphate, a food-grade additive, by late summer, the utility said Friday. The move hinges on final clearances from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

“It works everywhere it’s been applied,” PWSA executive director Robert Weimar said of the anti-corrosion method. It creates a bond inside pipes that prevents them from leaching lead into the drinking water supply, he said.

A PWSA study showed that orthophosphate, already used by some utilities, “is the best approach to reducing corrosion from lead and copper pipes,” the authority said in a statement.

Last month, the DEP cleared the study’s recommendation for orthophosphate in the PWSA system. Beginning the treatment will require state approvals for proposed facilities where PWSA intends to mix in the agent. Mr. Weimar estimated start-up expenses at $2.5 million.

“Any proposal to modify the treatment methodology for drinking water is subject to very thorough review by DEP’s engineers,” department spokeswoman Lauren Fraley said in a statement. “If the application is approved, construction activities may commence.”

Orthophosphate would replace soda ash as a corrosion inhibitor. If the new treatment begins by late summer, PWSA should begin to see lower lead levels by December, with more dramatic declines expected by June 2019, Mr. Weimar said.

“We saw almost immediate results” in the study, he said. Regulators sought the study in April 2016 as part of a larger directive targeting PWSA, which the DEP ordered to conduct water testing amid corrosion concerns.

At the time, the DEP had learned that the authority switched anti-corrosion treatments without providing mandatory notification to the state. Test results reported in July 2016 exceeded a federal threshold for lead, triggering a mandate that PWSA replace at least 7 percent of its lead service lines

every year.

Lead can appear in drinking water at homes and businesses with lead service lines — the underground tiein from a water main beneath the street. Indoor lead plumbing also may cause contamination. PWSA estimates that 18,000 of some 71,000 residential service connections contain lead.

Authority officials predict the orthophosphate treatment should reduce lead levels so much that regulators could nix the line-replacement mandate. Even if that happens, they have said, PWSA plans to keep replacing lead service lines. Ingesting the metal is linked to developmental problems in children and other ailments.

Mr. Weimar said customers may see water discoloration in the next few weeks as workers flush lines to prepare for orthophosphate. Customers should flush their own pipes if they see discolored water, he said.

Also Friday, the PWSA approved paying a $50,000 DEP penalty related to two large leaks in early 2017. Water main breaks in Etna and O’Hara led to the unauthorized release of chlorine-treated drinking water into waterways, and notification to the DEP was delayed, according to the state. The leadership team involved in the incidents no longer works at PWSA, the authority said.

Separately this week, a residential customer survey from J.D. Power, the market research company, put PWSA in last place among 17 major water utilities reviewed in the northeastern U.S. Mr. Weimar said he wasn’t familiar with the survey but said the authority is making strides.

Those include a planned digital portal that will let customers gauge water use more easily. A new phone system for customer service should cut wait times, and a meter replacement program should help update infrastructure, Mr. Weimar said.

“There are a lot of things we’re doing, I think, that will net to the public a more rational way of interfacing with us,” he said.