The crisis in Flint, Mich., put a spotlight on the risks of lead in drinking water.
If the Buffalo Water Board or just about any other water provider in the country had tested these homes using the sampling method that is generally accepted by the EPA, only one of the 22 homes would have failed.
That’s because most water providers, like the Buffalo Water Board, collect only one liter of tap water to test for lead in a home.
Of the four homes that failed, three had the highest concentrations of lead in the second bottle, which means the faucet ran for at least a minute.
If the Buffalo Water Board had tested the tap water in that home, they would have reported the 1.6 parts per billion as the result.
Edwards said this means the testing method employed by the Buffalo Water Board and most other water providers can give false assurances that the water has insignificant concentrations of lead when the levels may in fact pose a risk.
OJ McFoy, the Buffalo Water Board chairman, said the city is preparing to launch a pilot program to collect more tap water from homes they test.
In addition, water providers and health officials often tell people who are concerned about lead in tap water to run the water between 30 seconds and two minutes before using it for cooking or drinking.
“If you want to avoid that, you have to flush it at least two minutes.” McFoy said the city’s annual water quality reports follow EPA protocol with respect to the advice on flushing the water.
“We will take a look at it, but right now that’s what we have and we’re going to see if our empirical data shows different things.” If you are concerned about lead in drinking water, there is a relatively simple, cost-effective solution: use water filters certified by NSF to remove lead from tap water.