The City of Charlottesville’s Utilities Department has announced that a federally-mandated inventory of the city’s water distribution system has revealed there are no remaining lead pipes.
“In 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency released revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule, requiring all water providers to identify and create an inventory of all water service lines within their distribution system,” reads an information release sent out this morning.
The city began their review in 2022 using previous inventories, research of city documents and testing water quality. In 2023, they added a tool developed by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) in the wake of the Flint water crisis.
In that case, the City of Flint switched their municipal water supply from the one operated by the City of Detroit. Contaminated water traveling through an inadequate system elevated levels of lead in blood, prompting a national response. Flint and EGLE entered into a consent agreement in 2018 describing how lead pipes would be replaced, and the draft of an update was released this past May.
Charlottesville won’t have to do that work because the report has concluded there are no lead pipes.
“The locations identified by the EGLE method were field verified and no lead service lines were found,” the Charlottesville release continues.
As part of the work, the city has released an ArcGIS dashboard showing their research. (visit the dashboard)
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