Portage County avoids lead contaminations

Portage County’s choice to avoid lead pipes reduces the possibility of lead contamination for the residents.

Lead contamination has been a topic that everyone bordering The Great Lakes raved about since the tragedy surfaced in Flint, Michigan, but Portage County’s Water Division manager, Lee Benson said Portage County is at a lower rate than other states of having outbreaks.

“Portage County’s water systems has a lower chance of having lead contamination,” Benson said. “The water mains consist mainly of plastic & ductile iron.”

Portage County’s oldest water systems were build in the mid 1970s Benson said, because Ohio’s Environmental Protection Agency and the medical community started becoming familiar with the safety issues that lead pipes caused Portage County stayed away from lead mains.

Benson said homeowners houses are lined with copper and plastic pipes and the only contact they have to lead is the solders used to connect pipe joints around the house. Homes built after 1986 have no lead at all.

Service Director, Kelly Engelhart explains how lead solders used in older homes can potentially be dangerous.

“Since the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendment of 1986 the use of lead-containing solders in potable water systems has effectively been banned nationwide,” Benson said. “Any potable water system or home built  in the Portage/Kent area prior to 1986 has a greater potential of having lead solder joints.”

Water treatments and corrosion control plans help protect residents from becoming exposed to contamination. Benson said states like Michigan lacked in corrosion control plans which made the city of Flint become infected by lead.

The City of Akron’s Water Plant Division is responsible for the water treatments that Portage County’s water goes through. They put the water through a rapid sand filtration treatment. The process of cleaning the water is chemical corrosion control.