Metro Water Services has been surveyed neighborhoods to determine which homes have lead pipes.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Metro Water Services was working in the Bordeaux neighborhood Thursday to track down lead pipes in Nashville. Lead could damage the brain, kidneys or red blood cells if inhaled or swallowed.
“Lead is not in your drinking water when it leaves the treatment plant,” manager of strategic communications at Metro Water Services, Sonia Allman, said. “When it leaves the treatment plant, there is no lead at all. But lead can leech into your drinking water as it sits in these old lead pipes.”
Metro Water Services has been going from neighborhood to neighborhood to determine which areas have lead pipes.
“Metro Water Services had record of quite a few of our portion, so we knew what was on our side, but we did not really know what was on the homeowners’ side,” Allman said.
It has taken several years, but Metro Water has nearly collected all the residential pipe information from Nashville and has displayed that data on an online map.
“We use a metal analyzer,” Allman said. “We put it on the actual pipe itself. We do it on the street side of the meter and the resident side of the meter, and it tells us the material of that pipe.”
Allman said that Metro Water Services has reviewed data cards about various homes in Nashville to see when they were constructed, particularly reviewing data from homes built in the 20th century. Those cards included information about materials and installation.
According to Metro Water, Nashville’s overall lead levels from 2022 showed one part per billion, equivalent to one second in 32 years. However, the replacement of all residential pipes may take another few years.
“We typically, at this point, are only replacing lines when we find them during other construction activities,” Allman said.
This effort follows the Biden-Harris administration’s announcement of a commitment to replace all lead pipes in the U.S. within the next ten years. Allman said that in the meantime, Metro Water Services is creating a plan of action. Allman added that if residents discover they have lead pipes and choose to call a plumber for line replacement, they can call Metro Water to