Poison Pipes

Watch the story in the March 8 show.

Lead pipe service lines are a silent culprit in Cincinnati. The lead lurks in many older neighborhoods across the city as the pipes quietly pump poisoned water into your life. This public health concern may be everywhere  – in what you drink, your cooking, your cleaning, and even where you brush your teeth.

Lead exposure can lead to issues such as hypertension, anemia, fertility issues and even brain damage.

Lead is not a new public health concern nationally, but it is a hazard that's been on the radar of local residents like Robin Lively who live in older neighborhoods.

“I don't understand anything about lead, but I know there's lead poisoning, so I would not want to be having lead in my water,” Lively says.

Greater Cincinnati Water Works program manager Kevin Kappers says, “We do a lot at the treatment plant to protect customers from that potential exposure, but we know it's not 100% fixed.”

Fixing the problem takes a more invasive approach.

“The best way to remove the risk is to physically remove the risk – that's replace the line,” Kappers says.

Previously, residents could enroll in a free line-replacement upgrade program if the city was upgrading street water mains. Greater Cincinnati Water Works has replaced nearly 4,000 lines in the last six years. The work tears up streets and sidewalks, but it solves the problem.

Yet the demand for replacement lines has created another problem – too many requests have put the replacement plan on pause.

“We had a waitlist on our website that folks could sign up to get their lead service line replaced, and we just honor the date that they sign up,” Kappers says. “And when contracting and funding is available, we approach them to get a contract and get their line replaced. 

“That is not the most efficient way to do things because it's all over the city,” Kappers continued. “It's just a shotgun blast across the city. The most efficient way to work is in grouping small areas, doing whole streets at a time.”

For those like Lively, who is waiting on a replacement, precaution is the plan.

“If I let (the water) run for like five or 10 minutes, let all the water go through the pipes, it stops stinking. I could do dishes then,” she says. “Right now I have a filter on it… so I could drink tap water."

Greater Cincinnati Water Works plans to replace another 36,000 lines in the coming years. It's not exactly a lead-pipe cinch for Lively and her water, but Kappers is on the case.

“We're tackling this as fast as we can,” he says. ”It's a major undertaking, but we're excited to help our community.”