News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Alpena Engineer Steve Shultz looks at a map of Alpena while at his desk on Wednesday. Shultz said the current lead survey in Alpena is ongoing and so far, only nine of about 3,000 homes inspected had lead in their system.

ALPENA — To this point, less than 1% of residential drinking water lines contain lead, and more than 500 lines that are galvanized, may or may not contain lead.

This survey is the first step of several required by the Lead and Copper Rule, which was implemented in 2019 when the State government required all municipal water providers to begin the process of creating an inventory of the lead in their water systems.

After completion of the survey, the City will also perform other verification investigations within the system. Ultimately, any residence found with lead or lead-containing materials will need to be replaced, however, this work will span several years concluding in 2040. The State of Michigan requires that all service lines requiring replacement under this program be completed at the expense of the city government.

Alpena Engineer Steve Shultz said Alpena’s water supply is treated to prevent adverse effects from lead materials and it has no record of any non-compliant lead presence in the City’s water system.

Shultz said water testing in homes that contain lead pipes will continue the way it has for years.

During the first phase, City water officials inspected a tad over 3,000 of the 4,440 homes that need to be checked on. Shultz said the owners of the homes that weren’t inventoried yet, will be contacted, so the City can get an accurate count.

“We have gone to every single house to visit and knocked on every door and left door hangers if we didn’t get an answer,” he said. “Now, we are on round two and we start right back at square one.”

The state-mandated municipalities that provide water and sewer services conduct the survey, which must be wrapped up by Jan. 1, 2025, and then remediation of the lead will begin. The city has 10 years from the beginning to 2025 to replace the lines in question, Shultz said.

Homeowners who haven’t been contacted by the City may have already had their lines inspected if they made a service call and had a water official come to their home. He said if that is the case, your pipes are likely in the City’s database.

Shultz said if lead was found, the property owner would have been contacted immediately afterward.

“We began the survey about two years before this, whenever we had a sewer call or anytime there was something needed by us in the house,” he said. “So if you haven’t received any notification now, think back and that could be the reason why.”

Shultz said the number of homes utilizing galvanized pipes remains a question mark because right now, there is no way to know if there is lead. He said the pipes aren’t the issue, but the material used to connect them may be.

Alpena uses a special treatment mixed into its water that prevents corrosion of the pipes, which avoids a scenario similar to what happened in 2014 in Flint when officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors, which led to the pipes corroding and lead in the water system. More than 100,000 people were exposed to increased amounts of lead in tier drinking water.

“When you tell someone they have a lead service it sounds an alarm but people need to be aware we treat our water and you’re not going to get any effects from that lead,” he said. “We have never in our history had a test come back positive for lead.”

Shultz said to anyone who is notified about lead in their lines, people shouldn’t panic because of the steps the City takes to make sure the water is safe. He said the City also intends to replace all the lines at once unless there is road construction or water and sewer work taking place near the residence in question.