McHenry County won't see lead-tainted water like Flint, officials say

Good stewardship, good infrastructure and good transparency will prevent crises similar to the lead-tainted drinking water afflicting the people of Flint, Michigan – and elsewhere – from happening here, according to local public works professionals.

McHenry County’s municipal water supplies are routinely treated to prevent corrosion of lead pipes – for the first 18 months after switching to a new and much more corrosive water source, Flint’s supply was not. What’s more, many consumers – on top of the mandated annual reports they receive in the mail – have access to real-time posting of water testing results.

The city of Crystal Lake, for example, collects samples of its drinking water a minimum of 71 times a month, Water and Sewer Superintendent Andrew Resek said. Those samples, upon testing by an independent outside lab, get posted online after the results are sent to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

Lead is one of numerous contaminants that state and federal law mandates municipal water be tested for, as well as naturally occurring radioactive substances, bacteria, nitrates from fertilizer and industrial pollutants such as volatile organic compounds. Consumers each year must be mailed a report listing how much of those items was found in the water, and their likely sources.

While Flint has grabbed the headlines – accusations of racially motivated disregard and a cover-up abound, and three government employees are now facing criminal charges – lead in drinking water is hardly an isolated issue. An Associated Press analysis of EPA data found that almost 1,400 water systems serving 3.6 million Americans exceeded the federal lead standard at least once between 2013 and late 2015. In Illinois, lead-tainted water has become an issue in Chicago and downstate Galesburg.

In Illinois, people who get their water from private wells have the responsibility for testing for contaminants.

Crystal Lake does not have any lead pipes in its water distribution system. But as with other cities, service pipes connecting homes built before 1986 – the year lead pipes were banned nationwide – still can be made of the toxic metal. Lead also can be found in old solder and older home water fixtures. And even plumbing legally considered “lead-free” can contain up to 8 percent lead, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

A number of municipalities add chemicals to the water supply that form a protective coating inside pipes to prevent corrosion. Cash-strapped Flint, however, stopped using the chemicals as a cost-cutting measure.

If chemical treatment falls short, local government has taken action.

When lead and copper levels exceeded regulations in some parts of Algonquin about a decade ago, the village worked with residents to replace a number of lead service pipes, Public Works Director Robert Mitchard said. Under state law, municipalities typically are responsible for the service pipe from the street main to the curb, with the remainder being the responsibility of the property owner.

Algonquin's water has tested within acceptable levels for lead and copper since the work. Like Crystal Lake, Algonquin also posts its water testing results online.

“In Flint, there’s a lot of political posturing and people not doing the right thing. Here, we always choose to do the right thing,” Mitchard said.

Algonquin is in the "very early stages" of planning to canvass the village to find out which homes are connected with lead service lines, in the event that future opportunities arise to replace them. One such opportunity, Mitchard said, would be if the village proceeds with a $30 million downtown improvement plan.

While reassuring residents that their drinking water is and always has been safe, Crystal Lake Public Works Director Victor Ramirez said he cannot believe the extent of the problems in Flint.

“This whole thing in Michigan just blew me away,” he said.

McHenry County residents get their water from underground aquifers – numerous studies conducted during the county’s construction boom before the housing market crash warned that development was on par to outstrip supply.

Online

You can learn more about lead contamination from water, construction and other sources at www.epa.gov/lead.