The City of Wichita is taking an inventory of its water system. City Council members approved spending nearly half a million dollars to finish that process. One goal is to make sure there aren’t any lead pipes in the city’s water system. In 2021, the EPA introduced requirements water utilities have to meet by October of next year. That includes requiring cities to identify which pipes have lead in them. The City of Wichita has started looking for lead pipes that might still be in the system. The City has been replacing lead lines since the 90s as they found them but has never had a complete inventory. The program manager with Public Works and Utilities says they need to hire outside consultants to finish the inventory and create a plan to replace any lead lines they find. They’ll also be testing for lead in running water inside homes. “We want to make sure everything from the meter to the house is not lead, and that’s where the testing comes in,” said City Councilmember Brandon Johnson. Johnson says the city is focusing on older parts of town that are likely to include parts of Districts 1, 3, 4 and 6. The city is only required to replace lead pipes leading up to a home’s water meter. Anything past that is the responsibility of the homeowner. The city is also expanding the amount of testing it’s doing inside homes. Currently, 50 homes are being sampled every three years. That’s set to increase to 100 homes every six months.
Source: KSN-TV
