Studies of toxin in drinking water pipes offer encouraging results for Columbia area

Major utilities in the Columbia area have not found any lead pipes carrying water from main water lines to people’s property, an encouraging discovery amid the increasing challenges of providing safe drinking water.

A new federal rule requires cities to check public water lines to see if they are made of lead, the toxic metal that has been tied to brain damage in children and an array of ailments in adults exposed over time.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is trying to determine if lead from public water pipes is tainting tap water in people’s homes at locations across the nation. If so, action must be taken to alert people of the threat, with the goal to replace the pipes.

But the city of Columbia, which operates one of the state’s largest drinking water systems, issued a news release this week saying it had checked about 160,000 service lines and found none of them contained lead.

Service lines are pipes that run from main water lines to people’s homes. Most of the lines checked so far have been made of galvanized steel or plastic, according to the city.

“While we still have some work to do, we’re proud of our compliance with the EPA’s revised regulations and our protection of our customers from lead,” according to the news release that quoted Clint Shealy, the assistant city manager for Columbia Water.

In an interview with The State, Shealy said the city is still checking the status of about 900 lines to determine if they are made of lead. But Columbia officials suspect many of those lines are pipes that no longer serve customers, he said.

Lead, which can cause learning disabilities in exposed children, is sometimes found in city tests of drinking water at homes, but the levels rarely exceed a federal limit, Columbia water reports show. Still, the federal government says there is no safe limit for lead in drinking water, so the goal for drinking water utilities across the country is to reduce the amount to zero.

Columbia’s recent findings, while encouraging, don’t provide a comprehensive assessment of the lead threat. Plumbing inside homes could still contain lead, depending on when the house was built.

“We will always comply with the EPA’s requirements and respectfully ask our customers for their continued help finding lead that may remain in their homes and businesses,’’ Shealy’s statement said.

To help reduce that risk, the city has for years added corrosion controls to its water to prevent lead from flaking off pipes and into tap water. Anyone worried about lead pipes inside their homes would have to pay to replace the pipes, but that can be expensive. That is the best way to get rid of lead. But the city’s corrosion control treatments help.

Officials in Cayce and West Columbia said they also had not found any lead service lines.

Cayce officials inspected more than 6,000 service lines, finding all of the ones they checked were made of materials other than lead, according to the city’s website. Inspections were conducted beginning in 2023. Lines installed after 1989 were not checked because lead was banned from being used in those pipes after that date, the city said.

So far, West Columbia has not encountered lead service lines, but the city still has several thousand to check, spokeswoman Anna Huffman said.

The discovery that service lines did not contain lead is substantial, given other challenges utilities face. Some of the biggest challenges are aging pipes that break and allow bacteria into water, as well as growing knowledge about forever chemicals.

Forever chemicals have been found at levels slightly above a new EPA standard in Columbia, West Columbia and Cayce’s drinking water, and efforts are underway to resolve the problem. The presence of any of the chemicals is a cause for concern because they are toxic. Forever chemicals can come from a variety of sources because they have been used heavily in manufacturing an array of products.