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D.C. to Make Lead Contamination Rules Stricter Than EPA's

On the same day the D.C. Public Library announced it found excessive lead contamination in four libraries, city officials said they will lower the maximum acceptable level of lead in public drinking water, making the District’s standards far stricter than those required by the Environmental Protection Agency.

On the same day the D.C. Public Library announced it found excessive lead contamination in four libraries, city officials said they will lower the maximum acceptable level of lead in public drinking water, making the District’s standards far stricter than those required by the Environmental Protection Agency.

 

Six water fountains and one sink in the city’s public libraries were found to exceed the EPA’s maximum lead contamination level of 15 parts per billion, library officials announced Tuesday.

 

Elevated levels were found in water fountains at the flagship facility downtown, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, as well as the Lamond-Riggs and Southwest neighborhood libraries, and at a sink at Georgetown Neighborhood Library.

 

While six of the affected water sources tested slightly above the federal guidelines, a water fountain near the women’s restroom on the third floor of the MLK Library had a lead content of 192 parts per billion —­ more than 12 times the federal limit.

 

After lead-contaminated water was discovered in water fountains in three elementary schools in April, the city tested 114 drinking water sources at 26 libraries.

 

Library officials received the test results June 14 and shut down the seven contaminated sources that day, spokesman George Williams said. Filters were installed on all seven sources, and three were returned to service after a new round of testing found them to be beneath the limit of 15 parts per billion.

 

But even with new filters, three water fountains at the MLK and Georgetown Neighborhood libraries do not meet the new standard announced by the city Wednesday. An additional 74 drinking fountains at libraries across the city were found to have lead levels greater than the new standard of 1 part per billion, documents show.

 

They will all be taken out of service and remediated, Williams said.

 

“If the filter doesn’t create a safe level of lead in the water, then an additional step will be taken,” said Williams, adding that officials are not sure of the cause of contamination. Remediation could include replacing piping or fountain parts, he said.

Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.
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