Customers in Northeast Ohio who get their water from the Cleveland Division of Water can now go online to see if they are among the nearly 45 percent who are connected to service lines that likely to contain lead.
The Cleveland utility serves almost 420,000 homes and businesses. And Water Commissioner Alex Margevicius says service pipes installed after 1954 do not contain lead.
“What remains are those connections where we are assuming, to be on the safe side, to be conservative, still are lead. So, the customer can go in and take a look. And again, those numbers are working out to about 45 percent of the connections or, I think, 188,000.”
The estimate ranges from more than 80 percent in Newburgh Heights to zero in Hudson and 20 other communities. Margevicius says Cleveland treats its water with orthophosphate which prevents lead from leaching out of pipes, keeping the levels safe.
In June, Gov. John Kasich signed legislation requiring Ohio’s public water utilities to map-out lead pipe locations. The law was prompted by lead problems in places like Flint, Michigan and Sebring, Ohio.
