Burden For Identifying Lead Water Lines Shifted From Water Utility To Individual
Get Out Your Reading Glasses And Flashlights And Get Down In The Basement!
“Privatization” Mentality Run Amok
The Murphy DEP issued a curious press release last week, warning people not to throw out as “junk mail” important notices from their water utilities about lead service lines (boldface in original):
The public is strongly advised to be aware of and read the official notifications from their water system and to not throw them out or confuse them with private solicitations for water service line protection programs.
Instead of treating these notices as the typical marketing junk mail, DEP advised people to read and follow the directions:
Property owners who receive an Unknown Service Line notice are encouraged to read the letter from their water system and follow enclosed directions on how to proceed.
What the hell! I’ve never seen anything quite like that!
As I read the DEP press release, I realized what was really going on here.
I wrote about this problem about lack of information on lead service lines when the Newark lead crisis story finally got the attention of the media and discussions focused on “Asset Management Plans” for water utilities, see:
recent DEP testimony to the legislature that admitted a lack of data on the number and location of lead service lines. … see page 10, question 8, paragraph 3 of the exchange between DEP & the Office of Legislative Services (OLS).
Since then, as I warned, the burden for identifying lead service lines was shifted from the water company to the individual homeowner. The Murphy DEP makes that clear – reading between the lines, of course – in the opening paragraph of their curious press release (emphasis mine, and particularly note the DEP’s use of the passive voice):
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is advising residential and business owners across the state to respond to letters that they may receive in the mail in the coming weeks indicating that their water system has not been able to determine the materials used in service lines to their properties.
If the water system – increasingly run by highly profitable private corporations like NJ American Water – somehow is “unable to determine the materials used in service lines” (i.e. whether they contain toxic lead that is putting you and your family at risk of some pretty devastating health impacts), then YOU, the individual homeowner must do so!
What the hell? (note also the use of the vague term “materials”, instead of “contains toxic lead”).
The homeowner pays monthly water bills to a water utility (often a private profit making corporation), a major portion of which is supposed to be allocated to maintenance of the water system, including the water distribution network.
The water utility has experts and maintenance crews with the knowledge, information, and resources to identify which water lines in their water system contain lead materials.
The identification of whether a service line to an individual home contains lead is the water utility’s responsibility and obligation. If necessary, the water utility should send inspectors to individual homes to conduct this work, not make the homeowner – who lacks the knowledge and skills – do so.
The cost of this work should be born solely by the water utility shareholders, not the consumer.
We warned folks to look out for exactly these kinds of abuses, see:
But, welcome to NJ! (and privatization of public utility water services) – and here we are:
The burden is on you! Haha!
And the Murphy DEP just told you to read and follow the directions and like it.
As my grandfather used to say: How do you like ‘dem apples?