Norton Gets Report from CDC Director Showing Water Lead Levels Below Legal Limit, Hearing in June

Norton Gets Report from CDC Director Showing Water Lead Levels Below Legal Limit, Prepares for Hearing in June

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In her meeting today with Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other CDC officials regarding high levels of lead found in the city's water between 2000-2005, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) discussed recent House Committee on Science and Technology findings and what should be done moving forward. Norton expects a hearing in June to include all the relevant agencies: the CDC, D.C. Water and Sewer Authority, D.C. Department of Health, D.C. Department of the Environment, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, among other witnesses.

Norton received a report today from Dr. Frieden that shows that lead levels in D.C.'s water have been below the legal limit of 15 ppb for five years, with the latest report showing a lead level at 6 ppb. Lead levels rose first in 2000, when the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, which controls the Washington Aqueduct, changed the chemical used to disinfect water from chlorine to chloramine, but chloramine was later found to increase lead erosion from lead pipes in homes. Orthophosphate was added to correct the leaching of lead in the water of homes with lead pipes.

The Congresswoman said, "Important follow-up measures must be taken now. These could include asking WASA to identify which homes still have lead pipes, where lead contamination might be possible even with the new chemical in the water. However, I am particularly concerned that more than half of the city's children under age two have not been tested for lead. Testing of all children in the District, age two and under, is imperative, not for lead in the water, but for lead poisoning from paint and lead dust present in homes. I believe that there is a possible danger from lead in homes that are not obvious targets for lead paint and lead deterioration." Norton said that D.C. has a good lead law that has decreased lead from lead paint and lead dust in recent years. "Perhaps this new concern about lead in the water can help, not only with any remaining issues about water, but, even more important, with lead paint and lead dust, which are, by far, the major sources of danger to our children," she said.