Goshen passes lead limits in water service lines
Oct. 16—GOSHEN — There are no all-lead service lines in the city of Goshen.
That's what the newly completed report from the LEAD-SAFE GIS Interactive Map indicates after the city reported 11,673 service lines to the State of Indiana.
The project was part of the Water Service Line Inventory requirements set by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure state and federal Lead and Copper Rule requirements.
"The high point is I think we've been able to identify that our utility is lower risk than a lot of other places across the county," said Director of Public Works Dustin Sailor.
Using online surveys, home visits, self-reporting and online surveys, the Goshen Engineering Department and Water and Sewer Department determined the material of more than 50% of Goshen's service lines serving more than 6,000 households by the Oct. 16 deadline for inventory collection. More than 570 Goshen residents and building managers self-reported their customer-side service line material to the project data base.
Abonmarche Consultants performed pothole excavations at 400 representative locations to visually inspect both sides of the shut-off valve and used BlueConduit predictive analytics to assign material probability to unidentified service lines with 95% confidence.
According to Sailor, there are 1,609 lines where some portion of the line is known to be galvanized lead based on records or field verifications, and based on probability analytics predictive modeling, 4,102 service lines are anticipated to have galvanized lead.
"While we are still waiting on final predictions, early modeling results estimate approximately 1,202 of the uncategorized lines are galvanized," Sailor said. "We have visually verified 6,437 lines on the customer's side and 810 on the utility's side."
The results show that Goshen's water service lines meet the reporting requirements set by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the Environmental Protection Agency Lead Safe.
Goshen's lead line inventory program began in 2016. While no service lines have been found that were 100% lead, Sailor said finding just one would have created an entirely different situation for the utility department.
They did, however, find a number of goose-neck pieces running off of water mains that were galvanized lead.
"We can date our water system back into the 1890s, but the practice in Goshen has been that they only used that 2-foot piece of lead," Sailor explained. "In later years, they started using copper and in more recent years, we use a high-density polyethylene."
Sailor said the city conducts a lead survey, testing for lead ps within the lines and have not found any service lines that exceed the maximum contaminant level. Due to the hard water, and neutral pH of the water within the city, rather than pipes deteriorating and metal ions being drawn out, the lead goose-necks are instead being coated with hard water ps.
"I think the biggest thing we've seen with our galvanized pipes, because some do have quite a bit of age on them, you'll see encrustation where mineral deposits build up on the inside of the pipes," he explained.
Those lines need replaced, but EPA guidelines do not require that two-foot pieces be replaced.
The city has been replacing the goose-necks for several years now and is planning for more extensive work, thanks to some grants.
A $2.5 million grant and $2.5 million 0% interest loan cover half of the $10 million put aside to begin replacing galvanized service lines starting on the city's north side. Portions of U.S. 33 up to Wilden Avenue and from Ind. 15 to Riverside Boulevard are the first target area.
Sailor said that area has about 485 service lines anticipated to need addressing, but only galvanized lines will be replaced and some of the materials used in those lines were determined using the predictive modeling analysis.
North of Oakridge Avenue, a full reconstruction effort is planned to Wilden Avenue and from Main Street to Rock Run Creek, which will also receive new main and service lines. For any service lines that are found to be galvanized there, private lines up to the meter will also be replaced.
It's a change from the old way of doing things, where the city only replaced up to the right-of-way on the public side.
"Because we are not required to replace them, I would say we're going above and beyond," Sailor said. "Every time we talk to someone it behooves them to allow the city on their property. The cost of one of these services is anywhere up to $10,000."
The Dickerson Landing neighborhood recently received a new water main, so the city will be going back and replacing private lines as well. In order to replace private lines, the city requires a right of entry.
The city is also working to put in new taps and home service in the area north of U.S. 33 near the Old Bag Factory to help remove any potential risk of that system.
"The EPA has stated that this two-foot piece of lead, utilities do not have to replace that," Sailor said. "What we're doing, though, is we're hedging the bet that sometime down the road they're going to say we want all of it gone."
If by some chance those areas do not cost the total $10 million, the next identified area is Dewey Avenue, Hickory Place, Baker Street and Prairie Street.
The 10th Street Reconstruction Project is nearing completion on the utility replacement portion for the public right-of-way side. However, the city also intends to go back during the winter and replace lines leading up to private property water meters as well. Sailor said the city has been replacing lines that have the goose-necks that lead up to homes during all projects for about the last year.
