The letter from the Morgantown Utility Board was, admittedly, a little bit alarming when it arrived in some 20,000 mailboxes late last month.
“Notice of Unknown Service Line Material,” printed across the top.
The letter then commences to describe the potentially life-altering health impacts of prolonged lead exposure, particularly in children.
Within a day or so, it had prompted dozens of social media posts and comments and more than a few calls to the utility board and its representatives.
“We are required to send these letters out by the [United States Environmental Protection Agency], and the language is required language,” Morgantown Utility Board General Manager Mike McNulty said. “The first thing we want to make sure everyone knows is we have no concerns about lead whatsoever. MUB has been testing for years per the guidelines of the EPA … So, we’re comfortable in saying we’re not worried about it. Nobody should be worried.”
The effort is part of sweeping regulations announced by the EPA in November 2023.
Under those changes, water utilities nationwide were required to submit an initial inventory of lead service lines by Oct. 16, 2024.
Locally, MUB dug through records dating back to the 1920s – and a fair amount of dirt – to confirm the materials used in some 40,000 service lines in its coverage area.
“We have no known lead service lines within our water system,” MUB Communications Director Chris Dale said.
What MUB can’t do, however, is encroach on private property.
The new EPA mandate requires MUB to also document the materials used on the customer’s side – meaning everything from the property line or water meter to the home, business or school.
That’s where the letters come in.
“We still have a lot of unknowns on the customer side in our system, and we need help. We need help identifying those and that’s what those letters and bill inserts were; just asking customers to provide us with that information,” Assistant General Manager Rich Rogers said. “That ask is still out there. We need all the help we can get.”
Rogers said that of the 30,000 or so customer connections it needs to check, MUB’s probably received about 300 responses.
Lead pipes are most likely to be found serving homes built before 1986. Congress banned their use in the late 80s but allowed existing lines to remain in service.
On its end, MUB checked everything it put in the ground prior to 1990.
Rogers explained that as long as the utility continues making progress in checking off “unknowns” on the customer side, it will remain in compliance with EPA guidelines.
“You just have to make progress, and we’re certainly doing that,” he said.
For most customers, helping MUB mark their homes off the list is as easy as taking a cell phone photo and emailing it.
For information on how you can confirm your service line, check out mub.org/inventory, contact MUB at 304-292-8443 or email MUB at serviceline@mub.org. Further, the EPA has developed a step-by-step guide to help identify lead pipes. The guide is available by searching “Protect Your Tap: A Quick Check for Lead.”
Lastly, McNulty said MUB is available to assist in person.
“If someone doesn’t know what it is or they need help, all they need to do is call and we’ll set up an appointment and send a couple employees out,” he said. “We can help anyone who needs the help.”
When the EPA issued the new reporting rules, it explained that there were more than 9 million lead pipes delivering water in the United States as of 2021. That number, it explained, comprised about 9% of the existing infrastructure.
The heavy metal is a powerful neurotoxin. The EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree there is no known safe level of lead in a child’s blood. Prolonged exposure will result in significant and irreversible health impacts including learning disabilities and behavioral issues.
And it continues to show up.
It 2022, the Monongalia County Health Department launched a pilot testing program through its WIC nutrition program to begin testing in Harrison County after kids in Clarksburg begin turning up with elevated lead levels.
Those exposures were tied to contamination of the public drinking water due to old service lines.
Earlier this year, the health department expanded that testing to include Monongalia and Marion counties.
MCHD oversees WIC for a six-county region.
Nutritionist Jason Nguyen said MCHD WIC completed 68 lead tests in September and 66 in October across the three counties.
“I can confirm there have been elevated lead levels among children,” Nguyen said. “We had one child with a very high level recently in Marion County.”
