Lead levels lower

MANCHESTER -- Recent tests indicate that abnormally high lead levels in the water at Lakehurst Acres are decreasing, a state official said Wednesday.

But traces of the toxic metal remain above federal limits, so residents of the 25-unit housing complex on Pond Road are being told to continue drinking the bottled water being provided by the company that manages the property.

Carlton Gardner, compliance and enforcement team leader for the state's Drinking Water Program, said he's looking for a more dramatic improvement when the next round of test results are released Friday.

While the amount of lead in the water has gone down from 540 parts-per-billion to 280 parts-per-billion, thanks to a pH balancing system installed last week, the magic number officials are waiting to see is 15 parts-per-billion.

Late last month, residents of the housing complex were told by C&C Realty Management that they should see a doctor after water tests revealed lead levels a hundred times higher than federal standards allowed.

A majority of the 30 residents who were tested were found to have low amounts of lead in their blood, but none of them required medical intervention.

Gardner said that an ion exchange system installed to remove arsenic from the water also lowered alkaline levels that, in turn, allowed the presence of lead to grow. The pH balancing system installed after the alarm was raised restores the alkaline that the ion exchange eliminated.

"They've been tweaking it," he said. "The adjustment levels are almost there now."

In the meantime, Gardner and C&C Realty Management have been telling residents to run their water longer than they need to flush the plumbing system of lead-tainted water and any residue.

Lead solder was used in plumbing until the mid-1980s, at which time research concluded that lead was unsafe for use in water systems and was particularly harmful to children. Lakehurst Acres was built around 1980.

Gardner said that, given the fact that most old homes used lead in their plumbing, many people could still be at risk.

"This really is an eye-opener for us," he said. "But not just for us, but for all homeowners."

Because an ion exchange system can accentuate a lead problem, Gardner encouraged anyone who has such a system to get the water checked.

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