Water advisory in effect another week

By CHRISTIAN S. MADORE
Staff Writer

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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MANCHESTER -- Residents at Lakehurst Acres are in for at least one more week of bottled water.

A third test of the housing complex's lead-tainted plumbing system showed little improvement over the previous test, meaning the water is still unsafe to drink, said the man charged with finding a solution.

Carlton Gardner, who runs the compliance and enforcement team for the state's Drinking Water Program, said Friday the amount of lead in the housing complex's system has only decreased by 70 parts-per-billion, from 280 last week to 210 this week. That was a far cry from the goal of 15 parts-per-billion that Gardner hoped to reach by this weekend.

"We are going to let it go another week," he said.

Until then, C&C Property Management will be providing the residents with bottled water.

Gardner said his group is talking with a water quality agency in New Jersey, where they have had lead problems similar to the situation here at Lakehurst.

Gardner said they recommended against using an ion-exchange unit, which is being employed in the Lakehurst water supply to eliminate naturally occurring arsenic in groundwater.

The unit does not cause lead to be present in the water, he said, but rather inflames a lead problem that already is present.

"We think the ion-exchange unit is changing the chemistry of the water and allowing this lead problem," he said. "Water wants to reach a state of equilibrium, so if it does that by taking a little lead in, you have a problem," he said.

The pH balancing system put in to counteract that change in chemistry may not be strong enough, he said, and may not give them the results they are hoping for.

Christian S. Madore -- 623-3811,

Ext. 435

cmadore@centralmaine.com