WESTPORT — Local health officials Tuesday tried to ease concerns expressed by residents who last week received letters from Aquarion Water Co. warning about possible lead contamination in their water lines.
The letters are mandated by federal Environmental Protection Agency guidelines that “public water systems must comply with starting on October 16, 2024,” according to an EPA statement. (To see details of the new Lead and Copper Rule revisions, click here.)
Language used in the Aquarion letters is required under “evolving regulations around the treatment of lead,” according to a statement from the Aspetuck Health District.
Aquarion indicates “it consistently complies with all federal and state water-quality standards, including those for lead,” the statement signed by Health Director Mark Cooper says. “Even if a customer has lead service lines, Aquarion is adjusting the chemistry in the water to prevent corrosion that could result in lead in the tap.”
The water company “has indicated that the water has been and will continue to be safe,” the statement adds.
Aquarion customers can use the water utility’s service line map to check if there is a record for their address.
The Aquarion website also has comprehensive information about lead and how to identify materials used in a customer’s service.
In the aftermath of the Aquarion letters, the Aspetuck Health District has received numerous inquiries about water-quality testing, Cooper said. The health district, however, does not have a laboratory to test for the presence of lead in water, he said.
The health district statement listed several water-testing firms in the area:
- Complete Environmental Testing Laboratory, Stratford / 203-377-9984
- York Analytical Laboratories, Stratford / 203-325-1371
- York Analytical Laboratories, Newtown / 203-270-9973
- Aquatek Labs, Woodbridge / 203-389-1824
- Brooks Enviro environmental engineer, Norwalk / 203-853-9792
- CT Radon and Well Water Solutions, Milford / 203-680-3707
I couldn’t access Aquarion’s service line map but did read our Health Dept’s statement which could reasonably be summarized as “don’t worry be happy”. In any event, it might have been better if the company had simply consulted its own records before sending those letters. My service line, consistent with the company’s own records, is copper – so what the heck?
This is helpful information about what homeowners can do about their pipes, but it still doesn’t answer what Westport is doing about Aquarion’s lapse in testing the wells in Westport (Coleytown and Westport). For more information about this see the “Public Notice” footnote at the bottom of page four of Aquarion’s Bridgeport Main System report. Maybe Westport is only 3% of the overall Bridgeport Main System, but isn’t that where we primarily draw our water? This is still an open issue until updated testing information is publicly available .
Aquarion draws plenty of water from the Coleytown well field here in Westport. And that’s been tested. It’s contaminated with PFAS, aka “forever chemicals”. I asked the company how the heck that happened. It said it had no idea.