Lead Safe Monett

A federal mandate from the Environmental Protection Agency to replace all lead water service lines in the community has The City of Monett working towards identifying lead service lines throughout the city water system.

To conduct an inventory of the city’s water system, the City of Monett has contracted with Byrne & Jones Construction. Residents within the city limits recently received a door hanger that includes a QR code directing them to the survey and providing some information regarding how and where to identify lead pipes.

The survey is a self-assessment that will help the contractor identify local needs. In the survey, community members will be asked to answer a few questions, including whether they are willing to allow the city or its contractor to inspect their service line material. Community members are also asked if they know if they have any lead service lines leading to their property.

There are two ways community members can determine if their service line is lead: a scratch test and testing the magnetism of the service line. Community members can also indicate that they do not know what material their service line is made of.

Some service lines may need to be visually inspected in a home, basement, crawlspace, or other location adjacent to the home to determine the service line material. Visual inspection could involve entering these locations with homeowner permission, using lead test kits on exposed piping, magnet testing and photographing lines for documentation.

For those who are willing and able to do a self-evaluation, the city has distributed a flier that shows the different types of water pipes they may encounter. Lead pipes will be a dull, silver-gray color that can easily be scratched with a coin. Homeowners can also use strong magnets to test the material of their pipes. Strong magnets will not cling to lead pipes.

Galvanized pipes are also a dull, silver-gray color; however, strong magnets will typically cling to the pipes.

Homeowners may also encounter copper pipes, which will appear similar in color to a copper penny, or plastic pipes, which will often be white and joined to the water supply with a piping clamp.

In addition to receiving information compiled by residents on the survey, the contractor will be consulting construction records, building codes or ordinances, as-built drawings, record drawings, system maps, meter and service line replacement records and construction contracts to identify lead fixtures.

It is estimated that the city has 3,000 service lines that have yet to be verified as lead-free. However, the exact number of service lines requiring in-field verification will not be known until after the survey and records review is completed.

Community members are being asked to take a few minutes to fill out the survey by Friday, May 31. The survey may be found online at https://lead-safe-monett-byrnejonesconstr.hub.arcgis.com/

By completing the survey, residents can help reduce the amount of work the contractor will be required to complete before replacement of lead service lines can begin. The more information the city can glean from residents will mean more savings and a faster timeline for replacements.

Monett Public Works Superintendent Skip Schaller said that, while lead is a hazardous material, there is no cause for concern in Monett. He explained that aggressive and acidic water can erode lead fixtures, leading to contamination in the water. However, Schaller said Monett’s water does not contain the high acidity levels that can erode lead pipes and contaminate the water.

For more information about the city’s water quality report at MO5010537.pdf