Houghton To Widen Testing Of Water For Lead

Though they are concerned, there’s no need to worry.

That’s the message from the City of Houghton following test samples that showed a few homes with slightly higher lead levels in the drinking water.

City officials stress that, out of 20 homes surveyed on the three-year cycle, only three had a result that was one part per billion over the Action Level, which simply triggers additional monitoring.

City manager Eric Waara says there are no lead pipes in the city’s water system and there are no homes known to have actual lead service lines.

Still, the tests did show elevated lead levels, which Waara says proves the system is working.

Waara said, “The Action Level exceedance that we had is essentially like a rumblestrip in the road and we heard the rumblestrip. We found out about this before it’s actually a health problem and that’s the way the state set it up so people can address this before it becomes a health issue.”

The city is following up on state Department of Environmental Quality requirements to send out public education materials with more information and continue testing.

Houghton will double the number of homes they test in 2018.

Waara said unofficial retesting results of the homes that triggered the advisory are already showing normal levels.