DEQ Says Houghton Back Under Safe Lead & Copper Levels

Both lead and copper levels are back to normal in the City of Houghton.

City Manager Eric Waara said they received a letter from the Department of Environmental Quality with the results of their most recent testing which showed no samples with action level exceedance.

The 98 percentile for lead was four parts per billion, which is well below the 15 parts per billion action level.

Copper came in at 1.0 parts per million with the action level being 1.3.

Waara said the results show that the corrective measures made to the pH adjustment system have been successful.

Another round of samples will be taken in September.

Last fall, three samples from some of the city’s oldest homes had action level exceedance for lead which prompted a year’s worth of additional monitoring.