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testing for lead in water


Airehead

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Has been a problem in Dublin with old lead piping in the water mains. Now it's been eliminated from the public mains but still occurs where people live in old houses that still have some lead piping.

Guy from the water company came round a couple of years ago and took samples from our kitchen tap/faucet just to check.

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2 minutes ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

You can buy kits for residential use at Home Depot.  If you're looking to do lead testing for a school, you will need to contact a testing lab or testing firm.  You could start by calling Adelaide Environmental Health Associates, Inc. although I think there would be firms closer to you in the Rochester area.

I knew TK would be the one to know.  Electricity and water are like peanut butter and jam.  

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for anybody who knows about chemistry, precipitating lead out of water is pretty easy

Get yourself some hydrogen chloride. Heat the water and dissolve some hydrogen chloride into it.

let it stand and wait. (Lead reactions can take some time)

if there is lead in your water, you'll get a white precipitate at the bottom

lead chloride is highly unsoluble. Chlorides from other minerals in your water are highly soluble, so if you have a layer of precipitate, you are probably looking at lead

 

 

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12 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

I knew TK would be the one to know.  Electricity and water are like peanut butter and jam.  

Teddy said go buy a kit, I explained how to do it yourself from chemical principles

 

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2 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

If it's being done for a school then I'm sure that all formalities must be taken in obtaining a "qualified" test.

you are just dodging the FACT that you do not understand the chemistry

this is the problem with people today. They have to have a "qualified" whatever because they are too fucking stupid to know basic math and science

I am able to think and reason for myself and so I am a free man

 

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1 minute ago, Nate said:

you are just dodging the FACT that you do not understand the chemistry

this is the problem with people today. They have to have a "qualified" whatever because they are too fucking stupid to know basic math and science

I am able to think and reason for myself and so I am a free man

 

It has nothing to do with qualifications.  It has to do with politics.  Having to have lawyers on constant retainer by a board of education to fend off lawsuits from angry parents leads to a "qualified" world.  Simple chemistry has nothing to do with my answer.

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1 minute ago, maddmaxx said:

It has nothing to do with qualifications.  It has to do with politics.  Having to have lawyers on constant retainer by a board of education to fend off lawsuits from angry parents leads to a "qualified" world.  Simple chemistry has nothing to do with my answer.

so you admit that I am right, eh?

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It is a requirement that it is done by a certified firm for schools.  Ours is done and I am now trying to understand the results--- 18 faucets were higher than 20 ppb.  All have been replaced but they weren't all of the old ones--- one in fact was just put in about 2 months ago.  So some old, some new.  Also across 4 buildings there was equal scatter-- not just on one water line or anything like that.  Some upstairs, some down, etc...  So, the recommendation was replace faucets and one water fountain which we did.  I'm not sure that is going to really fix the problem??  I realize the risk is minimal but I will need to explain it to parents.

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Just now, Airehead said:

It is a requirement that it is done by a certified firm for schools.  Ours is done and I am now trying to understand the results--- 18 faucets were higher than 20 ppb.  All have been replaced but they weren't all of the old ones--- one in fact was just put in about 2 months ago.  So some old, some new.  Also across 4 buildings there was equal scatter-- not just on one water line or anything like that.  Some upstairs, some down, etc...  So, the recommendation was replace faucets and one water fountain which we did.  I'm not sure that is going to really fix the problem??  I realize the risk is minimal but I will need to explain it to parents.

It sounds like you have a yet to be discovered source.  Somewhere there is something common to all of these water outlets.  I'll bet the town doesn't want to hear that one though.

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2 hours ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

You can buy kits for residential use at Home Depot.  If you're looking to do lead testing for a school, you will need to contact a testing lab or testing firm.  You could start by calling Adelaide Environmental Health Associates, Inc. although I think there would be firms closer to you in the Rochester area.

How accurate are those kits?  I've always wondered if these kit manufacturers don't have close relationships with city governments.  I mean what the public doesn't know is cheaper and much harder to prove.

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2 hours ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

You can buy kits for residential use at Home Depot.  If you're looking to do lead testing for a school, you will need to contact a testing lab or testing firm.  You could start by calling Adelaide Environmental Health Associates, Inc. although I think there would be firms closer to you in the Rochester area.

When I was in a local Home Depot a couple days ago I noticed a display between the cash registers and the exit where they were giving them away - And we are not Flint.

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7 minutes ago, dotman17 said:

How accurate are those kits?  I've always wondered if these kit manufacturers don't have close relationships with city governments.  I mean what the public doesn't know is cheaper and much harder to prove.

they are sort of like soil test kits and homepregnancy test kits and all the other moran-proof home testing kits you get for anything else

of course you can heat some tap water, add a few mils of HCl (it common name is Muratic acid for all you citified idiots out there, they sell it at the hardware store) and if you see a white precipitate, you have lead ions in your water.

 

but NOOOOOOOOOO.....that's not internet idiot approved and certified by some stupid fuck nobody ever heard of before

 

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3 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

But now I see that you didn't.

Didn't what?  I am pretty sure everything I just said was factual.  I stated I thought I saw a report some time back on a major news outlet regarding this but I may be mistake.  Even so, I'm just not sure what these 'test' kits accomplish.  Would anybody listen to the results if they were negative?  That's a legitimate question.

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29 minutes ago, dotman17 said:

Didn't what?  I am pretty sure everything I just said was factual.  I stated I thought I saw a report some time back on a major news outlet regarding this but I may be mistake.  Even so, I'm just not sure what these 'test' kits accomplish.  Would anybody listen to the results if they were negative?  That's a legitimate question.

I live on a well, so I have had my water tested (the certified professional sissy way, too)

chances are your local or state government isn't going to give a shit.

What I had to do was put a filter on the well. So you are right, you get a test kit, test comes up positive for lead and your city tells you to go fuck yourself

that's essentially the process

 

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2 minutes ago, Nate said:

I live on a well, so I have had my water tested (the certified professional sissy way, too)

chances are your local or state government isn't going to give a shit.

What I had to do was put a filter on the well. So you are right, you get a test kit, test comes up positive for lead and your city tells you to go fuck yourself

that's essentially the process

 

They actually have a filter that can get the lead out? Wow, I'm surprised.  Maybe it only works on larger chunks of lead like wheel weights, sinkers and split shot?

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7 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

They actually have a filter that can get the lead out? Wow, I'm surprised.  Maybe it only works on larger chunks of lead like wheel weights, sinkers and split shot?

no, lead wasn't my problem...its was bacteria

so I have a particle filter and a UV filter

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Just now, maddmaxx said:

Don't tell me you live down hill from the cows.??

no...its a common problem in my area. the wells around here aren't all that deep. Mine is only 180 ft. So its not deep enough to have problems with hard water, but its also not deep enough to completely purify the ground water, either

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Just now, Longjohn said:

I lived for five years in the middle of some limestone quarries. I had a water conditioner that took care of that.

yea. mineral contamination you have to have a chemical process to get the minerals out, so you have to have more than just a filter

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Just now, Longjohn said:

My well is 60 feet deep 

lucky you...if you ever have a problem with your pump, you can probably haul that up by hand

Around here 180 ft is a shallow well. Rich's well over in Wellsville is about 350 ft deep. He has to have a conditioner for the hard water

all I know is what the guys working for Eichelburger's tell me. they say my well is too shallow to completely purify the water.

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3 hours ago, Airehead said:

It is a requirement that it is done by a certified firm for schools.  Ours is done and I am now trying to understand the results--- 18 faucets were higher than 20 ppb.  All have been replaced but they weren't all of the old ones--- one in fact was just put in about 2 months ago.  So some old, some new.  Also across 4 buildings there was equal scatter-- not just on one water line or anything like that.  Some upstairs, some down, etc...  So, the recommendation was replace faucets and one water fountain which we did.  I'm not sure that is going to really fix the problem??  I realize the risk is minimal but I will need to explain it to parents.

The first thing I would recommend is taking a water sample immediately where the water enters your buildings or your site, either from the well or from the municipality.  You can't cure a lead issue in the water by changing faucets if the water coming in has a higher lead content.  Check to see that your report has at least one test for the incoming water lead content.

The recommendations you received were the lowest first-cost approach to correcting the problem, and one of the most visible ways to show the public that the problem is being 'addressed'.  I'm not sure if you're saying the replacements were done before or after the testing.  If you've re-tested after completing the installations and still show higher lead levels then I would suggest your problem may be two-fold: Check the water piping/system visually for joints that may have been soldered, and check is any of the faucets or fountains received comparatively little use.

If your buildings are older, they may have piping assembled with solder containing lead.  This lead can leach out into the water inside the pipe, especially if the water sits in the pipe for long time (i.e. little use at the faucet).  Sometimes even equipment such as water heaters, if they are old enough, can contain soldered joints as well.

The composition of the piping and how much use each faucet receives would explain why your higher lead level results are scattered.  I'm guessing that there is a pattern, but it's not readily obvious because nobody really pays much attention to how much an ordinary item like a faucet gets used.

So, for solutions - obviously one is to replace all the piping, which can be expensive.  Believe it or not, another solution may be to simply run more water through the faucets every day.  If the water doesn't sit in the pipes, it can't absorb the lead to a level that causes concern.  Now this second method may seem like a 'cheat', but the end result desired is to keep the lead out of the water that the children are drinking.  In the least, it could be a temporary measure to maintain low lead levels in the water until you can get the money, get the design done, and get the project finished to replace all the pipes.  And by the way, you may only need to replace the domestic water piping, because nobody should be drinking anything from any of the heating piping so it doesn't matter how much lead is in the water for heating system.

 

1 hour ago, Kzoo said:

I noticed a display between the cash registers and the exit where they were giving them away

Sometimes companies will give the kits away for free, you send it in postage-paid, and the lab runs the test - but you have to pay them to find out the results.

 

43 minutes ago, Nate said:

no, lead wasn't my problem...its was bacteria

Ah. So the well was full of sh!+.

Anyone who drank that water would be too, then.

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5 minutes ago, Nate said:

go suck a dick you pompous windbag

I would expect such an emotional response from a self-proclaimed chemistry wizard who wasn't even clever enough to figure out that a simple switch had failed on his well pump, so he had to pay someone smarter than he was too much money to troubleshoot the repair that was only replacing an inexpensive part.

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