DENVER — Around 100,000 households in the Mile High City are seeing Brita water filters turn up on their doorsteps.
They are from Denver Water, as a part of their Lead Reduction Program. The program aims to keep residents from consuming lead through their drinking water by providing water filtration supplies free of charge. The city began distributing the supplies at the start of spring to any customers who might have a lead service line.
Affected customers received a letter and information packet from Denver Water, each stating the intention of the program, highlighting that “Lead can cause serious health problems if too much enters the body from drinking water.”
The seeds of the project were planted in 2012, when water samples were taken from homes with lead service lines. The results from the samples exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standard. To correct the problem, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) required that a food additive, orthophosphate, be added by Denver Water starting March 2020. Instead, the utility company proposed an alternative — the Lead Reduction Program, which would remove lead from the source. The program was approved by both the EPA and CDPHE late last year.
Customer-owned lead service lines, pipes that carry water from the street’s water main to the plumbing in homes, are to blame for any lead contamination in drinking water, according to Denver Water. The utility company predicts that anywhere from 64,000 to 84,000 properties have harmful water lines in their service area. To solve the problem entirely means replacing all of the lines, which could take as many as 15 years.
In the interim, Denver Water promises to provide its customers with a free water pitcher, filter and replacement filters — all certified to remove lead — to all customers until six months after the customer’s household line has been replaced. Denver Water will send each household a replacement filter every six months until then to maintain effectiveness.
The company will work to replace the service lines on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis. The neighborhoods will be helped according to need, with communities prioritized who are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure, such as infants and children.
Denver Water specified that the provided filters should be used in filtering water for drinking and cooking. According to the company, water that isn’t going to be ingested, such as for purposes of showering, bathing, dishes, laundry, etc., doesn’t need to be filtered.
As for your furry friends? Denver Water claims that pets are more likely to obtain lead from ingesting food with higher lead levels than that of the water. So, your pets are generally safe to drink the tap water without filtration.
The city’s Lead Reduction Program made sure to highlight that the filtration initiative has “nothing to do” with COVID-19, and that they consistently follow guidelines that prevent waterborne pathogens, such as COVID-19, from entering their drinking water.
You can find your home’s risk of lead traces in drinking water by entering your address here.
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