What We Do About Lead: Monitoring
In addition to the many water quality tests we perform to ensure your drinking water is safe, Cleveland Water regularly monitors lead levels at customers’ taps.
The Safe Drinking Water Act and Lead and Copper Rule require public water systems to monitor drinking water in homes that have lead service lines or lead in their plumbing. Monitoring ensures that our efforts at corrosion control are successful at reducing potential exposure to lead from drinking water.
Since 1997, when we began adding orthophosphate and controlling pH to minimize corrosion of pipes and plumbing, our Lead Compliance Monitoring results have been below the U.S. EPA’s action level of 15 parts per billion (ppb).
In our most recent Lead Compliance Monitoring, all results were below the federal action level, with 90% below 2.1 ppb. For perspective, 1 ppb is like a drop of water in a 30-foot wide, 4-foot deep swimming pool.
The water samples for our Lead Compliance Monitoring tests are taken from single-family homes throughout our service area that are known to have lead and meet the Ohio EPA's definition of Tier 1 Sampling Sites.
Tier 1 Sampling Sites are defined as single-family homes that contain at least one of the following:
- Copper pipes with high lead solder installed between 1982 and 1989,
- Lead plumbing pipes, or
- City-owned and/or customer-owned lead service line.
We’re always looking to expand the pool of homes used for Lead and Copper Compliance Monitoring. If you think your home meets the Tier 1 requirements, you can volunteer your home to be added to our list of monitoring sites by calling 216-664-2882 or emailing leadlookup@clevelandwater.com.