As Gossips reported a couple of weeks ago, the City of Hudson (and every other federally defined community water system) must develop a Lead Service Line Inventory by October 16, 2024. To assist in this effort, the City is asking property owners to test the pipes that bring water into their homes to determine if they are lead.
At the informal Common Council meeting on Monday, Rob Perry, superintendent of Public Works, reported that so far only sixty property owners have done the test and reported the results, and about a third of those found their pipes to be lead.
Perry also responded to comments, one of which appeared on Gossips, that Greenport was sending someone around to every house to check for lead. As Perry pointed out, Greenport has 1,200 connections; Hudson has 2,000. He also pointed out that most of the houses in Greenport were built in the 1950s and later (copper became the standard for water pipes in the 1940s), whereas the majority of Hudson buildings date from the 19th century. He explained that eventually Hudson will send people door to door to check the water service, but the request for property owners to check their own service was an effort to narrow things down.
Responding to Perry's presentation, Councilmember Margaret Morris (First Ward) said she had done the test but hadn't submitted her findings yet. City treasurer Heather Campbell said the same. Gossips' experience in complying with the request may be helpful to others. When I purchased my house in 1993, the previous owner told me he had replaced the lead service with copper. Fortunately, this was documented in the amazing Water Tap Book, which has been digitized and is available on the City Hudson website. There it was recorded that my service was replaced in 1988. (Lead was banned for use in public water systems in 1986.)
The principal purpose of the Water Tap Book was to record when buildings in Hudson were connected to the municipal water system, but a fair amount of information can be found there about lead being replaced by copper.
So before you go down to your cellar to carry out the prescribed test to determine if the pipe carrying water into your home is lead, you might want to check the Water Tap Book to see if the replacement of your service, from lead to copper, has been recorded there. The Water Tap Book can be found here.
COPYRIGHT 2024 CAROLE OSTERINK
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