Lead Testing of Tap Water

Just to add to @mat315: the kit comes with specific instructions to address the concerns raised by @Stan Chaz. It is a great service that the city provides.

SoSlope

in General Discussion 7 years and 6 months ago

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angelique.m.west | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Our building is considering having the tap water tested for lead.

Any recs of a vendor for this and cost estimate? Can this be done with a home testing kit?

Asking because yesterday the city’s Independent Budget Office put out a report on lead in city tap water and concluded that smaller older buildings constructed in the 1920s and 1930s have higher lead levels than the federal threshold. They also said:

“Based on test data from 2006 through 2016, the highest rates of tap water test levels exceeding the federal threshold were in community districts that included neighborhoods such as Ridgewood and Maspeth in Queens, Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, Co-Op City and Riverdale in the Bronx, and South Beach in Staten Island.”

See the report here:

http://ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/safe-at-home-lead-in-tap-water-remains-issue-in-some-city-dwellings-2018.html

smadargolan | 7 years and 6 months ago

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You can do this free through the city: https://www1.nyc.gov/nyc-resources/service/1266/request-lead-test-kit-for-drinking-water

If it’s a large building and you need to do all units, or you need to get some sort of certification, this may not work, but otherwise individuals can request these easily. We did it (came back negative) for our new rowhouse when we moved in, and it was easy – just fill up two vials and send back.

angelique.m.west | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Thanks.

nope | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Of course there are other considerations when actually doing the test in order to get valid results. If you let the water run a lot before testing, or test or at a busy time in a multi-unit building, you might get different results than if you test early in the morning when you get up , an d when the water has been standing in pipes overnight – which of course you might obviously drink in the morning. Timing matters. Running the water too little or too much before testing matters. Also differently located faucets with different piping may have different results with the same apartment of course…

nope | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Of course there are other considerations when actually doing the test in order to get valid results. If you let the water run a lot before testing, or test or at a busy time in a multi-unit building, you might get different results than if you test early in the morning when you get up , an d when the water has been standing in pipes overnight – which of course you might obviously drink in the morning. Timing matters. Running the water too little or too much before testing matters. Also differently located faucets with different piping may have different results with the same apartment of course…

angelique.m.west | 7 years and 6 months ago

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asthon13 above in this thread prompted me to order the city’s lead testing kit online.

Within a week I got a kit with two very large empty bottles and details on how to proceed with the testing. Based on the instructions and the size of the bottles it’s clear to me this is very comprehensive testing, far different than the home kits you see being sold in hardware stores.

The kit also comes with a short survey that has questions pertaining to whether there has been plumbing work in the building or whether the water is filtered.

I will let you know the results as I live in a small pre-war building.

But for a multi unit building every unit must order the kits indivdually.

p.s.: the kits come with a postage paid return.