They are in the process of having a third set of tests done by an independent agency and lab, for the express purpose of verifying the previous tests, which were done by different people, but used the same lab. Why would you suspect a faucet?
Pipes don't typically change suddenly. Faucets do. Parts break and come adrift which could potentially expose some metal/material that was not previously in contact with the water.
My current home is around ~20 years old. I've never had to touch any pipes. But several faucets have required some attention over the past 5 years.
Also you have much higher water velocities in a faucet, compared to a clear pipe run. So the potential for lead uptake is probably greater at that point.
And faucets are just plain spooky! Weird things happen with and to and at them ;-) Think water hammer and other fluid dynamics effects.
Ah, okay. Get a mess of these test kits for $5.00 each - each kit is good for four tests.
You may be able to pinpoint the source of the contamination. Heck, it might turn out that only a single faucet is the culprit!
I have to check. In my investigation, I'm seeing a lot of information pointing toward brass fixtures causing lead leaching. I thought it all came from China, but maybe some of the brass is from India
Any new brass fixtures, fittings, or shutoff valves? Check the country of origin. If China, replace.
Sometimes it just the EPA screwing with minimum acceptable levels. Same with arsenic. Ours was fine until they lowered the standards. Or raised them depending on your point of view. Just like gas mileage standards. My car used to get 50 mpg but now only gets 42 mpg. Actually still gets
50+ but the EPA changed the way they calculates it.
At work our water gets checked twice a year because of the older Cu pipes we have. They take samples from all the faucets even the external hose bibs. Only one time have we had a failure and it was from one faucet. It was the only faucet not origonal to the building.
Jimmie
That's another trouble spot. If you can, stick with parts made in North America, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, S. Africa, Taiwan, or S. Korea.
Why not first instal a filter at a sink so there is no health issue, I have used Everpure for years, Airlines, our military, maybe McDonalds and Coke use it, years ago in my filter buying research Shacklee also had one with impressive ratings. Mine single cartrige Everpure is about 15 years old and cartriges last years for us and no leaks yet. Maybe Chinese brass is the issue? Power to ground should be easy for you to test. But I bet you have found a new Chinese health issue, Lead.
In all likelihood, he doesn't have any gooseneck, lead or otherwise, out at the street -- unless you think his well is in the street.
If the pH gets much below 7.4 it will eat out the lime in the pipes and expose the lead. A simple swimming pool tester will work for this test.
Oops, I didn't see the word "well", oh well. Well, then it seems like he probably doesn't have a gooseneck.
But re-reading his post, he is filtering out lead from his well. So the first question would be "is the filter working". The second thought would be that the pH has changed and therefore the lead is leaching from deposits built up over the years before he put in the filter.
Yep, no gooseneck, only pitless adapter. The tests reveal that the filters are removing the lead from the water, but then it shows up again at the faucets. I'll certainly check on the ph
IIRC, acid water causes lead to leach, which is why you are not supposed to put wine into lead-crystal decanters.
Just out of curiosity, are you using the same lead test at the filter as you are using at the sink? If not, you should check before the filter and after the filter to see if the filter is doing its job.
Otherwise, you have to figure out what changed since your last lead- free reading.
Finally, you should probably check for lead at each and every faucet. If the are all the same, that means one thing. If its only one faucet, that means something else completely.
Also make sure your equipment isn't contaminated. See if there's any lead-paint dust, etc. on it. It's probably a good idea to order different testing materials, too, to see if that's causing a false- positive. Also test something you know is lead-free like distilled water from the store.
I think what you describe is exactly what is being done. They are currently waiting on the third, independent set of tests, to verify the first two
How recently have you checked the water just before and just after the filter????
How recently have you checked the water just before and just after the filter????
I believe these tests were done in the past few weeks
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