USEPA Says City of Fresno Passes Lead and Copper Rule Compliance Standard

Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) conducted a comprehensive review of the City of Fresno and the State of California’s oversight of the City’s drinking water treatment and testing program. By letter dated January 19, 2017, the USEPA concluded that the City has historically complied with the USEPA and State of California Lead and Copper Rule for providing safe drinking water to its residents. The City continues to work with the State of California to ensure optimized corrosion control treatment is in place.

“We’re happy with this review because now the City, the State Water Resources Control Board, the Fresno County Department of Health, and the EPA are all on the same page,” said Thomas Esqueda, Director of Public Utilities. “Our promise to provide a clean, safe, reliable water supply to our customers is just as strong today as ever.”

The City recognizes there have been reports by certain homeowners about discolored water within their homes. The primary problem with the water discoloration issue appears to be sourced from galvanized piping within certain homes in which the interior zinc coating may have worn away, and iron from the pipe is causing discoloration within the home. Fortunately, sampling results of the discolored water indicate that the water delivered to City customers meets all primary drinking water standards and does not appear to present any health risk.

For residents experiencing discolored water, the simplest and most cost-effective way to address the issue is to allow the tap to run until the discoloration is no longer observable. Additional testing is being conducted on galvanized piping from residential homes to determine whether further water treatment measures can be taken to reduce water discoloration within galvanized piping. If the testing is successful, additional water treatment measures may be implemented that could reduce the discoloration caused by the galvanized piping.