Removing ‘Lead’ From Our Drinking Water Vocabulary

Removing ‘Lead’ From Our Drinking Water Vocabulary

At any given time, you could be standing just a number of feet above century old pipes. Similar to how a person ages, the water infrastructure starts to depreciate as it reaches the end of its useful life. Because you can’t physically see the service lines located underground, it makes it hard to know what’s down there and when the parts need to be replaced. Recognizing this is the city’s responsibility and one that isn’t taken lightly.

These century old pipes consist primarily of lead-based service lines, as this was the norm back in the day. While lead pipes are harmless, this becomes quite the opposite when they leach into the city’s tap water due to changing water treatment or only partially replaced service lines. Take the Flint Water Crisis for example. The city of Flint took a shortcut when switching out the water supply to the Flint River because they saw it as an easy fix. They didn’t take into account that the new water supply would corrode and strip away the lining of the lead pipes, therefore exposing the lead to the community’s drinking water.

In order to avoid Flint Water Crises all over the country, cities and municipalities will be looking for replacement parts from the corporation stop to the meter. Most of the time when you tap into the water main, you have to shut off the water, which leads to a boil-water order throughout the area. However, this step isn’t necessary when changing out the pipe after the corporation stop.

U.S. cities used A.Y. McDonald parts then and they continue to use them today. By successfully altering our products appropriately throughout our 160 years of existence, this has resulted in a completely lead-free product line today, which includes all parts in contact with potable water.

A.Y. McDonald is there for all the service fittings and connections you could ever need, especially those compatible with lead flange and special purpose thread corporation stops. We offer more options than any other water works manufacturer out there; especially those looking for extra strong service fittings or custom connections. Whatever you need to replace, we’ll create it, because we understand how important it is to make water work for your community.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), approximately ten million properties in the U.S. are currently sitting above these century old leaded pipes that are in dire need of replacement. By catering to our pipes today, we can completely remove the word ‘lead’ from the water infrastructure vocabulary tomorrow. Call A.Y. McDonald at 1-800-AY CARES (292-2737) or visit the water works product section of our website if you’re looking to invest in a completely lead-free future.