Altamont hires 120 Water to ensure lead and copper compliance

Oct. 11—ALTAMONT — Altamont has unanimously approved a contract with 120 Water as the city continues to work to ensure it is compliant with the Environmental Protection Agency's lead and copper rule.

City council members on Monday heard additional information from Elizabeth Johns of 120 Water, who further explained the company's lead and copper compliance program.

The EPA requires cities take inventory of their water pipes to ensure lead and copper levels are excessive in less than 10% of the city's water taps. Those that exceed this percentage must be fixed or replaced.

"Our end goal is to make sure you have a submittable inventory that's in compliance by Oct. 16 of 2024," Johns said. "Our solution is comprehensive to getting the inventory done."

The majority of the payment to 120 Water will cover the cross connection of both Altamont's public and private utility data to maximize the city's ability to detect and report any lines with excessive lead or copper.

"Sourcing those kind of records and data that live outside of your system is part of the workload we would take on," Johns said.

120 Water will help Altamont further map its utility data by sending surveys to residents and, if necessary, send those residents a swab kit that can be used to test led and copper levels.

"We're going to do everything we can to get those surveys back and get responses back because that is going to be the cheapest way of going about this," Johns said.

Johns said it is important for residents to respond to the survey to minimize the need to send swab kits to residents. Each swab kit costs approximately $27.

Some council members were concerned that the swab kit price might become higher than planned, but Johns reassured them a smaller city like Altamont that doesn't have very concentrated levels of lead won't require very many swab kits for residents.

"I don't see you needing an excessive amount that would break the bank," she said.

According to Johns, residents can also take photos of their water pipes for verification during the mapping process.

"Your residents with the surveys will have the capability to actually upload a picture of their pipe," Johns said. "That's your visual verification."

Johns provided the council with an estimate of how much time and money 120 Water will save the city with its lead and copper rule compliance program.

"I wanted to include that to give you guys a concrete understanding of how it will truly save your team hundreds of hours going through this work," Johns said.

Council member Todd Singerland voiced his support for the contract before voting to approve it at Monday's meeting.

"This is money in the bank as far as I'm concerned compared to what we'd be spending if we did this all on our own," Singerland said.

Council member Tayler Polk made a motion to approve the contract for an amount not exceeding $18,000, which the unanimously approved. The total quote for the project is currently $17,225, but this doesn't include the lead swab kits.

In other matters, the council:

—Approved proceeding with bid advertising and easements for the replacement of a waterline on 500th and 900th avenues.

—Approved a payment to Visu-Sewer for sewer main lining in the amount of $92,595.

—Approved a controlled burn request made by the American Legion for the purpose of conducting a dignified disposal of unserviceable flags at Schmidt Park Saturday, Nov. 5, at 5 p.m.

Nick Taylor can be reached at nick.taylor@effinghamdailynews.com or by phone at 618-510-9226 or 217-347-7151 ext. 300132.