The high lead levels that showed up in samples of Nashville Utilities water earlier this year have been invalidated “due to an analytical or technical error by the laboratory,” the town reported this morning.
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management told the town that “based on the replacement lead and copper samples collected by Nashville water department for the June 1 through September 30, 2020 monitoring period, your system has not exceeded the lead action level.”
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Two rounds of water testing took place earlier this year. Eleven or 12 of the 24 testing sites came back with higher than allowed levels of lead in the water. But after a second test about two weeks later, levels were below the allowed amount, Nashville Utilities Administration Manager Phyllis Carr explained in October.
Town leaders were not sure where the elevated lead came from and they had doubts the results were accurate.
However, IDEM required the town to send a letter out to all its customers about the high levels shown in the tests, which worried some customers.
Further analysis showed that “the 90th percentile for the 22 samples collected for lead was nine parts per billion (0.009 mg/L) which is below the lead action level of 15 parts per billions (0.015 mg/L),” the town reported today.
Nashville Utilities normally does lead and copper tests every three years, and the town was planning to do follow-up tests for lead and copper again at 40 sites between Jan. 1 and June 30. That will not need to happen now; the next testing is scheduled for 2023, Carr said.
However, if customers want to get their water checked independently, they can call Nashville Utilities at 812-988-5526 and Carr will make arrangements for them to pick up a bottle and go through sampling instruction with them, she said. The test will cost $53.
