Las Cruces reports no lead piping after public notifications

City of Las Cruces officials said they have found no lead pipes since sending thousands of letters to utility customers warning of “unknown” materials in pipes, but will continue inspecting thousands of lines over the coming years.  

The letters descended on thousands of homes and businesses in Las Cruces last month as a part of the city’s effort to comply with an Environmental Protection Agency rule that went into effect in late October.

The rule requires drinking water systems across the country to identify and replace lead pipes within 10 years; lowers the threshold of lead exposure requiring protective action and enhances testing requirements; and mandates communication with communities about risks, location of lead pipes and plans to replace them. The latter requirement led to the letters from the city.

Despite having more than 20,000 city-owned pipes made of “unknown material,” officials said at a Nov. 18 presentation that the public has little to worry about. 

“About 15,000 (service lines and pipes) have been proven to not have lead so far,” Councilor Becky Corran said at a council meeting on Nov. 18. “So, this is not something to necessarily have a big panic about.”

According to the World Health Organization, lead exposure can severely damage the brain and central nervous system. “There is no level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects,” WHO said on their website. Lead exposure can cause several significant health challenges and especially affects children and people having children. Although the effects of lead poisoning have been known for most of human history, builders of the 19th century frequently used it to construct water lines across the U.S.

Starting in the early 1900s, copper and plastic became the preferred materials for piping, but thousands of U.S. water systems still contained lead. According to EPA records, the U.S. banned new lead piping entirely in 1986. 

Starting in 1991, the EPA has sought to implement new rules around lead pipe remediation.

“EPA estimates that up to 9 million homes are served through legacy lead pipes across the country, many of which are in lower-income communities and communities of color, creating disproportionate lead exposure burden for these families,” the EPA said in a news release about the rule.

The rule change required water utilities like Las Cruces’ to notify the public if their pipes contained lead or were made of unknown material. Since then, city officials have said it's unlikely that many, if any, service lines in the city are made of lead, since much of the city was constructed at a time when lead pipes were either banned or rarely used.