The city of Las Cruces will host a town hall on March 4 to discuss efforts to identify lead and galvanized water lines throughout the service area.
The town hall is set for 6 to 8 p.m. at the Las Cruces Council Chambers. It follows the city's sending out hundreds of letters titled “Unknown Service Line Material” to customers, telling them that the city did not know what materials some water pipes were made of and thus could be made of toxic materials.
“We are happy to report that we have started the inventory, and to date, we have found no lead service line and only two customer side galvanized service lines,” the city said in letter sent to customers in the February utility bill.
The situation has generated some concern about Las Cruces’ water system despite the fact that no lead pipes have been discovered.
Late last year, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed its updated Lead/Copper Rule. The rule requires utilities like Las Cruces to identify and replace lead pipes within 10 years and mandates communication with customers about risks, the location of lead pipes, and plans to replace them.
The latter requirement led to letters from the city. Those letters said that about 20,000 city-owned pipes are made of “unknown material.”
According to the World Health Organization, lead exposure can severely damage the brain and central nervous system, and there is no safe level of lead exposure. Lead exposure can cause 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 in the 19th century frequently used it to construct water lines across the U.S. The EPA banned lead pipes completely in 1986, but the U.S. had largely moved away from them in the decades before.
More official information can be found at lascruces.gov/leadandcopper, including a guide on how to conduct self-inspections of pipes.
