Tap water in some Denver homes contains elevated lead. Now Denver Water, CDPHE and others

are fighting about what to do.
Denver Water detected elevated lead in 2012, but is pushing back on the state’s plan to correct it

By BRUCE FINLEY | bfinley@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: May 3, 2018 at 7:01 pm | UPDATED: May 4, 2018 at 9:50 am

Six years after Denver Water detected elevated lead in tap water at some homes, state health officials have ordered the injection of a chemical into water supplies to slow lead-pipe corrosion — but utility officials are resisting.

The chemical, orthophosphate, would harm humans and hurt the South Platte River basin, worsening algae blooms and increasing the cost of cleaning wastewater, Denver Water contends. Utility officials propose solving the problem with a different chemical to lower the acidity of drinking water, combined with accelerated replacement of old lead plumbing.

This disagreement has escalated into a legal fight, with Denver’s Metro Wastewater Reclamation District, Aurora and the Greenway Foundation battling the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in state court — possibly delaying action to deal with the problem.

No amount of lead in water is healthy, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and even low levels can hurt children — slowing growth, impairing hearing and digestion, shortening attention spans and stunting academic achievement. CDPHE director Larry Wolk, a pediatrician, says removing lead from metro Denver tap water is an immediate top priority.

Denver Water officials have known at least since 2012 about the lead contamination, caused mostly by an estimated 58,000 lead pipelines between water mains and homes that are expensive to replace.

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/05/03/denver-tap-water-lead/