A few residents have experienced lead in their drinking water in recent weeks, prompting discussion of Belleville’s aging infrastructure and a warning to people about how to protect their health.

Township Manager Victor Canning said that “a couple of samples” of tap water tested positive for lead, and by law the township had to send notices to those residents. He said there is a bigger picture problem.

“This is something that has to be addressed in areas with older infrastructure,” Canning said.

For now, he has this advice: “People should let the water run for a couple of minutes to remove any lead or copper issues.”

The substances come from old underground water pipes that need replacing, an expensive proposition, he said.

“We are trying to address this, spending a couple of hundred thousand [dollars], but we’re talking millions and millions to fix it all,” Canning said. ( source )

As stated in the article, tearing up and replacing older copper water lines joined together with solder that contains lead costs a pretty penny and a lot of towns like Belleville simply cannot come up with the money. Therefore residents in these towns owe it to themselves to test their drinking water for dangerous heavy metals such as copper and lead on a regular basis.

• WaterSafe Lead Home Drinking Water Test Kit
• WaterWorks Lead in Water Drinking Water Test Kit

Should any of the results turn up positive for lead, meaning your drinking water contains 15ppb or greater concentration of dissolved lead, we highly recommend you have your water evaluated by a certified water professional.

Although we keep repeating ourselves, do-it-yourself drinking water test kits serve as great screening tools for the average consumers but no one should ever rely upon them as their sole testing method. Remember: It’s your water, your health, your life.