Office of Drinking Water

The Office of Drinking Water (ODW) serves as the Commonwealth’s advocate for safe drinking water. The task of ensuring an adequate supply of safe and affordable drinking water often involves input and assistance from other state agencies and organizations.

Office of Drinking Water Responds to Lead in Drinking Water Concerns
In response to elevated lead levels in Washington D.C.’s public drinking water system, ODW coordinated the development of a lead level action plan to evaluate statewide lead monitoring efforts. As children are particularly susceptible to the adverse health effects caused by lead exposure, a study of lead levels in child daycare and elementary school drinking water sources was quickly initiated.

Local health department personnel throughout Virginia collected water samples from fixtures at 237 randomly selected facilities. First draw samples were collected at the most frequently used water fixture at each of the facilities. Additional samples were taken after a 60-second flush of the chosen faucets. Samples were delivered to the state’s Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services for analysis. The study found that lead levels in drinking water at most of these facilities are below the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action level of 15 parts per billion.

Lead contamination rarely occurs in source water such as wells or reservoirs. Elevated lead levels in drinking water are usually caused instead by corrosion of lead pipes or plumbing fixtures. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Lead and Copper Rule of 1991 requires all public water systems to conduct sampling for lead in drinking water at least once every three years. Child daycare facilities and elementary schools that have their own water systems are also subject to this rule. However, since most elementary schools and child daycare facilities get their drinking water from public water systems, they are not required to sample their water fixtures for lead.

VDH continues to implement the federal Lead Contamination Control Act (LCCA) of 1988, which recalled drinking water coolers with lead-lined water reservoir tanks and banned new drinking water coolers with lead parts. The LCCA also established a technical assistance program in order to support state activities to reduce lead contamination in schools. In light of the heightened concern about lead in drinking water, ODW coordinated with the Virginia Departments of Social Services and Education last May to provide child daycare and elementary schools with updated educational materials on reducing children’s exposure to lead.