A new feature on the city of Galesburg website allows residents to find what material their water service pipes are made of.
This after an Associated Press investigation into consistently high levels of lead in drinking water found in Galesburg homes.
City Engineer Wayne Carl tells WGIL the online feature is now live.
“You just type in the address you’re wanting to look up,” Carl says, “and it’ll tell you what kind of service line material.”
He adds that some older homes may not be available online.
“If it says we don’t have it in the database, then they can just call the Water Department and schedule a time and one of our guys will come out and take a look and tell them what kind of service they have,” Carl says.
In light of recent investigations that began with the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, AP reports that the Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Department of Public Health are setting a 10-day deadline for water systems to notify customers about lead violations. That is down from the federal mandated 30-day deadline.
Mayor John Pritchard says the city will follow the new mandate.
“Changing the notice period from 30 days to 10 days will present some difficulties in getting notifications done,” Pritchard says, “but if that’s the rules, I’m sure we can manage to abide by them.”
The Galesburg Lead Service Lookup tool is available at ci.galesburg.il.us under the Water Department.
