Fire Hydrants With Lead Face Potential Scrap Heap

Dec. 07--COLONIE -- Latham Water Superintendent John Frazer has a garage full of good-looking red-and-white fire hydrants -- about $48,000 worth -- that are about to become dead weight.

That is, unless Congress acts quickly.

And unlike most tales that require swift congressional intervention to have a happy ending, there may actually be reason for hope.

The problem stems from the 2011 Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act, which lowered the allowable lead content of pipes and plumbing products in an effort to help keep public drinking water safe from the heavy metal's harmful effects.

While that expansion of the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act did not explicitly mention fire hydrants, the federal Environmental Protection Agency recently issued an interpretation that because hydrants are sometimes used to supply drinking water, the new strictures would apply to them, too.

For water systems across the country, that means their existing stores of spare hydrants -- which can cost nearly $2,000 each -- would be obsolete as of Jan. 4.

Enter Frazer, who penned a letter in early November to U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko outlining the problem.

Tonko, an Amsterdam Democrat and the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's subcommittee on Environment and the Economy, then teamed with Republican Ohio Congressman Bill Johnson to author a bill that would exempt hydrants from the law -- as it did for things like toilets and shower valves, which aren't used as sources of drinking water.

The bill passed the House Monday night by a vote of 384-0.

Tonko joined Frazer and other Colonie officials Friday to call on the Senate to take up the measure and send it to President Barack Obama in time for next month's deadline.

"As sometimes happens, laws have unintended consequences," Tonko said. "While we need to remove the lead from our drinking water, we didn't need to remove the lead from fire hydrants."

Frazer said hydrants containing parts made from no-lead brass are more expensive, and there may not be enough to meet the looming demand. Only rarely and for short periods of time, such as during water main repairs, are they ever used to supply drinking water, he said.

Earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer was in Rochester and Syracuse calling on the EPA to reverse its "absurd" interpretation of the anti-lead measure, which he said lacked "any discernible safety benefit."

"The EPA simply must grant a waiver for existing fire hydrants, and if they can't do this voluntarily -- and soon -- then I will push the Senate to pass bipartisan legislation, which has already passed the House, to add fire hydrants to the list of devices that are already exempt from these standards," Schumer said in a statement.

Schumer's office said Saratoga Springs' stockpile of hydrants is worth about $10,000.

With about 4,500 hydrants scattered throughout Colonie's sprawling water system, Frazer said the 25 he currently has in reserve likely won't even last the year. It depends, he said, on wear and tear, the severity of the winter and the cautiousness of drivers.

"We've got snow coming tonight," he said, "and I'll guarantee we'll have one hit."

jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com, 518-454-5445, @JCEvangelist_TU

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