Troutdale staff: new federal lead-and-copper rule tightens triggers but city found no lead service lines

Troutdale public works staff told the City Council on Jan. 14, 2025, that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s revised lead and copper rule lowers the action level for lead and adds new monitoring and notification requirements, and that the city’s recent service-line inventory found no lead service lines.

Travis Holton, Troutdale’s public works director and chief engineer, and David Schafer, Water and Streets and Equipment Maintenance Superintendent, briefed the council on federal lead-and-copper rule requirements and what they mean for local monitoring, public notification and compliance. Holton said the rule was finalized in October (year not specified in the staff remarks) and was contemporaneous with the city’s inventory submission to the state primacy agency, the Oregon Health Department Drinking Water Division.

Holton summarized the city’s findings and the new rule’s main changes: the city reported it had inventoried its residential service lines and found no lead service lines, no lead goosenecks, no galvanized lines downstream of lead fittings that would require replacement, and no service lines with unknown material status. He said Troutdale is on a reduced sampling regimen because historic monitoring showed low lead levels. Under the revised rule, the federal lead action level for systems is lowered from 0.15 milligrams per liter to 0.10 milligrams per liter and the rule requires community-wide 24-hour notification if at least 10% of sampled sites exceed the action level.

Holton described Troutdale’s current monitoring as a three-year program in which the city collects samples from 30 qualifying volunteer homes per cycle; he and Schafer said it is a challenge to recruit volunteers because only an estimated 40–60 homes meet the screening criteria. Holton also said the rule requires sampling at schools, day cares and similar facilities beginning in 2027, with 20% of those facilities sampled each year over five years.

During public questions, residents raised concerns about brown water after a temporary shutdown and about sampling in apartments. Staff explained that the city’s responsibility generally ends at the meter and that private plumbing (including apartment internal plumbing) is typically the property owner’s responsibility; staff said they will work with residents and property owners and encouraged affected residents to contact the water department for guidance. Staff also described practical sampling requirements, including a six-hour stagnation period for certain sample types, which can complicate sampling at busy facilities and schools.

Holton said the city will notify the community promptly if the system-level action threshold is met, but emphasized that an exceedance often reflects conditions at multiple sampled sites rather than systemic contamination of the distribution system. He also said staff will continue outreach to potential volunteers and will coordinate with schools and day-care operators to meet the sampling schedule required by the rule.