City of Bend
Home MenuTesting for Lead and Copper in Your Drinking Water
Lead and Copper Rule Regulation
Lead and copper enter drinking water primarily through plumbing materials. Regulation requires systems to monitor drinking water, at distribution and at the customer's tap, to ensure safe, healthy drinking water for our customers.
Hours:
Monday through Friday
8 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Closed most major holidays.
Address:
62975 Boyd Acres Rd.
TESTING FOR LEAD AND COPPER
The City of Bend routinely tests for lead in our drinking water and monitors the known high-risk residential homes that may have older plumbing. Homes built before 1986 that have not been retrofitted or remodeled may be more likely to have lead solder than used to join copper pipes. Lead solder was banned in 1986, therefore, homes and businesses built before that time may have lead in their internal drinking water system.
The City of Bend publishes our Water Quality / Consumer Confidence Annual Report each June. The report is a certified source of information regarding water quality, sample types, and analysis findings. It is a regulatory report required and monitored by the Oregon Health Authority.
Lead is measured in parts per billion (ppb). The Environmental Protection Agency has established an action value, or standard, of 15 parts per billion. Drinking water systems must be under 10 percent of tested taps having less than 15 parts per billion to be in compliance before action must be taken.
Examples of parts per billion (ppb):
- Equal to one drop of ink in one of the largest tanker trucks used to haul gasoline = 1 ppb
- The width of 1 human hair in 68 miles = 1 ppb
- 1 second per 32 years = 1 ppb
LEAD HEALTH EXPOSURE
Lead exposure is a serious health risk. Laws and regulations are in place to protect people. The Oregon Health Authority monitors various known lead sources and provides programs to improve awareness and prevention.
Lead in drinking water can occur naturally from the earth's surface or from various contaminants. Most commonly, drinking water lead sources are plumbing materials such as lead solder used to join copper piping, pipes, or joints.
To learn more about Lead poisoning and exposure to lead, visit the links:
What is the Lead and Copper Rule Regulation?
The Lead and Copper Rule Regulation requires the Service Line Inventory of a grouping of our water customers. This rule applies to all public water systems, which includes monitoring and complying with state and federal rules and regulations. Please see link for more information about the City of Bend Drinking Water Service Line Inventory project.