CORNELIA — The city of Cornelia is responding to a pamphlet residents received in the mail regardling lead in the city’s drinking water. The pamphlet went out because of the results of a yearly test of 20 homes built prior to 1986 and that are known to have lead and copper piping.
The EPA requires 90% of the samples to be below 15 micrograms per liter. This year, the samples showed that only 80% of the homes were below that level.
According to the city, this year marks the first time in 13 years that hte results have been below 90%. City officials have resampled the homes and are awaiting the resuts of new tests in case there was an error with the sampling technique or the lab.
Cornelia City Manager Donald Anderson insists the drinking water in the city is still safe. “Rest assured the city’s drinking water is safe! The Cornelia water plant produces the highest drinking water quality. We have received awards from the state for our drinking water quality each year for the past 11 years,” Anderson said in a statement. “If there was an issue with the drinking water quality we would have taken more drastic steps than mailing out a pamphlet on lead in drinking water!”
As a result of the city’s failure to meet the 90% threshold, the city will be required to increase the number of dwellings tested annually.
