SHRUB OAK, N.Y. — Residents in the Yorktown Water District may have recently received a notice regarding the town’s water system as part of a federally required lead service line inventory. While the letter may cause concern, town officials said there are no known lead service lines or mains and no immediate risk to residents.
The notice was sent because the Yorktown Consolidated Water District missed the original deadline to submit its lead service line inventory, a requirement under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and New York State Department of health regulations. According to Assistant Water Distribution Superintendent Jeffrey Dahlke, the inventory covers about 10,000 accounts — representing roughly 36,000 individuals — and was originally due earlier this year.
Born out of the crisis in Flint, Michigan, the Dahlke said the district, along with all others nationwide, was required to submit the inventory by Oct. 16, 2024. The EPA, which he said has “been fine to work with,” granted an extension pushing the deadline to Dec. 1 to accommodate what he described as “a lengthy process.”
The inventory involves verifying the material of service lines for every home in the district.
“Yorktown doesn’t have lead lines,” Dahlke said. “We have copper lines going to the homes and possibly a small number of galvanized steel lines.”
He added that the process is a “paper trail” for the most part, “looking up things like the original water tap application, original inspections by the water district, inspections by engineers when it was a development, other plans for development—it’s doing paper research for each home in Yorktown.”
As the data is compiled, Dahlke said if something cannot be verified through paperwork or other means, “there’s a whole process” that the district must do to “come to the conclusion that we don't need to do anything.”
For parcels that Dahlke said that they are not able to verify, “we would reach out directly to the homeowner.”
The district would ask for access into the home to check the pipe to see what material it is.
Since the notices were sent, Dahlke said he has received around 100 calls and about 75 emails each day since the notice was sent out on July 25 from residents. Officials acknowledge that the notice wording — which is standardized by the EPA and cannot be changed — may have caused confusion and concern.
Those expressing concerns, Dahlke said should understand that “while it’s taking a long time to do this, there could be an issue.
“One by one, we go through each house in Yorktown. If we found anything that we had a question about or couldn’t answer, we would immediately reach right out to that homeowner and ask to get inside to verify what the material is.
Dahlke told Yorktown News that he is responding to the individual messages of concern, fear and frustrations in the order he received them. While he understands the fear and questions from residents, there is no concern.
Reach Miranda Ferrante at ferrante@halstonmedia.com.
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