ARANSAS PASS, Tx — On Monday, the City of Aransas Pass announced that between December 2021 and October, it failed to submit its Initial Lead Service Line Inventory (ILSLI).
The ILSLI is an inventory of every service line in a distribution system, including both utility-owned and customer-owned lines, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Each must be categorized as either lead, non-lead, galvanized requiring replacement, or lead status unknown.
“It gets very scary and you start asking, ‘What, is something wrong? Something's wrong? Should I not be drinking water?’ But the thing is that, right now, our water is safe to drink,” Public Works Director David Flores Jr. told KRIS 6.
According to Flores, his department expected the notice from TCEQ. Public Works was in the process of completing the required inventory, but missed the Oct. 16 deadline when “half” the inventory had been collected.
“You got to remember those six employees do the water leaks, the sewer backups, water installations, water flushing, things of that sort,” he said.
Flores continued, “We have 4,000-plus customers, and we have to go and inspect every single—basically not only water meter, but the service line that feeds into the water meter that goes into the homes.”
“Once you take the inventory, that’s all you got to do. So once you take the initial one, you, for example, you get X amount of service lines with lead, we submit it to TCEQ and then we have to submit a plan how to reduce that to nothing in a nutshell.”
Mayor Jason Knight echoed the reassurance that the city's water remains safe, after several neighbors raised concerns on social media about lead poisoning.
In a statement to KRIS 6 News, Knight wrote:
The City of Aransas Pass is currently getting this situation resolved. Although there is no threat to the health and safety of the residents, we most certainly understand the concerns and will have each and everyone of them addressed."
Flores and the city said they expect to complete the ILSLI by July 1. Once finished, Public Works will remove any remaining lead or copper service pipes and replace them with PVC.
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