This column is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research community. T. Neil Davis is a seismologist at the institute. Recent tests on water delivered by some Alaskan community water systems have revealed unsafe levels of lead in the water. Lead concentrations in excess of five parts per billion are considered unsafe, especially for children.
Lead poisoning causes weakness, anemia, constipation and paralysis.
Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation has found excessive lead concentrations in community water systems at the western Alaska villages of St. Michael, Gambell and Shishmaref, and also at the interior village of Birch Creek. The culprit, reports DEC engineer Stan Justine in a recent issue of The Northern Engineer , is lead-containing solder used to join copper pipes in the water distribution systems. Corrosive chemical action similar to that in a car battery occurs to release lead into the water. The copper pipe acts as a cathode, and droppings of excess lead solder inside the pipe act as sacrificial anodes, thereby becoming released in ionic form into the water. The problem occurs elsewhere but is more common at high latitude for three reasons.