LEAD-FREE SYSTEM
The District initiated its lead service line inventory efforts following the requirements of the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions in May of 2021. District staff met several times leading up to the inventory phase to educate staff on acceptable potholing procedures, prioritization of areas within the District’s service area to investigate, discussing responses to findings of lead, if any, and facilitating a record-keeping program that identified documentation requirements, including persons responsible for managing incoming information, discussing file architecture, and hierarchy in populating databases created for future compliance requirements.
The District completed its service line inventory efforts on February 9, 2024, with no lead service lines or associated components identified in our distribution system!
INVENTORY PROCESS
The District purchased a 2020 Vermeer ECO 75-1600 Mega-Vac unit (pictured above) mounted on a 2020 Peterbilt Model 348 as the primary tool for performing vacuum excavation potholing and conducting our physical verification of service lines. This unit has an on-board pressure washer with a digging tip. It is also equipped with an external hydraulic hook up for a hole saw and jack hammer if asphalt, or concrete is encountered.
The District dedicated a four person crew to complete the service line inventory. The crew consisted of a supervisor, who was primarily responsible for engaging with customers on the work being performed and the requirements of the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions, and three staff who conducted the potholing procedure. District employees were instructed to wear shirts, hats, jackets and identification badges to clearly identify them as District employees, and vehicles and equipment used were clearly placarded with the Ute Water logo.
The potholing crew would locate the meter pit on the property, inspect for structural integrity prior to pre-marking for utility locate request, and collect the necessary information such as property address, meter number, and the date.
CITY OF FRUITA
The District’s service area has always included the City of Fruita, but it wasn’t until 1984 that the District began serving Fruita residents domestic water. The District entered into a contract of merger with the City of Fruita to deliver potable drinking water to their distribution system in 1983. The City of Fruita had already constructed a distribution system and had made significant improvements to infrastructure just prior to the District taking ownership of their system.
Because the District did not have administrative control during development of Fruita’s distribution system, the District was concerned that lead water lines may have been utilized during the development of their system. For that reason, the District prioritized the west end of our distribution system, which includes the City of Fruita, as an area to begin the physical verification inventory efforts. The District made the decision to sample 100% of service lines west of 18 Road that would encompass the City of Fruita, the town of Loma and the town of Mack. These rural communities represented a large percentage of the District’s 1957 and prior services, and the large majority of service lines that were not installed by District employees or with District oversight.
VERIFYING SERVICE LINES
For District service lines, excluding the City of Fruita, with installation dates ranging between and including 1957 to 1988, services were inspected following Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) approved random sampling technique providing 95% reliability in representing our service line materials.
Other efforts that were employed by the District to verify service line materials were records review with Mesa County and the City of Fruita and photo identification of first connection piping inside our customers’ homes.
Click here to view the District's current service line inventory map.