SEATTLE -- Officials with Seattle Public Utilities say they are testing water at a small number of homes after tests by Tacoma Public Utilities revealed high levels of lead in four homes there.
As a temporary precaution, officials are asking all Seattle residents to run their water for two minutes before using it, if the water has not been run in six hours.
"Although Seattle has no connection with Tacoma’s water system, Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) has immediately begun work—both in-house and with our state regulators—to understand the extent to which our system could have a similar problem," an SPU officials said.
The problem identified by Tacoma Water is apparently related to galvanized service lines and lead fittings known as "goosenecks." SPU says Seattle has 9,000 galvanized services lines -- about 2,000 of those lines are believed to have "gooseneck" fittings.
SPU is contacting a small number of homeowners across the area to take water samples at homes served by galvanized lines to see if there are elevated levels of lead.
Results could be available in as soon as five days, officials said.
High levels of lead found in samples at 4 Tacoma homes
Tacoma Water officials say testing has revealed high levels of lead at water lines leading to four homes and that about 1,700 customers may be affected.
The News Tribune reports that the city informed the state Department of Health about the high levels of lead on Wednesday.
Officials say the source of the problem is sections of lead pipe, called goosenecks, that connect the water main to water meters outside homes. However, one of the four homes tested the week of April 5 did not have a lead gooseneck and still had high levels of lead.
Tacoma Public Utilities official Chris McMeen says lead gooseneck connections are found mostly at homes built in the early 20th century. City records of where the goosenecks were installed aren't clear.