Galvanic corrosion of lead pipes causes increased lead in drinking water

摘要

In many cases, a water utility uses copper pipe to replace its portion of the lead water service pipe that runs from the water main to the property line of a home or building, but the property owner does not replace the portion of the lead service pipe that continues from the property line to the building. This results in a coupling of the utility's new copper pipe with the property owner's existing lead service pipe, which creates a galvanic cell where the lead pipe becomes the anode, the copper pipe becomes the cathode, and the water serves as the electrolyte, explains Daniel Giammar, Ph.D., the Harold D. Jolley Career Development Associate Professor in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering at WUSTL.