BY ADAM ATKINSONNorth Country This Week

POTSDAM — Village officials have fielded several complaints about missed appointments by the firm testing residential water lines for lead and are working with the main contractor and the testing firm to resolve the issue.  

Village Administrator Isabelle Gates-Shult told village board members at their meeting Aug. 19 that of the 285 homes slated for testing so far by the firm ElectroScan, 136 inspections were abandoned because of a needed valve replacement on the lines, and 149 completed. Of those completed, two homes were found with lead in the water lines.

“With the fact that we have detected lead in a couple of homes, we are encouraging residents to please get your appointments scheduled with ElectroScan to have your water tested,” Gates-Shult said. The administrator pointed out that the tests were free.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is requiring municipalities to identify lead sections from the service pipe lines feeding residences. Sections containing lead can then be removed by the village over the next decade as required by the EPA.

Cost of the inspection is 100 percent covered thanks to a million dollar grant received by the village. There is no cost to residents.

The village was awarded a grant for just over a million dollars to pay 100 percent of the inventory project.

Barton & Loguidice is the main firm handling the project and is subcontracting the testing portion of the lateral service line inspection out to national company ElectroScan Inc.

Inspectors use electrical resistance to analyze the material used in the village’s roughly 1400 service laterals to residences and businesses. The inspection is considered one of the least invasive methods to detect lead in the lines.

David Powers from the Watertown engineering firm Barton & Loguidice told the board that about 20 percent of the needed inspections have been started but about 10 percent have been completed.

“So we need to hammer getting notifications out to the public,” Powers told the board.

Discussion on the issue moved to some complaints that village officials have been receiving from the public regarding no-shows by ElectroScan at scheduled inspection appointments.

“With ElectroScan, we’ve had some challenges in the past week and heard from a couple of people, including some trustees here, that the crew didn’t show because I think it ended up, turned up, there was illness I think,” Village Mayor Alexandra Jacobs Wilke told Powers.

“It’s just a challenge because we have had residents who have set this up and taken time out of the day,” Wilke said. “I don’t know if you have any insights into that?”

The mayor said the inspections are important to residents for a couple reasons. Wilke said residents who scheduled an appointment first want to know if they have lead in their lines for health reasons. Second, if a residence doesn’t have lead in its service lines, its better to find out with the noninvasive electric scanning service now instead of in a few years when the village might be federally mandated to check the lines manually if the scan can’t be done.

“So it’s a good thing to do, but I hate to keep pushing this when we have people who are setting up appointments and then waiting and then something happens. I’m not thinking that’s the majority of the cases but it is frustrating to hear that that has happened,” the mayor said.

Powers said he reached out to ElectroScan after receiving an email notification of the missed appointments the Friday before the village meeting on Aug. 19.

“Apparently the crew came down with illness and they had to reach out to those folks. Quite obviously they didn’t. So, you know, I stressed again that communication was key,” Powers said.

Trustee Steve Warr confirmed that an inspection crew didn’t show up for one of his neighbors who had an appointment scheduled. Trustee Monique Tirion said in one case the appointment had been made for two months but only 20 minutes notice was given before the scheduled time. Tirion said in another case no notification was given that the appointment would be canceled.

“Most people, who have a strict schedule from 9 to 5 are going to be bent out of shape, rightfully so,” Tirion said. “It doesn’t come across as a very serious effort that we make.”

“I think I speak for myself, that I’m a little disappointed with ElectroScan’s reliability,” Tirion said.

“Well I will certainly pass it along. They’ve had a few communication breakdowns to this point, which in an effort like this is paramount. So I will stress it again,” Powers said.

Powers said he would look into the issue further with the company’s main supervisor.

Gates-Shult said if the company knows they are not going to be doing inspections due to illness, they could also contact the village offices directly and the village could at least put a notification on its website or social media page.

“I am also very disappointed with the communication. I feel this has been since the beginning. It’s very hard for people to take this seriously when these things happen,” Gates-Shult said. “Here we are trying to go out of our way to try to reach more people when the rumor mill is that they are not showing up. So why would people sign up?”

Gates-Shult suggested that village officials could have a meeting with ElectroScan officials to clear the air on the issue.

Powers said he would schedule it.