The Lehigh County Board of Commissioners continue to take proactive, legislative steps to ensure City of Allentown residents are aware of possible lead service lines within the city.

The board passed a resolution 6-3 at its April 27 meeting asking the Lehigh County Authority to send immediate notification to 15,000 customers known to have, or suspected to have, lead service lines.

Board Chairman Brad Osborne and commissioners Thomas Creighton and Dan Hartzell voted against the resolution.

“There are 5,000 LCA service lines that are known to be made of lead in the City of Allentown,” Commissioner Michael Schware told the board. “There’s another 10,000 of unknown composition that seem to be made of lead.”

Schware referred to a report presented April 13 by LCA Chief Executive Officer Liesel Gross on the quality of the county’s drinking water.

While 15,000 may not seem like a large number of households affected, Schware noted it is important to keep in mind there may be four-person households, or larger apartments, possibly serviced by a lead service line.

“We’re talking a lot of people, potentially, that might be served by a lead service line,” he stressed.

The initial resolution presented by the board requested LCA to offer testing to customers upon request and disclose those results to the public.

According to Schware, LCA has agreed to offer testing to customers upon request, with the cost passed on to the customer and make the results of the tests public.

“That’s a good step in the right direction,” he said.

However, Schware said providing notification to 15,000 customers is “an important issue” that also needs to be addressed.

Schware also referred to a recent health report, which outlined the damaging affects lead exposure has on the mental and physical development of young children.

“The numbers in that health report are startling,” he said.

Osborne said he voted against the resolution because LCA, which is an independent entity consisting of experts in the field, has a notification plan already in place, which it has committed to executing. LCA is also offering water testing to customers upon request and has updated its website with pertinent information.

“I’m comfortable with LCA’s decision in how they plan to proceed with this subject,” he said.

The plan, he added, “will address the concerns that we all have in the community.”

Creighton concurred with Osborne, adding, the board should not micromanage LCA.

“LCA has been managing the water for a long time,” Creighton said.