Community testing in Dublin finds almost half of homes with some level of lead in tap water

Valerie Vetter was surprised, she says, when test results showed the tap water in her home has lead. 

She and her husband had major works done a decade ago to the period home on Shandon Park, a quiet leafy terraced street in Phibsboro.

Part of that work was replacing the pipes, she says.  “We thought they had done all of them.”

Still, she was glad to know, she says. Now she can work out what to do.

Vetter’s household was one of 95 homes across Dublin to have their water tested and results relayed as part of a project run by researchers at the AMEND project at University College Dublin and Dundalk Institute of Technology. 

It is also among the 18 households – about 20 percent of those tested – for which results showed more than 5 micrograms of lead per litre (μg/l) of water.

She took two samples. The first came back with 8.9μg/l of lead. The second, taken after the tap had run a while, was 5.4μg/l, she says.

The current legal limit for lead in water is 10μg/l. But the latest Drinking Water Directive from the European Union sets a lower threshold of 5μg/l, although member states have until 2036 to meet that.

However, “the literature says that there is no safe level”, says Jeremy Auerbach, an assistant professor at University College Dublin who runs the AMEND project. 

Lead is especially harmful to pregnant women, children under six years old, and those who are immunocompromised. 

A technical briefing from the World Health Organisation notes that “uncertainties remain in the epidemiology of lead exposure” but “every effort should be made to maintain lead levels in drinking-water as low as reasonably practical”.

Regulations are moving slowly towards a goal of no lead in water, says Auerbach.

At the moment, though, 45 of the 95 homes in Phibsboro, the Liberties, and Dolphin’s Barn – so almost half of them – had some lead in the water, the results show.

On many fronts

Vetter, who is involved in Phibsboro Tidy Towns, says that when the group teamed up with the AMEND project to do this, they were conscious that they wanted to get a diverse set of households involved in the neighbourhood. 

Not just owner-occupiers but also renters, and newer homes and older homes, she said. “So we did have a good range.”

The AMEND researchers have also run tests in social housing complexes, including Oliver Bond, Dolphin House, and Cromcastle Court.

When the results came back in Phibsboro, people asked about patterns and whether the oldest homes came out the worst, Vetter says. 

But the picture was far from that simple, she said. For two homes on the same street, built at the same time, one could show low lead and the other high lead, she said. 

That’s because of the many routes in play, she says. “The lead can come in, in a variety of ways.”

How lead gets in tap water

Lead can corrode into drinking water from three main sections of the piping network, he said, says Auerbach, the researcher. 

It could be from the public-side network, he said. Although, Irish Water says it has updated that all and there’s no lead piping in those mains, he says.

It could come from the service connection, the link between the public network and the system within people’s homes, he said. 

But they are short and Irish Water is currently updating service lines, he said. “If you have a short service line, it’s unlikely you’ll have seepage.”

Thirdly, there’s the old piping within people’s homes. It could leech from lead solder or the pipes themselves, he says.

Auerbach says his team have recommended that those with positive results for lead in the water get a second round of testing done. 

They’re confident in the results, he said, but just to be totally water tight.

Busy lives

One goal of the project is to heighten awareness of lead in drinking water as a public-health issue, says Auerbach. 

“Awareness would be great. Awareness would be the first thing,” he says. 

Next comes moving from awareness to testing and dealing with it. That can be a challenge for households.

Vetter, the Phibsboro resident with lead in her home’s water, often thought about testing for lead but never got to it, she says. “You’re busy, it’s a hassle.”

The AMEND project was a vital nudge, she says.

Auerbach says one way to scale up testing could be to make it mandatory to test for lead when a house is sold. It could also be mandatory before a home is rented, he said.

Getting tap water tested for lead by lab can cost more than €100, and involves getting a pot in the post, filling it with water, and posting it back.

The government has a grant scheme to help homeowners with the cost of replacing lead pipes and fittings within homes. 

It was updated in 2022 to make it more accessible, says a spokesperson for the Department of Housing. They ditched means-testing and it now covers 100 percent of the costs, up to €5,000, they said.

Costs can easily top that, though, show quotes from plumbers.

Renters can apply for the grant scheme if they have permission from their landlords, the guidelines say.

The Department of Housing paid out 47 grants nationally in 2023 and 134 in 2024, the spokesperson said. 

Vetter says she thinks covering costs can still be a barrier even with the grant. “You have to shell out and claim it back. That’s beyond a lot of people.”

She is conscious that renters are in a different position too, she says. “The dynamics around that are a bit more challenging.”

Many of the homes tested as part of this project were being rented from the council, in two flats complexes.

At the Dolphin House social housing complex, four of the 27 homes tested had lead levels above 5μg/l, and seven more had some lead but below 5μg/l. 

At the Oliver Bond House social housing complex, none of the 23 homes tested had lead above 5μg/l, but eight had some level below 5μg/l.

In 2019, Dublin City Council engaged a contractor to look at 440 of its social homes that it considered high-risk for lead and assess them for lead piping. 

“Where lead was found, it was changed to a plastic pipe”, according to a response to an FOI. It didn’t give a number.

It also switches out lead pipes that it may find as it does up social homes that fall vacant, the response says. 

And, Irish Water has surveyed council stock, it says. “The percentage of lead piping that we have found in our housing stock was very small to the number of surveys carried out.”

State (in)action

A decade ago, the government published a national strategy to reduce the exposure of people in Ireland to lead in drinking water. 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has criticised the speed of work. 

The Department of Housing hasn’t published its report on the progress of the strategy. 

So, among other things, the number and location of public buildings affected, the number of people exposed, and plans to remove lead are still not known, said an EPA report on drinking water quality in 2023. 

That progress report still hasn’t been published in the years since.

A spokesperson for the Department of Housing said officials are reviewing the progress made to date on the strategy. That review should be done by the end of September, they said.

The review will include progress on actions in the strategy, challenges that are blocking progress, and any new actions needed to meet that new goal of less than 5μg/l in drinking water before 2036, they said.

The Department of Housing spokesperson didn’t directly address a query as to the idea of bringing drinking water quality more explicitly under minimum standards for rental and social homes. 

The European Union’s Drinking Water Directive and associated regulations set minimum standards that apply to all properties, said the spokesperson. 

Vetter is now looking at buying a gravity filter to clean up her tap water, she says. She is more aware of the lead day to day, she says.

She has never bought bottled water and doesn’t want to start, she says. “It’s too much plastic.”

“I have bought more fruit juice in cartons,” says Vetter.

She has no small children in the house or anybody who is immuno-compromised, she says, so that’s lucky.