In 2006, when homeowners at the Seattle Housing Authority’s NewHolly
development requested an investigation from SHA into hot-water pipes
that were leaking into their walls and causing water damage, SHA
responded that it was already working on one. However, homeowners
didn’t receive the report, completed in June 2006, until December 2007,
after residents again asked the agency to look into what was causing
heating pipes to leak into walls at the development. Its findings were
worse than residents could have anticipated: Not only were the pipes at
NewHolly faulty, some of them contained dangerously high levels of
lead—a known neurotoxin that can cause irreversible damage to
young children. SHA spokeswoman Virginia Felton blames the delay in
releasing the report on a bureaucratic snafu.
The culprit responsible for the pipes’ elevated lead levels—as
much as two to three times greater than the maximum levels recommended
by the state for safe drinking water—was a pipe manufacturing
company called IPEX. The company, which is being sued over
deteriorating pipes in class-action lawsuits around the country,
installed the lead-contaminated brass fittings at NewHolly and
elsewhere as late as 2005, when it pulled the fittings from the
market.
Both homeowners and tenants at NewHolly—a mixed-income
redevelopment of public housing that includes both sale and rental
units—have been in the dark about the findings of the report, and
most remain that way; only the homeowners association board has been
privy to the report, and renters have not been informed about the lead
issue. Although someone at SHA has to know about the lead-related
findings, SHA spokeswoman Felton knew nothing about them, indicating
that SHA hasn’t made that particular issue a priority.
As for the leaking pipes, Felton says SHA is moving forward with a
lawsuit—although it’s unclear, at this point, against whom.
Felton says SHA hopes to have collaboration and support from
homeowners, who may file a
lawsuit themselves—currently, if
homeowners want their pipes replaced, they have to do it
on their
own. 