​When Palm Beach County Water Utilities Department (WUD) needed assistance with a research project,   their Environmental, Health and Safety group reached out to the Building Division.

WUD’s EHS Lead and Copper Rule Revision project team, led by Diana Pelc, Environmental Program Supervisor, was performing an investigation in support of the utility’s Lead Service Line Inventory,   a requirement of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Lead and Copper Rule Revision. Nationwide, all water utilities must complete an inventory of their service line connections, and in Palm Beach County, WUD is responsible for over 215,000 connections which serve more than 635,000 residents!  Specifically with the help of the Building Division, they were determining when, as per Plumbing Code, Palm Beach County no longer allowed lead as a pipe material.

Commercial Plans Examiner Richie Rosales and colleagues reviewed old code books to see what the standards were in the 1970s and 1980s, prior to when lead was banned nationwide in 1989. They also researched permit histories and met with the group to determine that as per code, Palm Beach County had taken a proactive and forward-looking approach in eliminating lead as a permitted service line material, well before the nationwide ban took place!

The Palm Beach County Building Division is committed to ensuring life and property safety within our community in the built environment through efficient and effective administration of the enacted building codes, and by taking a leadership role in code development and education.

(L-R) WUD’s Diana Pelc, Lorenzo Catalan, Joshua Mora and Bret Hammell with Building Division’s Richie Rosales.

L-r: WUD intern Lorenzo Catalan, Environmental Program Supervisor Diana Pelc, Contract Plans Examiner Peter Bischoff, Richie Rosales, Bret Hammell, and WUD intern Joshua Mora.