Lead pipe has been banned in the drinking water distribution system in most countries since 1980s. Water authorities have tried to replace old lead pipes in the public area but those belong to private properties remain intact due to high cost and difficulties to access these pipelines. In such partial replacement, galvanic corrosion could occur and result in more serious lead release due to the connection of lead and other metals such as copper and stainless steel. Moreover, lead pipe may have more than one galvanic connections due to the various metal plumbing materials used in the premise plumbing system. The release of lead resulting from galvanic corrosion in the three-metal system consisting of lead (Pb), copper (Cu) and stainless steel (SS) with three different configurations, namely Pb-SS-Cu, Pb-Cu-SS and SS-Pb-Cu was investigated in this study. The results show that the lead release in the Pb-SS-Cu configuration with opposite directions of electron transport (e→  ←e-) was the lowest, followed by SS-Pb-Cu (←e-  e-→) and Pb-Cu-SS with fluent electron transport (e-→  e-→). The galvanic currents measured for each configuration provide some evidences to support the lead releases observed for each condition.<br/>

Lead release resulting from galvanic corrosion in a three-metal system consisting of lead, copper and stainless steel in drinking water

255th National Meeting (2018)

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