During the course of operating a residential building in Chicago as a property manager, you may be faced with the question of who is responsibility for ensuring the water you and your residents drink is safe. The short answer is that it is your responsibility to provide your residents with clean, safe, contaminant-free drinking water and to ensure the water stays clean and readily available.
Under the Residential Landlords and Tenants sections 13-196-420 and 5-12-110 of the Municipal Code of Chicago, landlords and property managers must provide safe, clean running water, which includes hot and cold water, and the landlord must maintain the plumbing system and remove any stagnant water from inside the building or on the grounds. Failure to provide these services could allow the Chicago tenant to take certain legal actions against the landlord up to and including terminating their lease early.
Water contamination hazards generally fall into three broad categories, including radiological or radionuclides, biological and chemical. When it comes to the safety of your water, you, as a property manager, can control most of these factors by making sure your pipes are clean, sanitary and free of corrosion.
Most of the contaminants listed above are remedied when your municipal water treatment plant cleans and sanitizes the water, but the water is only as clean as the plumbing pipes in which it travels. If the plumbing pipes in your building are old and corroded, they may be leaching harmful chemicals into your clean water, and that is your responsibility to correct.
After the city treats the water, it may still pick up contaminants along its path. Common contaminants found in residential drinking water at the taps include:
The first step to ensuring the safety of the potable water in your building is getting it tested. Testing your water will tell you if you have high levels of any heavy metals, certain bacteria, like legionellosis and coliform, and pipe corrosion. If the tests find any contaminants in your drinking water, you will want to check the city of Chicago′s most recent water testing results and compare the results of your tests to the city′s results. If your numbers are worse, then your plumbing pipes may be to blame, and you should consider scheduling a building pipe assessment to determine the corrosion levels within your pipes.
The number one destroyer of pipes is corrosion, which is caused by the water flowing through your metal pipes. As the water moves through your pipes, its chemical composition slowly eats away at the pipes, causing pinhole leaks and eventually the failure of your pipes and fittings.
One way to prevent pipe corrosion is to line your pipes with epoxy. Epoxy coatings and pipe liners prevent water from reaching the metal of your plumbing pipes by completely coating and sealing the inside of your potable water pipes. Once the pipe liner is in place, you can feel confident that your Chicago tenants are receiving clean water, and you are extending the useful lives of your existing plumbing pipes.
To learn more about how a pipe liner or pipe coating can improve the quality of your drinking water and extend the useful life of your plumbing system, call us at 815-790-9000.