Electro Scan's SWORDFISH Lead Detection Solution Named Top Innovation by Sacramento Business Journal

Machine-Intelligent Hand Tool from Sacramento-based Electro Scan Remains Only Product to Accurately Locate Lead Pipe to Ensure Safe Drinking Water.

SACRAMENTO, CA, UNITED STATES, November 14, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Sacramento Business Journal announced today that Electro Scan Inc. was named Top Innovation for its patented and patent-pending SWORDFISH machine-intelligent buried lead pipe detection solution.

The award recognizes and celebrates innovation in the Sacramento region  and was presented earlier today by Lokesh Sikaria, Founder & General Partner, Moneta Ventures at The Harper Alumni Center, California State University, Sacramento.

"The Electro Scan team is honored to receive this prestigious award," stated Chuck Hansen, Chairman & CEO, Electro Scan Inc.

Earlier this week Electro Scan, in association with Element 82 & PE Pipelines, both divisions of Crown Electrokinetics Corp. (NASDAQ: CRKN), sponsored a webinar on the EPA's recently passed Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI) which becomes effective December 20, 2024.

The 60-minute webinar may be viewed in its entirety on the Electro Scan YouTube Channel with its associated slide stack available for download.

"The water industry is currently in the midst of a multi-generational challenge to accurately locate lead water service lines that causes lower IQ test scores, high blood pressure, birth defects, and dementia," stated Hansen.

"And Electro Scan products & services are proud to be the only commercially available solution to identify lead pipe locations, without digging," continued Hansen.

In 2020, the Water Research Foundation published Lead Service Line Identification Techniques (Project No. 4693), that assessed over a dozen technologies that attempted to detect buried lead pipes, including acoustic, visual inspection, ground penetrating radar, metal detectors, stress wave propagation, and x-ray devices.

The study found no commercially available technology that could accurately identify or locate copper, galvanized, plastic, and lead pipes.

A second study was published by the Water Research Foundation entitled Evaluation of Lead Pipe Detection by Electrical Resistance Measurement (Project No. 4698) that confirmed the ability to differentiate lead and copper pipes.

Founded in 2011, Electro Scan has focused on applying electrical resistance testing on locating and measuring the severity of water pipe leaks in larger diameter water and sewer pipes, but needed to reengineer its product to assess pipe materials in 1/2 inch (12.7mm) diameter pipes.

Lead water services were banned in 1986 by the EPA, but homes built before the 1950s represent the highest risk for still having lead water service lines.

In accordance with mandates issued by the EPA which started under President Trump's first administrations, letters to over 875,000 Sacramento metro households are expected to be mailed to homeowners over the next few days informing them of their preliminary lead service line inventory status.

Similar letters must be mailed in the next week to all U.S. homeowners by the +40,000 water drinking water providers.

Including the pipe material for both utility-owned and privately-owned water service lines, by specific house address, legislation requires water customers to be notified whether their water services are Non-Lead, Lead, Galvanized Requiring Replacement, or Unknown pipe materials.

It is estimated that over 100 million water services in the U.S. are still Unknown, with the majority located on private property which is now the responsibility of local water companies to validate and verify in accordance with recently passed EPA laws.

"Sacramento, California, for example, has more homes than Flint, Michigan that were built before 1949 [37,414 homes built before 1949 in Sacramento compared to 15,086 in Flint]," stated Hansen.

While several California water utilities have worked diligently to complete accurate underground inventories, many utilities have either misinterpreted or misunderstood national and statewide guidelines limiting their surveys to visual inspections of open water meter boxes and hose bibs.

In fact, without inspecting the buried pipe(s) that connect a home to their respective municipal water main, utilities can easily misrepresent a homeowner's water service category.

California homeowners and businesses should contact their local water utility, California State Water Resources Control Board, or State representative, to ensure that proper inspection methods are completed; especially in homes built before 1986.

States will have until March 31, 2025 to consolidate preliminary inventory results and report them to the EPA, but ratepayers and homeowners are able to request water utilities to re-verify their initial pipe materials within 60-days after their request.

Tomorrow, Hansen will appear on Fox40 TV's Studio 40 Live, airing from 10:00 AM -11:00 AM Pacific Time, to showcase his company's solutions and advise homeowners on how water utilities should be conducting proper inspections of water service lines to ensure lead-free drinking water.

Understanding the health risks due to prolonged exposure to lead in our drinking water, U.S. water utilities began adding orthophosphates into our drinking water supplies in 2001 to limit the leaching of lead into water delivered to our homes.

Additives must be added at the local water treatment plant since no accurate records or maps exist that show where lead pipes are located, either utility-owned or privately-owned.

“We take pride in our team’s great work and this recognition speaks volumes on how communities value our innovations we've created," stated Mike App, Executive Vice President, Electro Scan Inc.  "We are grateful for having an elite team of water experts to help improve water quality.”

Overseeing SWORDFISH service projects throughout the country., Mike App is currently managing the largest lead pipe investigation in the U.S. where Electro Scan is working with the City of Baltimore to inspect an initial 10,000 homes using SWORDFISH.

ABOUT ELECTRO SCAN INC.
Founded in 2011, Electro Scan is an international supplier of machine-intelligent pipeline assessment and quality assurance products and services for the water, sewer, and oil & gas markets. The company designs, develops, and markets proprietary equipment and SaaS-based cloud applications that automatically locates, measures, and reports pipeline leaks and water service line pipe materials, including lead pipes. The company's products and professional services detect buried lead water services on a house-by-house basis, typically not found by legacy inspection methods.

Janine Mullinix
Electro Scan Inc.
+1 916-779-0660
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