Louisville, KY - US Pilot
Dole, France
Vichy, France
Neofit: Passing the Test of Time
US Pilot- Then and Now
The first pilot installation of Neofit+ in the United States occurred in Louisville, KY under the Louisville Water Company in April of 2008. Eight homes had Neofit+ installed in their lead service pipes. During the Neofit+ installations, the homes were also supplied by CSLs and the lead pipes with Neofit+ were left in the ground for future testing and performance evaluations. Nearly eight years later, five of the Neofit+ LSLs could be revisited. This is considered an extreme situation and worst-case scenario, as those pipes with Neofit+ were left idle for eight years. First flush ranged from 1.6 to 3.8µg/L (micrograms per liter), well below the action limit of 15µg/L. After a 48 hour contact period, the results came back as all <2.0, most at <1.0. One outlier was investigated and found an original brass fitting containing lead, after removal of the fitting, the results came back at <2.0.
International History
Outside of the United States, Neofit has been widely used in many European countries. France alone has well over 200,000 lead water services with Neofit, exceeding 2000 miles of pipe. Wessex Water Services of England had been asked in 1996 to follow up on an original install of Neofit from 1991. We were able to track down the information from the pre and post testing. Pre-installation lead levels were 75-110µg/L, well above the action limit of 15µg/L. After installation, the lead levels were tested starting weekly then to monthly over the course of two years. Between October 1991 and the end of sampling in June 1993, 16 of 17 samples were at/below 5µg/L.
Further evidence supporting Neofit in the test of time can be found in Freital, Germany, where a local water supply company (WVW) installed Neofit in 1995. The Neofit protected lead service pipe is still in operation after twenty-three years with consistent satisfactory performance. The water supply company monitored the water quality on a regular basis, indicating the lead content was below 1.0 µg/L.