Cities Seeking Volunteers for Water Test : Health: Several Orange County communities face a federal deadline to analyze samples for lead and copper.

Caught in violation of federal law, several Orange County cities are scrambling to identify residents who will allow their tap water to be monitored semiannually for lead and copper.

Last week, 45 public water agencies in California--including Westminster, Santa Ana, Tustin and Fullerton--were told by the the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that they failed to sample home tap water for the two dangerous substances by July as required. The EPA on Friday gave the cities until the end of October to comply or request a hearing.

Water managers of Santa Ana, Fullerton and Tustin explained Monday that they had trouble getting enough residents of high-risk homes to voluntarily collect samples of their tap water. But they vowed to be more persistent.

“We lost a little control of the process, which we have now corrected. . . . In retrospect we should have proceeded more aggressively,” said Lee Harry, water resources manager for Santa Ana.

The law requires water suppliers to use extraordinary methods to test for the two substances. Unlike other pollutants, lead and copper must be sampled at household taps because the substances are not a problem until the water passes through home plumbing systems that contain copper pipes or lead solder.

High-risk homes are those with plumbing installed between 1982 and 1987.

Earlier this year, Santa Ana city officials went door to door to homes that met the high-risk criteria and asked people to collect samples of their tap water. More than 100 agreed, but only 41 actually did it--less than half the 100 samples required by the EPA.

“People agreed to it, then forgot, and we made the mistake of not getting their phone numbers to follow through,” Harry said.

Harry said Santa Ana is even going as far as giving away a free city commemorative T-shirt to residents who volunteer. Harry said 250 households have been asked to participate, and he now envisions no problem in getting the required 100.

Tustin has only 185 homes with plumbing built within the high-risk period, and “as of this date, only 47 people have agreed to allow us into their homes to take samples,” said Gary Veeh, Tustin’s water services manager. The city needs a total of 60.

“We’re going to continue to be persistent and try to get them to agree,” Veeh said. “Our goal is to get it done by Oct. 30. I’m not sure we’ll make it.”

Larry Sears, water system engineer in Fullerton, said the city began the program sluggishly because of initial confusion over who would administer the program and whether the deadlines would be enforced. Then, like Santa Ana and Tustin, Fullerton had problems finding enough homes that qualify as high-risk.

The city of Fullerton sent out newsletters and notices with bills, but “of the volunteers who came in, we only had three that fit into that window,” Sears said.

On Monday, Fullerton city officials delivered bottles to 97 homes, and they now expect to collect enough to satisfy the EPA’s rule.

The fourth city--Westminster--violated the deadline because of a filing error. Although all the samples were collected, they were reported incorrectly to the EPA and will be refiled by the end of the month, said the city’s water superintendent.