Delaware

University of Delaware study IDs 2,000 century-old lead pipes in Wilmington

Published

11 months ago

February 28, 2025

University of Delaware study IDs 2,000 century-old lead pipes in Wilmington

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Hidden beneath Wilmington’s streets for nearly a century, lead pipes have quietly carried water through thousands of homes. But thanks to a recent effort led by University of Delaware researchers and students, the city now has a clearer picture of how widespread the old pipes are, and what needs to happen next.

A team of environmental engineering students, working under Gerald Kauffman, director of the University of Delaware Water Resources Center, conducted careful research into historic city records.

“Out of the 70,000 [connections], the bottom line is working with the city’s consultant, the city’s Department of Public Works and the students, they found that 2,000 of the pipes of the 70,000 are lead,” Kauffman said.

The findings mark a crucial step in identifying and replacing hazardous pipes that could pose health risks to residents.

The unfortunate legacy of lead, why these pipes still exist

The use of lead in water pipes dates back to the late 19th century, when it was a preferred material due to its durability and flexibility.

“Going back to the first water pipes that were actually installed in Wilmington in the late 19th century before the turn of the 20th, many of the pipes were lead. That was a material that was easily molded, and little was known about the health effects,” he said.

Congress banned the use of lead pipes in new construction in 1986. But older cities — particularly in the Northeast — still have remnants of these outdated systems. Last year, the Biden administration issued new rules through the EPA that would require old lead pipes to be replaced.

Most modern homes and renovations now use safer materials like copper, while older neighborhoods remain at risk.

Exposure to lead in drinking water has been linked to serious health issues in a child’s development, including neurological damage. Kauffman pointed out examples like the Flint Michigan’s water crisis that underscored the dangers of lead contamination, making identification and replacement of these pipes a high priority.

How UD students helped map Wilmington’s lead problem

The project began when Wilmington’s Department of Public Works approached the University of Delaware Resources Center for assistance. Using decades-old, handwritten public records, students worked to identify where lead pipes were most likely located.

“The idea was to go through the maps that the city has, and we have GIS maps in our office in Newark, and go through all the repair books, the plumbers, the inspectors that the city would send out to work with the homeowners to fix the pipes,” Kauffman said, describing it as a tedious process. “This is physically pouring through these old, handwritten plumbing repair records, and cursive writing and abbreviations … some of these go back to 1926.”

The findings were significant — not just in scale, but in their impact on cost-saving efforts. Instead of the city having to dig up lawns and streets to locate lead pipes manually, the students’ work provided a targeted list of affected homes.

“My estimate is that the students saved the city about $15 million,” he said.

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Delaware

Wilmington’s first homicide of 2026 claims life of 19-year-old

Published

8 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

Wilmington’s first homicide of 2026 claims life of 19-year-old

A 19-year-old man was shot dead in Wilmington’s Southbridge neighborhood in the early hours of Jan. 9, police said.

Wilmington officers arriving to the 200 block of S. Claymont St. about 3:30 a.m. found the teen there.

The teen, whom police have not named, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Anyone with information about this shooting should contact Wilmington Police Detective Derek Haines at (302) 576-3656. People can also provide information to Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) TIP-3333 or delawarecrimestoppers.com.

Violence by the numbers

This is the first homicide reported this year in Delaware, which last year saw a slight drop in all violent killings.

Delaware police reported 52 people being killed in violent crimes in 2025, a drop of nearly 12% when compared with 59 people killed in 2024, according to a Delaware Online/The News Journal database.

While the number of people killed in homicides statewide is down, the number of people killed by gunfire in Delaware was up in 2025 for the third year in a row.

According to the Delaware Online database, 47 were shot dead in Delaware last year. That was one more victim (46) than in 2024, three more (44) than in 2023 and nine more (38) than in 2022.

Despite the increase in gun-related deaths, there were fewer people shot last year in Delaware for the second year in a row.

Police reported 164 people being shot last year in Delaware. The previous year saw 195 people shot and police reported 210 people being shot in 2023.

This was the fewest people shot in Delaware since 2018, when police reported 146 people being shot statewide.

Send tips or story ideas to Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.

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Delaware

MERR responds to dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach

Published

20 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

MERR responds to dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach

A dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach on Jan. 8, according to the nonprofit Marine Education Research and Rehabilitation Institute.

The juvenile male was first seen Jan. 6, floating at sea about 2 miles off the Indian River Inlet, a MERR Facebook post said. The bloated 30-foot whale ultimately beached near a private community in the early afternoon of Jan. 8, the post said.

MERR is attempting to coordinate with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to get equipment to move the whale out of the water and onto the beach to perform a necropsy, the post said. Right now, there isn’t enough information to determine a cause of death.

Delaware saw at least three dead whales last year, in the Indian River Bay, at Delaware Seashore State Park and at Pigeon Point. The first two were humpbacks, while the Pigeon Point whale was a fin whale.

A necropsy on the Delaware Seashore whale found blunt force trauma across its back, indicating it may have been struck by a ship, MERR Director Suzanne Thurman said.

Recently, on Jan. 4, a dead fin whale was found on the bow of a ship at the Gloucester Marine Terminal in New Jersey, which is located in the Port of Philadelphia on the Delaware River.

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Facebook.

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Delaware

Pa. man accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from Delco cemetery

Published

1 day ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Pa. man accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from Delco cemetery

A Pennsylvania man is accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from a cemetery in Delaware County.

Jonathan Gerlach, 34, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, is charged with abuse of corpse, criminal mischief, burglary and other related offenses, Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse revealed on Thursday, Jan. 8.

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Between November 2025 and Jan. 6, 2026, 26 mausoleums and underground burial sites had been burglarized or desecrated at Mount Moriah Cemetery, which stretches from Yeadon Borough, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia, investigators said.

As police investigated the thefts, they caught Gerlach desecrating a monument at the cemetery on Tuesday, Jan. 6, according to officials. Gerlach was taken into custody and investigators executed a search warrant at his home in Ephrata.

During the search, investigators recovered 100 human skeletons from Gerlach’s home as well as eight more human remains inside a storage locker, according to Rouse.

“Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life the other night guys,” Rouse said. “This is an unbelievable scene that no one involved – from myself to the detectives to the medical examiners that are now trying to piece together what they are looking at, quite literally – none of them have ever seen anything like this before.”

Rouse said some of the stolen skeletons are hundreds of years old.

“We are trying to figure out exactly what we are looking at,” Rouse said. “We quite simply at this juncture are not able to date and identify all of them.”

Rouse also said some of the skeletons are of infants and children.

“It is truly, in the most literal sense of the word, horrific,” Rouse said. “I grieve for those who are upset by this who are going through it who are trying to figure out if it is in fact their loved one or their child because we found remains that we believe to be months old infants among those that he had collected. Our hearts go out to every family that is impacted by this.”

Sources also told NBC10 the thefts are related to a similar case in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Investigators said they are looking at Gerlach’s online community — including his social media groups and Facebook page — to determine if people were buying, selling, or trading the remains.

Gerlach is currently in custody at the Delaware County Prison after failing to post $1 million bail. Online court records don’t list an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

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