Lead & Drinking Water

If you find you have a lead service line, contact the Regional Water Authority 833-RWA-LEAD (833-792-5323). We will work with you to replace the line at the cost of materials and labor. If you don’t want to replace the lead service line, we will monitor lead levels in your home for up to six months and show you simple things you can do to reduce your exposure to lead in tap water.

Is monitoring for six months enough? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires water producers to adjust the water chemistry during the treatment process to prevent lead and copper from leaching into drinking water. During the treatment process, we add chemicals that create a protective coating inside service lines and household plumbing to stop lead and copper from leaching into tap water. That coating protects the pipe. Typically, the amount of lead in water, even with lead service lines or lead solder, doesn’t change over time unless something disrupts the coating in the pipes. When we see spikes in lead at a customer’s home, it is usually because the customer changed a plumbing fixture.