City to Notify Customers with Lead Water Service Lines - Lead Water Service Line Inventory Completed
Mayor Malik D. Evans announced today that the City Water Bureau has submitted its Lead Water Service Line Inventory to the N.Y. State Department of Health, meeting the first major milestone of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s lead in drinking water regulations. In conjunction with the submission, the City will begin notifying all customers with service lines that have been identified as containing lead, or unknown material. The letters include helpful information residents can use to identify when their street is scheduled to have its lead service lines replaced. It also contains information on how to minimize lead in drinking water.
“We are making tremendous progress to remove every lead water service line,” said Mayor Evans. “As we do so, we are providing residents with the information they need to ensure their drinking water is as healthy and safe as possible. These notices are meant to inform, rather than alarm our residents, about the presence of lead pipes in a water system that is almost 150 years old. I take pride that Rochester is a national leader in the removal of lead from our municipal drinking water supply.”
The water service line inventory and notices are a component of the City’s “Get the Lead Out Together” program to remove all lead containing water service lines by 2030. Information about the City’s nationally recognized program can be found at www. cityofrochester.gov/lead, where residents can look up the material of their water service line, get information about water quality, and get updates on current lead service line replacement projects.
By Nov. 1, the City’s Water Bureau will begin sending notices by mail to approximately 13,000 customers whose water service lines have been identified to contain lead; 3,300 whose service lines have been identified to contain galvanized steel formerly downstream of a lead service and another 17,000 customers whose water service lines are made from an unknown material. Customers whose service lines are made from materials that don’t create a risk of lead exposure, such as copper or plastic, will not receive a notice.
The EPA requirements are part of a national movement to remove lead materials from all communities. In January 2023, Mayor Evans participated in a panel discussion on local concerns at the White House Lead Pipe Summit.
To date, the City has replaced more than 8,100 lead service lines and is on track to remove nearly 3,000 lead lines per year with more than $100 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill with support from the N.Y. State Department of Health and the N.Y. State Environmental Facilities Corp.