Lead Protection for Longmont Water

A water “service line” is the piping that connects the City’s water main in the water distribution system to a building or a home’s plumbing.  

It is a service line made of lead or any lead materials, which can introduce lead into your drinking water, especially when water sits in the pipes for an extended time.  

The Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) is a federal regulation established by the EPA in 1991 to minimize lead and copper levels in drinking water. It requires water utilities to monitor tap water at customers’ homes, control corrosion in lead and copper pipes, and take remedial actions when action levels are exceeded. 

Longmont began testing for lead in drinking water in the 1980s and results have consistently been below regulatory limits. 

The LCRR is an update to the original LCR made by the EPA in 2021 with an aim of improving protections against lead and copper in drinking water. It focuses on reducing lead exposure through stronger testing, more comprehensive lead service line replacement, improved public education, requires systems to create a Lead Service Line Inventory (LSLI), and increases transparency and communication.  

To comply with the Lead and Copper Rule Revision (LCRR), the City of Longmont completed an in-depth investigation of the City’s water service lines which included:  

• A review of all available historical records related to existing water lines   

• A verification of pipe material for a representative number of service lines  

• An evaluation of the reliability of historical records review  

• The submission of Longmont’s “non-lead” classification to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment 

Responsibility for replacing lead service lines is typically shared between the water utility and the homeowner. The portion of the line owned by the utility (from the water main to the property line) is the utility’s responsibility, while the portion on private property (from the property line to your home) is usually the homeowner’s responsibility. 

You can inspect the service line where it enters your home. Here’s how:

1. Locate the Service Line: The water service line typically enters the home in the basement, crawl space, or near your water meter. 
2. Inspect the Pipe: 

• • Lead is soft and dull gray. To check if it’s lead, carefully scratch the surface with a key or coin. If it’s lead, the scratch area will reveal a shiny, silvery-colored metal.  

• • Copper is a reddish-brown metal and will not scratch in the same way as lead 

• • Galvanized steel pipes are grayish and magnetic. You can test this by holding a magnet to the pipe. If it sticks, the pipe is likely galvanized steel. 

• • Plastic service lines are typically white, blue, or black and are not made of lead. 

You can check the age of your home. The federal government, through the Safe Drinking Water Act, banned the use of lead pipes, solder, and fixtures in new plumbing and in plumbing repairs in 1986. In addition, as of 1981, the City of Longmont prohibited lead as a material for water system construction. There is a very low chance of having lead plumbing within homes built after 1981. 

You can also hire a licensed plumber to inspect the service line and confirm the material. Additionally, they can check your internal plumbing for lead components. 

No. The process of creating an inventory involves different methods of determining the material of service lines such as records review; visual inspections through backflow prevention inspections, water meter installations, and service line repair/replacement; and customer surveys. The Colorado State Department of Public Health and Environment further outlined a statistical process to assess the presence of lead service lines in a utility’s system. This process uses the Z-test, which is used to draw conclusions about a broader population of service lines within the system from a smaller, randomly selected number of service lines. If no lead is found within this selected number of service lines, process results in a 95% confidence that no lead exists in the system. 

To build confidence in the “non-lead” determination and to remain diligent, the City continues to verify service line materials through ongoing and regular maintenance of our system, waterline replacement projects, water permits, and opportunistic records review.  

The City is committed to continually updating our service line inventory. We do this by actively gathering information about service line materials from the following year-round tasks:  

• Pipe inspections through regular maintenance activities like meter pit inspections or meter replacements. 

• Information from building permits where contractors are required to verify in-home piping materials 

• Information gathered from annual waterline replacement projects. 

If any lead service lines are found through these activities, additional investigations will take place in coordination with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. 

CDPHE – Colorado Department of Health and Environment  

EPA – Environmental Protection Agency 

LSL – Lead Service Line
 

LSLI – Lead Service Line Inventory 

LCR – Lead and Copper Rule, a federal regulation established by the EPA in 1991 to minimize lead and copper levels in drinking water.
 

LCRR – Lead and Copper Rule Revision, an update to the original LCR made by the EPA in 2021 with an aim of improving protections against lead and copper in drinking water. 

Z-test – Statistical approach which allows conclusions to be made despite uncertainty, typically by using data from a sample to make inferences about an entire population. This process establishes a 95% confidence level.