INDIANAPOLIS — The neighbors of Martindale-Brightwood could be getting their lead pipes replaced courtesy of Citizens Energy Group.
The Indianapolis utility company is providing replacement water lines to older homes that could still be using lead-based pipes.
Exposure to lead in water has been shown to cause many health issues.
The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that over 260,000 Hoosiers could still have lead-based water lines in operation.
This is infrastructure that's under the ground but that the homeowner uses regularly to access that public water system and so if they were to switch it out on their own, it would be very expensive,” said Citizens Energy spokesperson Ben Easley.
“That's why Citizens' lead service line replacement program is coming through house by house in Martindale-Brightwood and then future neighborhoods to pull those out for our customers.”
Each block could take up to two and a half weeks to complete.
Easley says the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood is the largest the company has undertaken so far but they look forward to providing this free service for all their customers.
“If you are a citizen's customer and you have a lead service line, we are coming for it,” Easley said.
You can learn more about the project by visiting the Citizens Energy Group website.
