INDIANAPOLIS — Water systems across Indiana are notifying homeowners they may have potentially dangerous water pipes on their property.
Two of the largest providers in our state, Citizens Energy and Indiana American Water, are mailing out letters to customers notifying them about concerning service lines —lead, galvanized requiring replacement, or unknown.
Public service lines are the pipes that carry the water from the main water line (typically under the street) to the customer’s home.
Citizens Energy provided WRTV with totals for the following service lines:
- Lead: 56,766
- Galvanized Requiring Replacement: 195
- Unknown: 39,935
- No Lead: 277,783
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The new federal lead and copper rules require the replacement of lead pipes within 10 years. It also requires water utilities to notify customers if their service is lead, unknown, or galvanized steel requiring replacement.
“It’s the best rule,” said Onyette Hamiter, a resident of Martindale Brightwood in Indianapolis. “It should have always been in place.”
Citizens Energy replaced Hamiter’s lead service line on her property in September as part of their Lead Service Line Replacement Program.
“I’m relieved,” said Hamiter.
As part of the new federal rules, water utilities were required to submit an initial inventory of lead service lines by October 16.
So far, approximately 1.4 million service lines have been classified as either lead, galvanized requiring replacement, or non-lead, according to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
“We are still reviewing inventories that have been submitted,” said IDEM spokesperson Allen Carter in an email to WRTV. “It may be difficult for utilities to identify the service line material as it is not easily visible. Also, most service connections are partially owned by customers which can make it difficult to gain access for identification and replacement.”
Citizens launched this new online inventory where customers can zoom in on their own houses and determine if they have a lead service line.
Red dots mean lead, dark blue is unknown, yellow is galvanized requiring replacement, and light blue means no lead.
WRTV Investigates showed Hamiter the many red dots in her neighborhood, including her next-door neighbor.
“Wow,” said Hamiter.
WRTV Investigates knocked on her neighbor’s door, but they said they did not speak English.
Citizens Energy spokesperson Benjamin Easley said they are working to fill “an awareness gap” by sending out letters and notifying people about the online inventory tool.
- WRTV Investigates: There's a lot of dots that say unknown. Some are going to say how do you not know what it is?
- Easley: Because it's not Citizens infrastructure. This is infrastructure that is owned by the individual homeowner or building owner who lives above it. We are getting into that best available data, those records that we can find, to put together our best guess of what that inventory looks like.
- WRTV Investigates: How long did this online inventory take Citizens to put together?
- Easley: So, we’ve been working on this project for years. It really is — this is our best guess. If we’re able to confirm it’s made of lead, we will put that in the inventory. If we’re not able to confirm based on historical records and other data, then we will list it as unknown.
- WRTV Investigates: Are you having some people say, 'I do not want you to touch my property?'
- Easley: We are having a few of those conversations. It’s important to note the entire process of replacing a lead service line only takes several hours. You’re not out of service all day or anything like that. and especially if we can do the street at the same time there’s limited impacts to traffic as well.
- WRTV Investigates: What do you say to someone who says, 'I want you to test my water, I’m concerned there’s lead in my drinking water?'
- Easley: We absolutely offer free testing. That information is on our website and people can sign up for free testing.
- WRTV: Some might say why has it taken this long? Would you have done this had it not been for this federal rule?
- Easley: We have been working on this process for several years now, taking in a lot of data and making sure it’s part of one specific inventory. Infrastructure being owned by private citizens is the reason we haven’t been able to do this publicly comprehensive inventory in the past. But yes certainly now with the lead and copper rule revision, public water systems across the country including us are having to pull in that data, put it together, and push out those notifications.
Across the state, water systems are using federal grants to pay for the work, but some are passing at least some of the cost on to their customers.
Citizens Energy says customers pay an additional $3.60 per month for the lead service line replacement program, but it’s not clear how long they’ll be paying for it.
“This line item will be on water bills until the issue of lead service line replacement is fully resolved for our customers,” said Easley.
Easley said they actually have until November 2037 to replace lead service lines and they are pursuing outside funding to accelerate their program. They've already received $21 million in financing through the Indiana Finance Authority.
Citizens Energy hopes to get all notification letters out by the end of the month.
Onyette Hamiter hopes her neighbors pay attention and get their service lines fixed.
“They’re not coming to inspect your home,” said Hamiter. “Let them do what they have to do and come out.”
If you receive a letter from your water system, don’t ignore it. Contact your utility for the next steps.
You can also contact your water system or a private lab to get your water tested at the tap in your home.
A new law took effect July 1 that will speed up the replacement of lead water lines throughout Indiana.
Governor Eric Holcomb signed Senate Bill 5 into law, which enables utility companies to replace lead service lines when property owners are unresponsive.
