Lead and Copper Rule
Lewes BPW wants to keep you in the loop about an essential program happening in our community. We have been working with 120 Water to develop a Service Line Inventory in accordance with the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule recent revision. The goal of the EPA and Lewes BPW is to better protect our community’s drinking water through information.
Lewes BPW is asking our customers for help with identifying their private lines. Lewes BPW has produced a survey that walks customers through the identification process and makes it easy for them to submit their results. We continue to ask our customers to take our survey by visiting 120water.formstack.com/forms/lewesboardofpublicworks
What is an Initial Service Line Inventory?
In 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revised the Lead & Copper Rule (LCRR) to include a new requirement that all water utilities across the country must create initial inventories of their water service lines and connections to find any lead service line or connection that may exist in a water system. Water service lines have two parts, one owned by the BPW, and one owned by the customer. Ownership switches at the curb stop, which can usually be found at the property line. These inventories must also include the customers’ side of the water meter.
Should there be concern about not knowing what the service line is made?
It is important to note that finding a line of unknown material does not mean you have been exposed to lead. Lewes BPW’s treatment process greatly reduces the possibility lead from service lines could end up in your water. We perform routine water testing to ensure the treatment is effective and our results are published in our Water Quality Report.
What is Lewes BPW doing to try to identify what the service lines are made of?
Lewes BPW will continue our inventory work until all service lines are identified. Because our water treatment process is confirmed to be working properly throughout our system, Lewes BPW is not replacing unknown lines as we work to identify them.
To help with the inventory process, Lewes BPW has created an online service line inventory survey you can take part in to help us determine the material making up your service line. Found on our website – www.lewesbpwde.gov – the survey provides an easy-to-use process to enable you to determine if you have a lead, galvanized, or non-lead service line.
Next Steps
Using the initial results, Lewes BPW will continue its development of a fair and equitable replacement plan, as required by the LCRR. This work will also enable Lewes BPW’s future compliance with the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI) announced on October 8th by the Biden Administration. Under the LCRI, the nation’s water utilities are required to remove all lead service lines and galvanized service lines requiring replacement by 2037. Lewes BPW is reviewing a variety of federal and state funding opportunities to assist with our future Lead and Copper Rule compliance efforts.
