Help Us Get the Lead Out
Most of us have heard that lead water pipes can lead to adverse health effects. To ensure water safety, the EPA is requiring water systems to develop a public lead service line inventory and create a plan for identifying and mitigating lead service lines.
Information from the EPA can be found here.
Information from the Utah Division of Drinking Water can be found here.
Summit Water Service District has a high degree of certainty that there are few, if any, lead water lines in our service area. But we can’t be sure about modification that may have happened after initial construction, and we must comply with the EPA request. We appreciate your help in this effort.
SURVEY INSTRUCTIONS
Step 1: Locate where your water service line enters your home. This is normally located at the lowest level of your home or business in a crawlspace or in a utility room.
Step 2: The easiest way to check what your pipes are made of is the “scratch test”. Find the water shut off valve and/or pressure reducer valve (PRV). The PRV is normally located after the shut off valve. Choose the scratch test area along the section of pipe between the shut off valve/PRV and the floor or exterior wall. See photo below.
Step 3: In some situations your pipe material can clearly be identified as plastic or copper. In other situations, due to corrosion or painting, the pipe needs to be scratched to reveal either a copper penny color, or silver color. If it is a silver color, the only way to distinguish between galvanized or lead is a magnet test. Magnets will stick to galvanized but will NOT stick to lead.
Step 4: Please take a picture of your scratch test area, then complete the form below to submit photo and information about your water service line.