I just received a notice from the MWRA and it wasn’t one of the usual expensive water/sewer bills that my local utility sends out quarterly.
However the informative flyer should be of interest to anyone using some of the estimated 201.05 million gallons per day in the huge MWRA use District. It detailed how to tell If I Have A Lead Service Line (which is the incoming domestic (drinking, washing, irrigation & pool) water supply. It told how to go into your basement where the water meter is and check the incoming pipe before the meter. If it’s dull gray, it may be lead. To confirm this you can take a knife and GENTLY scratch the pipe to see if it turns into a bright silver color….
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Lead drain pipes, gray but bright silver when you scratch them. Of course you don’t need to replace drain pipes because they’re lead but you should be replacing incoming water supply pipes, to avoid Lead Contamination, if you confirm that you have them!
OK so “If I Have A Lead Service Line” then you’re welcome to check with some of the exceptional and experienced Plumbers that do this work on a regular basis, who are members of our Association and attend our monthly meetings! Of course once you’ve got some rapport with these hard to come by good Plumbers then you may want to have some of those upgrades looked at that you’ve been putting off.
Mike Hurney, Director MassRealEstate.net