Step 1: Find your Point of Entry (POE)

Find the water service line entering your house as close as possible to the POE (close to where it comes through the foundation wall or slab). The incoming water service in your home may come up from the basement floor or out of a wall in the basement. If you have a crawlspace, it will come out of the floor. If your house is on a slab, it will come up through the main floor, typically in a utility closet.

Step 2: Scratch test

• If the pipe looks plastic, obviously it isn’t Lead, but if it looks metallic, try scratching it. Use a key or coin to scratch the pipe close to where it enters the house through the wall or floor.
• What color is the pipe underneath?
  • If it's silvery where you scratched, but dull/gray elsewhere, it's could be lead, especially if it was soft/easy to scratch, but test with a magnet to be sure. Like other serious contaminants, Lead is measured in Parts per Billion (PPB).
    (If it was Lead, note how easy it was to scratch/dislodge some from the surface. [wash your hands after handling it] It could be dislodged by abrasives like sand, or a significant change in pH- which is what happened in Flint, Michigan when they changed water sources to the river; their old supply had built up a layer of calcium scale due to high pH/minerals present, but the river had much lower pH and stripped that protective shell off the City’s Lead Service Lines. A whole lot of people got very sick. After that incident, the EPA started planning a nationwide initiative to find and remove ALL Lead from plumbing in the United States.)
    
    
  • If it looks like a penny, that’s Copper, one of the safest metals, but still one we monitor for in high levels (PPM- Parts per Million). The main reason the EPA keeps an eye on Copper though, is because Lead Solder was commonly used in Copper Plumbing, up until Lead was banned nationwide in 1986. (note: there’s a new substance hitting the EPA’s radar called PFAS, which for the first time will require testing in the PPT- Parts per Trillion and PPQ- Parts per Quadrillion ranges. Like Lead, they are hoping to eliminate PFAS entirely due to accumulation in the body.)

Step 3: Magnet test

• Hold a magnet to your service line.
  • If a magnet will stick, you have a steel service line. (There’s a small list of metals that are Ferromagnetic, e.g. a magnet will stick to: Iron, Nickel, Cobalt. Of these, only Iron & its alloys were used in plumbing. Galvanized Steel was very common, it’s coated with Zinc, and may require replacement if it was ever downstream of a Lead source such as old piping. Stainless Steel is coated with Nickel, a toxic metal that also must be monitored; it’s not typically seen in plumbing, but is often used in knives and cookware, to keep the surface shiny and new looking.)
  • If a magnet won't stick, and it is not obviously plastic, you may have a lead service line. (Again, be sure to wash your hands after handling Lead. While some may absorb through the skin, you could expose yourself far more if you ingest it or rub your eyes.)

Still not sure?

A licensed plumber can easily identify what type of material your service line is made of and assess your fittings for lead.

What You Can Do

If you believe you have a lead service line or fittings, you should take action to reduce exposure and coordinate with your utility.

Talk to your water provider

Once you have determined what type of material your service line is made of, it is important to report that information to your water utility, even if it is not lead. Reach out to your utility and let them know that you have identified your pipe material.

This information will be used to determine the scale of the lead pipe issue in your community and may be used to determine funding for assistance programs to replace the lead lines. This information will be critical in determining how regulators, utilities, and customers can properly address the problem. Your utility may also know of potential sources of funding too assist with homeowner costs of lead service line replacements.

Take steps to reduce lead exposure

Here are some things you can do to reduce your exposure if you think your home’s plumbing may have lead.

• When water hasn’t been used for several hours, run all taps used for drinking and cooking. The flushing process could take from 30 seconds to 2 minutes or longer until it becomes cold or reaches a steady temperature. This will help flush old water and bring up fresh water from the water main. (The routine Lead Sampling required by NMED & the EPA require testing the 1st Liter, which looks at Lead in the house. 5th Liter testing rules this out and just looks at what’s coming in from the water system. So the rule of thumb is, if you want to clear out the old water from your plumbing, run about a gallon to flush it- you will probably feel a difference in temperature as the fresh water comes in, generally much colder- of course, if you have Lead, you probably don’t want to leave your hand in the flow to gauge that.)
• Never use hot tap water for drinking, cooking, or making baby formula. Hot water dissolves and carries lead more easily.
• Boiling water won’t remove lead and may even increase its concentration. The only way to remove lead from water is through filtering.
• Water filters: There are a wide variety of water filters on the market – from simple pour-through pitcher style filters to professionally installed plumbed-in filter systems. Some filters can reduce lead, but if you’re considering this route, be sure to choose one that is tested and certified, like the NSF standard 53. For more information on filters visit  NSF.org  – NSF International provides consumer information about water filter capabilities, including those that claim to reduce lead. The NSF can also be reached at 800-NSF-8010.

More Resources

EPA Lead Resources

The  US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Lead website  contains information relating to all potential exposure routes for lead and what communities can do to address these issues.

EPA Protect Your Tap

 The EPA's  Protect Your Tap  guide will help you determine if you have a lead service line bringing water into your home. It uses pictures, step-by-step directions to identify lead service lines, provides tips to reduce lead exposure, information on testing your water, and resources to  learn more .