Philadelphia releases lead pipe inventory: Much of the city left undetermined

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As U.S. cities aim to meet new federal regulations that require them to find and replace lead pipes over the next decade, the city of Philadelphia has yet to determine whether service lines connected to hundreds of thousands of properties contain lead.

The Philadelphia Water Department on Wednesday released a public inventory of lead pipes throughout the city, which was required of all U.S. municipalities by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Lead pipes can corrode and contaminate drinking water, putting those exposed at risk for serious health problems, including cognitive impairment among children. New EPA regulations, which mandate the removal of all lead pipes and impose stricter limits on lead in drinking water, come a decade after children in Flint, Michigan, were exposed to the neurotoxin.

Philadelphia residents can search their address in the city’s new interactive map to determine whether they’re connected to one of the many lead service lines that have been found throughout the city.

The map shows clusters of lead service lines in neighborhoods such as Kensington and Point Breeze. However, the material of service lines connected to a majority of properties on the map is unknown.

“The lack of knowledge is certainly somewhat disturbing, given the obligations the city is going to have to rectify and replace all of these lead service lines in the coming decade,” said Robert Ballenger, an energy and utilities attorney at Community Legal Services. “Going back to 1916, the Inquirer reported that the city was requiring everyone to use lead to connect to the city’s water mains. Fast forward a century, and we’ve lost track of where those lead lines are. We need to regain that information if we’re going to secure people’s health and safety in their homes for the future.”

The city’s water department compiled its lead pipe inventory by collecting data from historical records, field inspections, permits and material tests.

The water department was not immediately available for comment, and it’s unclear how many service lines contain lead. However, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Philadelphia Water Department have estimated about 20,000 to 25,000 service lines contain at least some lead.

The EPA estimates there are more than 9 million lead pipes across the U.S. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law approved in 2021 provided $15 billion to help cities replace their lead pipes, but the total cost will be several times higher.

Philadelphia is not the only city that is still determining how many lead service lines it will need to remove. Officials in Wilmington, Delaware, which released its inventory on Wednesday, said 18,000 of its more than 74,000 service lines are currently designated as “unknown.” Fewer than 2,000 of its service lines contain lead so far.

Wilmington is asking residents to help them find lead services lines by taking the city’s service line survey.

Ballenger encourages residents whose service line material is unidentified to determine whether their pipes are made of lead at home to help the city replace them faster.

Stephanie Wein, a clean water and conservation advocate for environmental group PennEnvironment, urges residents who don’t know the material of their pipes to purchase a lead certified pitcher filter for their drinking water.

“There’s a lot of inventory work ahead to make sure that we are finding and replacing all those dangerous service lines. So, it looks like there is a lot of work to do to make sure that we’re complying with this new rule,” she said. “Given what we know about the age of our neighborhoods, given what we know about what we’ve seen in other cities, a lot of those are probably going to be lead.”

Philadelphia residents also can get their water tested for lead free of charge by calling (215) 685-6300.