What North Shore homeowners need to know about lead service lines
If your house was built before the mid-1980s, there is a real chance the pipe bringing water from the street into your basement is lead. That pipe is called the service line, and on the North Shore a lot of them are still in the ground.
Lead was the standard material for service lines for decades. It was cheap, it bent easily, and it lasted. Nobody was thinking about what it did to the water. Many of those original lines were never replaced.
The EPA says drinking water can make up 20 percent or more of a person’s total lead exposure, and a bigger share than that for babies on formula mixed with tap water. Millions of lead service lines are still in use nationwide, and older suburbs like ours have more than their share.
Illinois now requires every public water system to inventory its service lines and plan to replace them. But the utility only owns the part under the street. The section from the curb stop to your house is yours. If you wait for the village to get to your block, you could be waiting years.
How do I know if my water line is made of lead?
A lead service line is a dull gray pipe, usually about an inch wide, that comes in through the basement wall or floor before the water meter. It scratches easily, and a magnet won’t stick to it.
Find the spot where the main water line enters the house. It’s normally in the basement, a crawlspace, or a utility room next to the meter and the main shutoff. Then compare what you see:
- Copper looks like a dull penny and turns green or brown with age.
- Galvanized steel is dark gray, hard, and a magnet sticks to it.
- Lead is dull gray or silver, soft, and turns shiny where you scratch it.
How to test your main water line at home
You need a house key and a refrigerator magnet. Do these four checks on the pipe before it reaches the meter:
- Scratch the pipe with the key. Lead turns bright silver where you scrape it.
- Hold the magnet against it. If it sticks, you have steel, not lead.
- Tap it with a coin. Lead gives a dull thud. Copper and steel ring.
- Look at the joint near the shutoff valve. Lead lines were joined with a swollen, rounded lump of solder called a wiped joint. If you see one, you almost certainly have lead.
What health risks are associated with lead in drinking water?
Lead is a neurotoxin, and the body doesn’t flush it out. It builds up in bones, teeth, and soft tissue over time.
Children are affected most. Their brains are still developing, and even low exposure is linked to lower IQ, attention problems, learning disabilities, and behavior issues that can last into adulthood. Pregnant women exposed to lead have higher rates of premature birth and low birth weight.
Adults aren’t in the clear either. Long-term exposure is tied to high blood pressure, kidney problems, and heart disease.
You can’t see, smell, or taste lead in water. Most people find out from a blood test, not from the tap.
What does Illinois law require for lead pipe replacement?
The Illinois Lead Service Line Replacement and Notification Act requires water utilities to inventory every service line, notify homeowners who have lead, and plan for full replacement.
One thing worth knowing: the law restricts partial replacements. When only the street side of a lead line is swapped out, the work shakes loose lead from the section that’s left and can push lead levels up for weeks. So when the village gets to your block, they’ll want to replace the full line from the main to your meter, and they’ll need your cooperation for the private side. Most replacements today are done in copper.
How much does lead pipe replacement cost?
It depends on the house. Costs vary a lot from one property to the next, and the national averages you’ll see online run from a few thousand dollars to well over $10,000. What drives the price:
- How far the line runs from the curb stop to the meter.
- How deep it’s buried and what’s on top of it: mature trees, a driveway, a front porch.
- Whether we can do it trenchless or have to open a trench.
- Village permit fees and restoring the parkway or sidewalk afterward.
There is public money in play. Congress put $15 billion into lead line replacement through the 2021 infrastructure bill, and much of it goes out to water systems as grants and forgivable loans. Some villages pass that along as homeowner programs, so ask yours before you pay out of pocket.
What immediate steps reduce lead exposure while waiting for replacement?
- Run the cold tap for three to five minutes each morning, or any time the water has sat for several hours, before you drink or cook with it.
- Use only cold water for drinking, cooking, and baby formula. Hot water pulls more lead out of pipes.
- Don’t rely on boiling. It doesn’t remove lead, and as water boils off, what’s left gets more concentrated.
- Use a filter certified to NSF/ANSI Standard 53 (or Standard 58 for reverse osmosis) for lead removal.
- Unscrew and rinse your faucet aerators every few months. Lead particles collect in the screens.
Lead service line replacement on the North Shore
Biagi Plumbing replaces lead service lines in Evanston, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, Deerfield, Northbrook, Glenview, Libertyville, and the surrounding communities. We handle the whole job: confirming what your line is made of, pulling the village permit, the excavation or trenchless bore, the copper hookup at the meter, and putting your lawn and parkway back the way we found them. Start with a free lead water service assessment. We’ll come out, look at the pipe, tell you what you have, and if it’s lead, give you a written price. Call Biagi Plumbing at (847) 512-8921 or book online today.