The Onondaga County Water Authority is conducting a new outreach effort to help meet new guidelines set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Over the next two weeks, OCWA will be reaching out to customers regarding their service lines in an effort to identify lead and galvanized pipes. According to OCWA Director Jeff Brown, new EPA guidelines say that all lead and galvanized pipes will need to be replaced.
"We have regulations behind us that are going to be forcing us, to, to maybe go, and start, you know, digging up service," Brown said. "You know, we're we're probably going to have to start digging up in the rights of way just to see what services are, that type of thing. So just, to avoid any of that, please just reach out to us or let us come out to your home, and we will, we will identify it for you during a five-minute visit."
Although Brown said there is only a small number of lead service lines, he encourages customers to self-identify. OCWA's Executive Director of Operations Geoffery Miller said checking the pipes can be as easy as picking up a penny.
"We want you to check the material that's coming in from the from the floor or through the wall into the house," Brown said. "Most of all, they're going to be copper. So it's going to look like, a copper patty the color of that. take a look at that. Let us know if it's copper."
Miller said galvanized or lead pipes will look more silver. Seeing if a magnet sticks to those or if scraping them reveals a shinier surface, chances are the pipes are galvanized or lead.
OCWA is currently working on securing funding to help replace the lead or galvanized service lines, something Brown said is a work in progress.
"Right now we have a funding request in, with, Congress, as part of their budget process for next budget cycle, over $1 million to to help with that identification process and replacement," Brown said. "We do actually have a small amount of money, with our partner Home Service that allows us to replace a very small number of lead services, throughout the year with that fund for people maybe who can't afford to do it. we are also going to the state government to seek funding opportunities. So it's all over the you know, we are we are leaving no stone unturned for sure."
