Lead pipe service connections

Water can eat away at and release lead from plumbing systems. The characteristics of the water, such as its pH and hardness, affect how corrosive it is, and therefore how much of the lead it carries away. Lead pipes have not been used for decades, but many homes are still connected to municipal services containing old lead pipes. Although lead solder has been outlawed for use in residential plumbing systems since 1986, it nonetheless joins together the copper pipes in many homes. Brass faucets can still contain up to 8% lead. These lead sources can be present in our water distribution systems or in our homes themselves. 

Lead can come from service lines that bring water from the water main to your house. About 20% of large- and medium-size water systems in the country either have lead pipes or lead was used to connect the pipes together. Most lead pipes were installed before 1920 but they are generally used for over 50 years. Approximately 10 million lead service lines and connections are currently in place in the United States, in our public water systems. ... 

Based on limited data, at least 260,000 lead service connections are believed to exist in Canada. Estimated in 1990, there were believed to be about 3.3 million lead service connections in the US (AWWA, 1990). For North America (excluding Mexico) these estimates equate to between 2 and 3 % of dwellings having a lead service pipe, significantly lower than in Europe. 

An area designated as Old Ottawa South with a four-block portion of 394 homes. This area is served by 6 inch and 8 inch diameter unlined cast-iron water main pipes installed in 1910, having poor water circulation because of the occurrence of dead-ends in the affected portion and many homes are supplied by lead service connections. 

Older installations usually have an armoured paper insulated and lead sheathed service cable providing an SNE supply. The consumer s earthing terminal should be connected to the lead sheath of this service cable. Look out for earthing to the incoming water service pipe, which is no longer permitted. Check that the size of the earthing conductor complies with BS 7671, section 543, or, if the consumer has his or her own buried earth electrode, is in accordance with both sections 542 and 543. 

Brass fittings have been used very commonly in conjunction with copper pipe-work, as elbows, connectors and valves. Brass manifolds have also been used to distribute drinking water to a group of dwellings from a single mains connection. Water meters, pressure control, and flow control devices have historically also been commonly made from leaded brasses. In the US, there is a relatively small number of brass service lines reported, primarily in the northeast and midwest areas. They were apparently mostly installed in a block of time over the later 1920 s, though records are very poor about this. 

Units costs are likely to range from around 500 to 2,000 per lead service pipe replaced, depending on local labour costs and ground conditions (particularly the extent of paved and road surfaces). In Brussels (Belgium) over the period 2002 to 2008, 38,000 lead connections (owned by the water company) were replaced at a total cost of 15M, averaging 395 per connection. In the Hague... 

In 2002, Brussels Water Company estimated that they had 60,000 lead connection pipes in service. 

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