As an elected official, you want to know whether lead in drinking water is a concern in your community. This page presents a series of questions you can ask your water supply to learn about the risk of lead in water in your community, the actions your water supply is taking to reduce risk and educate the public, and opportunities where you can use your position to help educate and prioritize actions to achieve safe water in your community. Answer the bold questions below to find the section that is most relevant for your community.
Questions every community leader should ask about their water supply
- Where does our water come from? How is it treated? Do we use corrosion control treatment?
- How many lead service lines do we have in our community? How do we know? (e.g., recordkeeping, records, construction standards, permits) The state has posted a preliminary inventory of distribution materials here. This should be updated annually as water supplies replace lead service lines and identify materials for “unknown” service lines.
- What are our plans for identifying unknown service lines and completing our service line inventory? How are we documenting this information? (e.g., database)
- Have we sent out letters notifying both homeowners and residents with lead service lines? (required under LCR) What about homes with “unknown” material service lines? (encouraged by EGLE so residents can mitigate potential risk) When did the letters go out? How many were sent?
- Do we notify residents and homeowners when we determine they do NOT have a lead service line? (recommended by EGLE)
- Do we notify all new accounts of their service line material? (LCR required if a lead service line)
- What are our lead service line replacement plans? E.g., the timeline for replacement, how are priority lines being identified, who is doing the work (in-house, contract?), where is the funding coming from/do we need funding support, how can we support you to increase the replacement rate?
- What outreach and communications are we providing to homeowners and residents about participating in the lead service line replacement program? (not required by LCR, but a best practice)
- Are we experiencing any challenges with the lead service line replacement program? Do we anticipate any challenges with customer participation, funding, contractor availability, others?
- Have we done any partial lead service line replacements in the past year? (LCR only allows in emergency situations which should be minimal) How do we notify those homes about the risk of lead exposure? What extra steps do we take to protect the residents in homes where we have to do an emergency partial lead service line replacement? (US EPA recommends filters be provided for six months)
- Are all our Lead and Copper Rule samples collected at homes that have confirmed lead service lines?
- What is the range of lead compliance sampling results? (This should be posted in the annual consumer confidence / water quality report)
- Do we resample the homes with the highest lead levels every compliance sampling period?
- What strategies do we use to identify homes for compliance sampling? Do we have challenges finding enough sampling volunteers at lead service line homes?
- How do we communicate about the risk of lead exposure during construction in our community, such as water, sewer, gas main replacement, and street paving?
- When we replace water meters in our community, do we provide water filters at homes with lead service lines? Do we provide written notification of a lead service line if one is found during the meter appointment?
Does your community have a lead action level exceedance?
- What lead levels were found in compliance sampling? How many lead service lines do we have? Do we use corrosion control treatment?
- What is the safe level of lead in water? Note that there is a difference between the action level of lead under LCR and “safe” levels. Multiple health agencies, such as US EPA and the Centers for Disease Control, conclude that there is no safe level of lead.
- What public outreach are we required to do? What more can we do to ensure that our residents have the information they need? (I.e., is there something we should be doing beyond the regulatory requirements that will help our residents better understand and manage their risk?)
- Can we distribute lead reducing filters to all homes with lead service lines? (The state will supply to qualifying low-income households)
- What are we telling residents about the risk of lead in their water? What actions are we telling people to take in their own homes? Is this sufficient to protect our residents?
- What are our lead service line replacement plans? E.g., the timeline for replacement, how are priority lines being identified, who is doing the work (in-house, contract?), where is the funding coming from/do we need additional funding support, how can we support you to increase the replacement rate?
- How are we identifying sampling volunteers for our increased sampling requirements? Are we offering sampling to all our residents?
- Are community members receiving the information we are putting out? Is there any indication that people are or are not reading it? How do we know? How are they responding to public advisory and public education? What questions are they asking? Do questions reflect confusion about the information published? Requests for more information? Questions about individual homes?
- The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy publishes the most recent water supply Lead and Copper Rule compliance sampling results on this webpage. Scroll down the page to the data table, and type in the name of your water supply in the Search box. If you don’t know the name of your water supply, look for the name on a copy of your water bill.
- Look at the column “Lead 90th Percentile (ppb)” for your water system. If the number in this column is greater than 15 ppb (16 ppb or larger), that means your community has a lead action level exceedance. As discussed here, there is no safe level of lead in drinking water.
No. Keep the conversation going with your public works director and your colleagues. See questions every community leader should ask about their water supply above.
Does your community have lead services lines?
- Read our FAQ “How can I find out how many lead service lines are in my community?”
- The revised Michigan Lead and Copper Rule requires water supplies to create a Distribution System Materials Inventory that identifies the material of all service lines in the distribution system, including the portions on both public and private property. A preliminary inventory was due on January 1, 2020. A summary of the preliminary inventories submitted to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy is available here. Water supplies are required to publish the number of lead service lines, unknown service lines, and total service lines in their annual consumer confidence report/water quality report along with other information described here. They must update these numbers annually. If the inventory information for your water supply is not published in either of these two places, you should call your water supply to ask for a copy and contact the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) to ensure they enforce this requirement. Contact Michigan EGLE's Office of the Clean Water Public Advocate by email ([email protected]) or call EGLE's Environmental Assistance Center at 800-662-9278.
Once you know if your community has lead service lines (questions above), add the appropriate next set of questions to your list. For example, if your community has lead service lines, move on to "Yes. Check out this important list of questions to ask your water system.
- How many lead service lines do we have in our community? How do we know? (e.g., recordkeeping, records, construction standards, permits) The state has posted a preliminary inventory of distribution materials here. This should be updated annually as water supplies replace lead service lines and identify materials for “unknown” service lines.
- What are our plans for identifying unknown service lines and completing our service line inventory? How are we documenting the service line material? (e.g., database)
- Have we sent out letters notifying both homeowners and residents with lead service lines? (required under LCR) What about homes with “unknown” material service lines? (encouraged by EGLE so residents can mitigate potential risk) When did the letters go out? How many were sent?
- What outreach and communications are we providing to homeowners and residents about participating in the lead service line replacement program? (not required but a best practice)
- What strategies do we use to identify homes for compliance sampling? Or How are we inviting residents with lead service lines to participate in the sampling program? Do we have challenges finding enough sampling volunteers at lead service line homes? (LCR requires water systems with lead service lines to sample only at homes with lead service lines for compliance purposes)
- What are our lead service line replacement plans? E.g., the timeline for replacement, how are priority lines being identified, who is doing the work (in-house, contract?), where is the funding coming from/do we need additional funding support, how can we support you to increase the replacement rate?
- How do we know there are no lead service lines in our community? (e.g., recordkeeping, records, construction standards, permits) The state has posted a preliminary inventory of distribution materials here. This should be updated annually as water supplies replace lead service lines and identify materials for “unknown” service lines.
- What is the range of lead compliance sampling results? (This should be posted in the annual consumer confidence / water quality report)
- Do we resample the homes with the highest lead levels every compliance sampling period? (How are sample sites selected in the LCR? LCR requires the same homes be sampled during each sampling period)
- What are we telling residents about the risk of lead in their water? What actions are we telling people to take in their own homes? Is this sufficient to protect our residents? (Homes can test high for lead even without a lead service line)
