The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires all public drinking water systems complete an inventory of water service lines in the system’s water distribution system. The inventory aims to identify water service lines that have piping that contains lead. The City of Suffolk completed our initial inventory. The inventory includes many pipes of unknown material. Over the next 3 years, the City will be working to verify the pipe materials for all unknown water service lines.
A water service line is a pipe that brings water from the water main in the street into your home. If that pipe is lead, then it is a lead service line. When water leaves the Suffolk water treatment plant, it is clean and lead-free. The underground water mains that transport water from the treatment plant to your neighborhood do not introduce lead into the water. Lead can enter the water when it passes through a lead or galvanized steel service line that connects the water main to your home.
For further details and guidance, please consult the EPA’s Lead in Drinking Water section.
Enter your address or locate your property on the map below to learn the material of the utility-owned service line as well as your privately-owned service line material. When you identify your property, you will see four possible results for the service line materials:
Lead – this means the service line is made of lead. These pipes will require placement in the future.
Non-Lead – this means the service line is made of another material other than lead, such as plastic, copper or galvanized iron.
Galvanized Requiring Replacement (GRR) – this means the customer owned service line is made of galvanized iron, and the utility owned service line was once made of lead or can not be proven to never had been lead in the past. These pipes will require replacement in the future because if the utility side was ever lead, the lead flakes could have become lodged in the galvanized line.
Unknown – this means the service line material has not yet been identified. If you know the material of your privately owned service line, please call (757) 514-7000 opt. 1 or email us at publicutil@suffolkva.us and report the material.
