Louisville Water Company offers funding to help homeowners replace lead pipes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Louisville Water Company has completed its decades-long, $50 million lead service line replacement project ahead of schedule. And now that every city-owned service line is lead-free and replaced with copper pipes, the company is offering to help homeowners replace any private lines that might still be lead.

“There is not lead in your drinking water when it leaves Louisville’s water treatment plants,” said Kelley Dearing Smith, communications director for LWC. “But there’s a risk for lead to get in the water if it travels through plumbing that perhaps is made of lead.”

When LWC began providing water services for Louisville, crews would install lead service lines. This happened mainly between 1860 and 1936.

“Lead was very common in the 1800s," Dearing Smith said. "When we started, that was the material of choice. We certainly didn’t know about the public health concerns that we know today."

Since the 1970s, whenever LWC fixed a broke water main, any lead service lines would be removed and replaced with copper. Then in 1990, the department started the official replacement program, with the goal of replacing all 74,000 lead lines with copper pipes by 2025.

The department started going block by block, street by street. In the last few years, LWC ramped up the work to finish early. Louisville is now one of very few cities in the nation to have replaced all of its city-owned service lines.

The next step for LWC is to help homeowners replace their own water lines that might still be made out of lead.

“We don’t see lead a lot on the private property,” said Dearing Smith. “We think there are probably several thousand homes in Louisville with lead service lines. But we know of at least 800. And those customers are already getting letters from us.”

It is rare for a home built after 1950 to have any lead lines or lead plumbing fixtures. However, it is possible that older homes could have lead pipes. Dearing Smith said the best way to find out is by hiring a plumber to check.

If you have lead lines, Dearing Smith said you should get a quote from the plumber and then call LWC. The company intends to pay half of the cost to replace those lines, up to $1,500. And if you cannot afford your half of the cost, there are funds available to help through the Louisville Water Foundation for those that qualify.

Louisville Water will be sending out letters over the next few weeks to contact the 800 homeowners with suspected lead lines.

“And they’re not going to hear from us just once," Dearing Smith said. "We’re going to contact them over and over again, because we really want to get rid of the lead."

Since LWC does not know for sure which homes may or may not have lead plumbing, scientists take extra precautions to balance the water chemistry at the plants so that it is less likely to pick up any lead as it comes into your home. If you are concerned about the quality of your water, Louisville Water Company will test it for free. Contact the department to receive instructions on how to take a sample to provide for the lab.