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A Letter That Is Supposed to Arrive Every Year
There is a notification duty attached to three of the four categories, and most people who are entitled to one have no idea it exists.
Straight answer
Water systems must annually inform every service connection with a lead, galvanized-requiring-replacement or unknown service line of the material of their line. The notice must say how to report a categorization that looks wrong, how to reach the replacement plan, and that you can request tap sampling.
Source: U.S. EPA, Public Education Requirements, Lead and Copper Rule Improvements fact sheet, October 2024.
Who gets one
Every service connection with a lead, galvanized requiring replacement or lead status unknown service line. EPA requires the system to inform those households of the material of their service line, annually, and to keep doing it until the line is replaced.
New customers get one when service starts, rather than waiting for the next annual round.
Source: U.S. EPA, Public Education Requirements, Lead and Copper Rule Improvements fact sheet, October 2024.
What it has to contain
Four things beyond the category itself. Instructions for telling the system if you think the categorization is wrong. Information on how to reach the service line replacement plan. Steps you can take to reduce exposure to lead in drinking water. And a statement that you can ask to have your tap water sampled.
That last one is the important one on a website like this, because it is the official route to the question a pipe category cannot answer. Why we point at it rather than answering it.
The timing
Under the retained 2021 requirements, notification was due within 30 days of completing the initial inventory and repeats annually. Under the improvements, the first notice follows the baseline inventory due 1 November 2027 by no more than 30 days, and then repeats within 30 days of each annual update.
So the schedule has been running since 2024 and does not stop until the line is dealt with.
Source: U.S. EPA, 2021 LCRR Requirements Retained in the Final Lead and Copper Rule Improvements; U.S. EPA, Public Education Requirements, Lead and Copper Rule Improvements fact sheet, October 2024.
Somebody has certified that you were told
From 1 July 2025, and annually after that, systems report to the state certifying that they provided this notification to the affected consumers.
That is worth knowing if you have never received one, because it means there is a filing somewhere that says you were, and the gap between those two facts is a reasonable thing to raise with the utility. It is also possible the answer is simply that your line is non-lead and you were never owed a notice.
Source: U.S. EPA, 2021 LCRR Requirements Retained in the Final Lead and Copper Rule Improvements.
Which is the point
Never having had a notice means one of two things: your line is classified non-lead, or the notice did not reach you. Both are answered by looking the address up, which takes about ten minutes and involves nobody selling you anything.
Look your address up first.Your utility has published what your service line is made of, and finding out costs nothing. If it turns out to be your side and it needs work, we will route you to a contractor covering your area, found from the ZIP code you give — you are never charged. Service lines are our subject; anything plumbing-related can be put through the same way.
Call (888) 753-6580