Skip To Content

Public water authorities in the Greater Lehigh Valley region, as part of a nationwide initiative of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recently mailed out letters to their customers requesting help in identifying water service line material leading to homes and businesses. The end goal is to identify — and ultimately replace — lead pipes, pipes made of galvanized material located downstream from lead, and lead solder joints.

Authorities are responsible for infrastructure from the street up to the curb-line, and the homeowner / business owner is responsible for the infrastructure from the curb-line through the house / business. There are federally-imposed deadlines to identify service line material and deadlines to ensure pipes utilizing outdated materials are replaced.

The Greater Lehigh Valley REALTORS® is working closely to understand how this mandate will affect our membership, your clients, and our homes and businesses. There will be a huge cost associated with this endeavor, and there is no clear answer whether public funding will be available for replacing the homeowner’s or business owner’s portion of the water service line.

Members of the association’s Government Affairs Committee will be engaging with leaders of our local public water authorities at an upcoming January meeting. More information will be provided to the membership as it becomes available.

Photo Credit: Lehigh County Authority