RAWA working to eliminate all lead pipes from residential homes

READING, Pa. - The Environmental Protection Agency enacted stricter guidelines when it comes to identifying and replacing lead and copper pipes. The Reading Area Water Authority is working to make sure no dangerous pipes remain in the city.

RAWA Executive Director, Bill Murray is confident it's not a major problem in the city. "We know there is not an abundance of lead lines in the Reading system," he said.

But, with new EPA guidelines in place RAWA has to make sure it's eliminating all toxic pipes. Murray estimates the process of identifying all the pipes in the area will take about 3 years. "Eventually, every single line we will know either through previous records or they do what they call predictive modeling, or we're going to be looking at pictures we have, that we already have inside the house, and we might even be paying people to visit inside the house," he said.

The Reading Area Water Authority website shows what the different pipes look like and if you suspect you might have lead pipes, you should give RAWA a call. "We will test your property for you and we will look on our records and if there's any, we will validate whether you have a lead line or not and if you do, we're going to replace it for you for nothing."

Overall, the study and replacement of the lines will cost millions and millions of dollars. "Based on the results of the inventory, we are projected it could cost as much as 60 million more to actually replace all those lines," said Murray.

Murray is confident the funding will come from the federal government through the bi-partisan Infrastructure Plan.