Most homeowners have never thought about what material carries drinking water from the street into the house. In a lot of older Duluth neighborhoods, the answer is lead.
That is not a reason to panic, and it is not a reason to ignore it either. It is a reason to find out. Here is what the work involves, what the city covers, and how to tell whether your address is affected.
What a Lead Water Service Line Is
Your water service line is the pipe running from the city main in the street to the meter inside your home. It is separate from your sewer line, which carries waste in the other direction. Lead was used for water service lines in American cities for decades because it is soft, bends easily around obstacles, and lasts a long time underground.
Soft is the operative word. Lead does not fail the way cast iron or clay fails. It does not crack or collapse. It sits there. If you took a hammer to a section of lead pipe pulled out of the ground, it would not shatter. It would just squish. That same softness is why the metal can enter the water it carries.
If you want to understand what is in Duluth water more broadly, we covered that separately in is Duluth tap water safe to drink.
The City of Duluth Pays for These Replacements
This is the part most homeowners do not know. Duluth runs a program for lead water service line replacement, and the city pays for these projects. We do the work and the city covers it.
That changes the decision completely. A water service replacement is normally a real expense for a homeowner. When the city is funding the replacement of a lead line, the question stops being whether you can afford it and becomes whether your address qualifies.
Program terms and eligibility are set by the city, not by us, and they can change. Call us and we can tell you what we are seeing in your area, or contact the city directly. If your line turns out not to be lead, you have lost nothing by asking. Our financial assistance page covers the other local programs worth knowing about.
What the Work Looks Like on Site
A recent project is a good example of the range. It was four homes on one job, which meant four water lines, way up on a hill, with a lot of ledge rock.
Ledge rock is the detail that matters in Duluth. Plenty of the city sits on bedrock close to the surface, and that dictates how a water line can be installed and how much of the yard has to be opened to do it. It is the single biggest reason a water service job here looks different from the same job on flat ground somewhere else.
Where conditions allow, our preferred method for a water service replacement is directional boring. A small pit is opened near the curb stop, a boring system pulls a new HDPE water service underneath the lawn, the walk and the driveway, and the line is connected at the curb stop and at the meter inside. The surface above stays largely intact.
Where there is ledge rock in the path, boring is not always an option and more of the route has to be opened up. That is a judgment made on site, not from a desk.
HDPE: What Replaces It
New water services go in as HDPE, which is high density polyethylene. It does not corrode, nothing leaches out of it into your water, and it handles ground movement through a northern Minnesota freeze and thaw cycle without the joint stress that rigid pipe takes.
It is also a single continuous run rather than sections joined together, which removes the failure point. We wrote about why water services fail differently from sewer lines in why water lines burst and sewer lines do not, and about how deep these lines sit here in water line burial depth in Duluth.
How to Tell What You Have
There are a few quick checks you can do yourself at the meter, where the service line enters the house:
- Scratch it with a coin. Lead is soft and scratches to a bright silver. Copper scratches to a copper color. Galvanized steel will not scratch easily at all.
- Try a magnet. A magnet will stick to galvanized steel. It will not stick to lead or copper.
- Look at the shape. Lead lines often have a rounded bulb or a swollen joint near the shutoff, which is a wiped joint. Copper runs straight with sharp soldered fittings.
These checks tell you about the pipe you can see. They do not tell you what is buried between your house and the main, which can be a different material entirely. That is what the inspection is for.
Where Our Camera Work Fits
Our camera work is on the sewer side, and a sewer camera does not travel up a pressurized water line. What a free inspection gives you on a water service question is a crew on site who can look at the meter, the curb stop, and the way the line enters the building, and tell you what they are looking at.
The inspection, the locate, and the written report are free. There is no charge and no obligation. If you are in the house anyway for a sewer scope, it costs nothing to have us look at the water side while we are there.
Signs Worth Calling About
- Water usage that does not match how much water you use
- A notice from the city about consumption
- A wet or soft spot in the yard between the street and the house that does not dry out
- Water showing up in drain tile
- Pressure that has dropped off over time
- An older home where nobody has ever confirmed what the service line is made of
Get It Identified
If you own an older home in Duluth and nobody has ever told you what your water service line is made of, that is worth an afternoon of attention. If it turns out to be lead, there is a city program that pays to replace it. If it turns out to be copper, you can stop wondering.
Call 218-409-6356 or request a free inspection. We work throughout Duluth, Hermantown, Proctor, and the surrounding communities, and we handle water line repair and replacement year round.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the city of Duluth pay for lead water line replacement?
Duluth runs a program covering lead water service line replacement, and the city pays for these projects. Eligibility and terms are set by the city and can change, so confirm your specific address with the city or call us and we will tell you what we are seeing in your area.
How do I know if my water line is lead?
At the meter, scratch the pipe with a coin. Lead scratches to a bright silver and is soft. A magnet will not stick to it, and lead lines often have a rounded bulb near the shutoff. That identifies the visible pipe, not the buried portion, which can differ.
Is a lead water line the same as my sewer line?
No. The water service brings drinking water in from the main under pressure. The sewer lateral carries waste out by gravity. They are separate pipes, usually different materials, and they fail for completely different reasons.
What replaces a lead water line?
HDPE, high density polyethylene. It does not corrode, nothing leaches into the water, and it goes in as one continuous run with no joints to fail. It handles freeze and thaw ground movement well.
Will my whole yard be dug up?
Usually not. Where conditions allow we use directional boring, which needs a small pit near the curb stop and pulls the new line underneath the lawn and driveway. Ledge rock in the path can force more of the route to be opened, which is common on the Duluth hillside and is assessed on site.
How long does a water service replacement take?
Most residential water service replacements are a single day.