INDIANAPOLIS— Steve Downing has lived in the Near Northwest Riverside neighborhood for 46 years.
He’s always worried about lead in his drinking water.
Many homes in Central Indiana built before 1950 were constructed with a water service line made of lead.
“In fact, we used those Britta filters and bottled water purposely because of the lead that we are aware of in the area,” said Downing.
It’s a problem WRTV Investigates has been telling you about for several years.
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Crews from Citizens Energy Group are now focused on replacing lead service lines in Near Northwest Riverside, a community where 97 percent of homes have them.
Downing already had his lead service line replaced as part of the Lead Service Line Replacement Program.
“I have young children and many of my neighbors have young children, and I know how important lack of lead can be for the development,” said Downing.
The Biden administration put a new federal lead and copper rule in place that requires the replacement of lead service lines by 2037. It also lowers the lead action level and triggers more aggressive action when water sampling finds higher lead levels.
So far, Citizens Energy has identified the following service lines:
- Lead (51,100)
- Galvanized Requiring Replacement (125)
- Unknown (38,200)
- No Lead (285,700)
Since 2022, Citizens Energy has replaced 6,200 lead service lines.
“Near Northwest Riverside is another neighborhood that has a lot of those lead service lines all right in a row,” said Ben Easley, spokesperson for Citizens Energy Group. “It's a dense area of service lines made of lead, and so we know that we can reach out to homeowners on the street, we can get their permission, and then we can go in all at once to do block by block those replacements for our customers.”
The program is largely funded through federal dollars; however, Citizens Energy says the average customer pays less than $5 per bill for the Lead Service Line Replacement Program.
“It's important to get the lead out and to limit that lead exposure,” said Easley.
They’ve sent letters to homeowners, but homeowners have to give permission to do the work.
Steve Downing hopes his neighbors say yes.
“Without a doubt, absolutely super excited when we saw the letter come through. We signed up immediately for the opportunity,” said Downing.
It's not clear which neighborhood will be next in the program, but it will be a community with a high concentration of lead service lines.
4,000 water systems across Indiana are impacted by the new lead and copper rule and they must do an inventory of the number of lead service lines and notify impacted customers.
PREVIOUS | Water systems send letters to customers about lead service lines
Some people are concerned the Trump administration could roll back the requirements.
A federal judge granted an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) request to freeze litigation related to lead service line replacements.
Litigation is still pending, however.
“The Trump administration came in and said wait a minute, we want to take a look at this rule and decide whether we’re going to go forward with defending it or if we are going to ask the court to take it back and then maybe we will try to weaken it which is what some folks are concerned about,” said Erik Olson, Senior Strategic Director for Health at the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “They may try to weaken it.”
Lead can lead to a number of negative health impacts on the brain, heart and nervous system, according to the CDC.
You can't taste it, but lead can be in your drinking water and can impact your brain, heart and other parts of your body. It typically gets into your drinking water through lead pipes.
“Obviously we are watching the federal landscape to see how things change,” said Easley. “We will continue with this program absolutely."
- To check if you have a lead service line, use this online tool for Citizens Energy and this online tool for Indiana American Water
- If you receive a letter from your water system, don’t ignore it. Contact your utility for the next steps.
- You can also contact your water system or a private lab to get your water tested at the tap in your home.
- Customers can also contact a certified drinking water lab about collecting a sample. IDOH maintains the list of certified drinking water labs: https://www.in.gov/health/laboratories/drinking-water-laboratory-certification/ [in.gov]
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