Dear well user,
The Lake Lucille Water System team needs your help ASAP.
In recent years, New York State (as well as the EPA and the public at large) has become increasingly concerned about lead in drinking water. As you may know, we've been conducting lead testing in the Lake Lucille community water system for a number of years and our results have been good.
Now, to meet the latest state regulations, the Rockland County Department of Health is requiring that all community water systems create and submit a complete inventory of water-system service lines to track whether any are made of lead, and therefore possibly contaminating a house's drinking water. To do that, we need to document the type of pipe material used in all of our homes’ service lines.
What is a service line? It's the pipe that connects your house with Lake Lucille's main water line. The main lines, which carry water from the well, run under our roads. The smaller service lines branch off of them, carrying the water to your houses. In most cases, you can see the service line enter the house in the basement, where it connects to the house's internal plumbing. If you have a water shut-off for your home (highly recommended), it will be installed in the service line. (Again, this inventory is only about service lines; we don't need to know about your house's internal plumbing pipes.)
To fulfill this state requirement, we specifically need to know:
What material your service line is made of and how you identified it. Service lines have typically been made of galvanized steel, copper, plastic or lead. You may be able to identify the material from past repair records or by calling your plumber. You can also often identify the material yourself by using a strong magnet and/or a flat-head screwdriver and following the instructions in this NYS DOH video.
While not required, it will also be helpful for the DOH to know:
What size your service line is.
When any new service line was installed, and if it replaced a lead line.
If your house uses non-lead service-line pipes but with lead solder.
Whether you use any treatment system for your house's water, such as a water softener or special filtering system.
How to send us the info. The easiest way to send the information is to fill out the service-line questionnaire on the Lake Lucille website (located in the "Lake Lucille Well System” section).
Note: If you identify the service-line material yourself, please send a photo of the test result that we can submit to the DOH as verification (for example, a magnet sticking to the pipe or a close-up photo of a scratch test with a screwdriver). Please send the photo to lakelucillewater@gmail.com.
Please let us know if you can't locate or can't identify your service line, and one of us can stop by and help. Also, if you send a photo that's not conclusive, we may need to come by and shoot a new photo to submit to the DOH.
For general information on lead in drinking water, click on this link.
Thanks for your help! --Jaya and Rik