Pennsylvania American Water announced upcoming door-to-door outreach in parts of its Mechanicsburg service area to assist customers in identifying the material of their home’s water service line. This outreach is currently underway in Fairview, Lower Allen, Upper Allen and Newberry townships and in Shiremanstown Borough.
“Customer involvement makes this work possible,” said Pennsylvania American Water Vice
President of Operations Jim Runzer. “Our goal is to catalog the material type of customers’
service lines to safeguard the quality of water for our customers.”
A water service line is a pipe that connects a home or business to the water main in the street. Pennsylvania American Water owns a portion of the service line, typically from the main to the curb stop, found near the street curb or sidewalk. The property owner owns the rest of the service line (from curb stop) all the way into the house or building being served, which is why customer participation in this program is important.
If a service line is identified as lead or galvanized steel, Pennsylvania American Water will work with the customer to replace the line at no direct cost to them. The door-to-door outreach will be conducted by CDM Smith, Pennsylvania American Water’s Service Line Inventory contractor. All representatives will carry official company photo I.D. badges and wear logoed, high-visibility vests.
The outreach efforts are part of the company’s lead service line replacement program,
supporting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, which require all water utilities to identify and make public the materials that both companyowned and customer-owned service lines are made of to address and minimize exposure of lead in drinking water.
Since the lead service line identification project began, more than 50,000 service lines have
been identified statewide, and more than 3,400 customer-owned lead lines have been replaced. In the Mechanicsburg area, approximately 5,300 water service lines are not yet identified.
