Rockford replaces hundreds of lead water pipes each year. It has thousands to go

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — On any given day in the city, you can find a work crew that’s cut a whole in the earth in front of a home in order to rip out an outdated piece of infrastructure.

The culprit: lead water service pipes, something the federal government has put a premium on replacing in order to provide safe drinking water and protect residents from the toxic element.

For the past five years, the city — backed by funding from the state and federal government — has replaced hundreds of lead water pipes each year at no cost to homeowners. There are still more than 14,000 lead pipes feeding water into people’s homes, and an additional nearly 500 galvanized lines with potential for lead contamination. On top of that, there are more than 29,000 lines that have yet to be classified and may require replacement under the federal safety guidelines.

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Last week, City Council members awarded a new $4 million contract to N-Trak Group for the seventh and latest phase of the lead pipe replacement program. The work is funded through the state Environmental Protection Agency’s revolving loan program.

The concern over toxic lead entering your drinking water happens in the final stretch of piping between the city’s water infrastructure and your home.

There isn’t any lead in the groundwater or in the city’s main water pipes, city testing shows, according to Jamie Rott, Rockford’s water superintendent. However, thousands of homes have lead pipes between the property line and the house. Lead contamination typically happens from the corrosion of lead pipes and older household plumbing.

“Lead isn’t found in the water that we provide to the public, it’s introduced in the service line,” Rott said. “When water sits stagnant in that service line — because water naturally wants to dissolve everything — that’s when you see the lead introduction into that service line.”

Exposure to lead can cause health problems over time, especially in children, according to the Mayo Clinic. The biggest risk for youth is in brain development, where lead exposure can cause irreversible damage. Sustained high levels of lead can damage your kidneys and nervous system for both children and adults, health experts say.

So far this year, the city has replaced about 290 lead water pipes, but it expects to complete more than 500. The city handles several replacements each day and works throughout the year as long as temperatures don’t plummet too low.

“We give residents a morning or afternoon appointment … and it takes about four or five hours to get done, and they’re only without water for maybe two hours of that,” said Matt Moorman, project manager of the city’s lead service line replacement program. “Just with this contract we have two crews running with N-Trak, and we do four services a day.”

The city has replaced roughly 3,000 lead service pipes since 2017, when it launched a loan program to allow for residents to replace their pipes and repay the cost on their water bill with no interest. Two years later, the city secured funding to provide the replacement for free.

The city has won state and federal funding each year since to continue the program. For example, earlier this month Congressman Eric Sorensen announced $1.1 million in federal funds to go toward the effort to provide safe drinking water.

Lead water pipe replacement will be a focal point for the city for years to come, with a federal goal to replace all lines in the next decade.

How do I know if you have lead pipes?

You can’t see, taste or smell lead in your water.

However, there are a few simple tests you can do on the pipe between the entry point of your house and the shut-off valve in order to determine whether you have lead water pipes.

If you scratch or scrape the pipe with a flathead screwdriver and see a shiny and silver surface beneath, your service line is lead, according to the city.

You can also try to stick a magnet to the pipe. It will not stick if it is lead. Tapping on a lead pipe with a penny will produce a dull noise.

If you want to check whether the city has identified your house as having lead service pipes, you can go HERE and search for your home address.

There are thousands of homes where the type of pipe is unknown. In those cases, the city asks you to fill out a survey to help it plan for future lead water pipe replacement.

What should I do if I have lead pipes?

There are a few steps the city’s Water Department recommends for safety if you have lead pipes.

• Use cold water for drinking, cooking and making baby formula because lead dissolves more easily in hot water.
• “Don’t take that first draw from the sink,” Rott says. Flush your cold water tap by letting your faucet run before you drink from it. The more time water has been sitting in the service pipes, the more likely it is to contain lead.
• Install a water filter that has been NSF/ANSI Standard 53 certified for lead reduction.
• Clean your faucet aerators to remove sediment and debris that may build up.

What replaces lead?

The city typically uses copper pipes to replace lead. In some cases, it has also used a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) line to replace previous lead pipes.

The old piping is pulled out of the ground as the new piping is pulled in behind it for replacement.

How many lead pipes are there in Rockford?

Right now, the city has thousands more lead service lines than not.

It also has to replace galvanized metal lines, which have the potential for lead particles to accumulate in the interior.

Here’s the breakdown by the numbers:

• 14,085 lead service lines
• 11,534 non-lead service lines
• 452 galvanized lines
• 29,304 unknown materials

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas