Learn about our lead reduction program.
Regional Drought Watch
The water that WSSC Water provides to homes and businesses is lead-free. However, lead may enter the water through lead-containing household fixtures, plumbing, and customer-owned water service lines—the pipes that carry water into the property from the main water line in the street.
WSSC Water carefully filters and expertly treats all drinking water to ensure safety and quality. Water leaving our filtration plants is free of lead. To minimize the risk of lead dissolving into the water from plumbing materials, we add a corrosion inhibitor, orthophosphate, to the water supply to create a protective coating on the inside of pipes (including those on the customer's property).
Lead is seldom found as a natural contaminant in drinking water and generally originates from lead-based plumbing materials. Lead can enter drinking water when plumbing materials containing lead corrode over time. These materials include pipes made of lead, lead-based solder used to join copper pipe, and brass and chrome-plated brass faucets. Lead service lines are typically the most significant source of lead in the water. Learn about other sources of lead with households and how to reduce your exposure to lead.
LCRR is an important national public health initiative to remove lead from America’s drinking water. While WSSC Water removed all known lead pipes within our distribution system in the early 2000s, this multi-year EPA rule focuses on identifying pipe materials, including those that are customer owned, on private property.
For more than 106 years, WSSC Water has taken proactive steps to ensure water quality and safety. These public safety measures are showing clear results. Our water meets all the EPA's Safe Drinking Water Act standards. We have never had a drinking water quality violation in our history. Additionally, in our latest round of lead and copper testing from homes throughout our service area, our results were well below the action levels set by the EPA. View the results and read our latest Water Quality Report.
Not necessarily. All lead service lines have the potential to leach (release) lead into drinking water, but WSSC Water carefully filters and expertly treats all drinking water to ensure safety and quality. Water leaving our filtration plants is free of lead. To minimize the risk of lead dissolving into the water from plumbing materials, we add a corrosion inhibitor, orthophosphate, to the water supply to create a protective coating on the inside of pipes (including those on the customer's property).
We have developed a user-friendly inventory map where you can type in your address to see your pipe material. WSSC Water extensively reviewed plumbing records dating back more than 100 years to create this inventory of the materials used for utility- and customer-owned water service lines. WSSC Water banned the use of lead as a water service line construction material in 1954. The likelihood of finding a lead service line is low. Over 96 percent of customer-owned water service lines in the WSSC Water service area are not lead.
The water we deliver to our customers is lead-free. However, lead can get into water as it passes through household plumbing and/or faucets and fixtures that contain lead. Another source of lead in homes comes from lead paint.
If you have any questions, please contact WSSC Water at PipeType@wsscwater.com.