Savannah Utilities asking customers to report their water service line material

Around 4,000 Savannah Utility Department water customers should receive “Potential Lead Exposure Risk Notice” letters in the mail this week.
Savannah Utilities Director Greg Littlefield said the notices are being sent to comply with a federal Environmental Protection Agency rule affecting water providers nationwide.
The rule requires utilities to compile an initial record of public and private service lines by October, which SUD has done, he said.
It also requires utilities to “notify customers of the potential risk of lead exposure if their service lines are determined to be lead, galvanized requiring replacement, or lead status unknown,” he said.
For SUD customers, receiving a notice does not mean the service line necessarily contains lead, Littlefield noted, only that the utility doesn’t know what the service line is made of.
Savannah Utilities has not found any lead pipes in the water lines it owns, Littlefield said, but SUD “does not have enough information to classify most private service lines, which is the portion that runs from the meter to the internal plumbing.”
With about 12,000 meters on the Savannah water system, all of the approximately 4,000 connections to receive notices have service lines made of unknown material, he said.
The notices will include information on the sources of lead exposure, the health effects, and ways to reduce exposure. Contact information for local water testing services will also be provided. The water testing services charge a fee.
Littlefield said that in general, service lines which were installed after July 1988 don’t contain lead.
“Although it is not mandatory, customers with unknown water service materials are highly encouraged to investigate and self-report to help SUD identify their water service line materials,” he said.
A form to do so is available online at cityofsavannah.org/utility-department.