ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Residents in Monroe County should keep an eye on their mail for an important letter from the Monroe County Water Authority. This letter is not a bill or junk mail. Instead, it contains instructions on how to test the material of the pipe bringing water into your home, specifically to check if it is made of lead.

Chief Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean received one of these letters and conducted the test with Steve Savage, the Director of Engineering at the Water Authority. The process is simple and requires only a penny and a magnet.

“We’ll try to scratch it with a penny and see if there’s any indication, and you can see it didn’t really change much,” said Savage. “It actually sticks to the clamp here, but we’re really trying to test the pipe itself.”

Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “What do you know based on doing that?”

Steve Savage, Monroe County Water Authority: “So right there I know the water service coming from curb box to the house through the wall of the house is copper.”

The Water Authority encourages residents to perform this test. If the pipe matches the penny, it’s copper. If the penny scratches the pipe and leaves a dull finish, it’s lead.

“If it’s galvanized steel, the magnet is going to stick to it,” explained Savage.

What happens if you find a lead pipe?

“If they find they have a lead pipe, then, one, it will give them information knowing that it exists and gives them an opportunity to replace that pipe,” said Savage.

The Water Authority is working to identify the types of pipes leading into the final 10,000 of the 196,000 service lines in the county. The county is actively replacing public lead pipes.

If you receive a letter, follow the instructions to perform the test and submit your results. Remember to take photos as evidence and upload them as part of the submission process.

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