ROCHESTER, N.Y. — City leaders and members of the EPA are celebrating a state grant that will help them replace Rochester’s lead pipes.

Right now, almost one in three service lines connecting homes and businesses to water mains are made of lead. That number used to be higher, but the city has spent the past three years actively replacing lead pipes with EPA-approved plastic instead.

The City of Rochester is working to replace all of its old lead water pipes by 2030, putting it ahead of many other places in the country.

“Our goal is to be lead-free by 2030 and we are ahead of many places in the rest of the country. We’re much further ahead, people are looking to Rochester to see what we are doing. And we want to be a case study to see how you can do this efficiently, effectively, and quickly,” said Mayor Malik Evans.

The city’s water engineers say they started replacing lead pipes a few years back, at a rate of about 100 houses per week. When water flows from the treatment plants to houses, the city makes sure there’s no lead in it. The lead comes from old service lines connecting homes and businesses to the water mains under the street.

“We all remember the Flint, Michigan case where the drinking water was very poor and people suffered. We can be proud that we won’t have that incident here, we can be proud that we have safe drinking water and will continue to have safe drinking water because of that infrastructure investment,” said Lashay Harris, vice president of the Rochester City Council.

The CDC says there’s no safe level of lead to have in your blood, which is why the city is replacing all the lead pipes. But there are acceptable levels in water that the city says it regularly tests for.

News10NBC’s Hailie Higgins ran an at-home lead test on water from a producer’s home in the Park Avenue neighborhood. Even though property records show his pipes are lead, they passed the at-home test, meaning the amount is so small it’s okay for now.

Lead pipes, as well as galvanized steel which is also being replaced, contaminate water when they dissolve or corrode. Treating water with this in mind and taking steps like flushing your pipes can help minimize corrosion.

Lead pipes aren’t the only way people can be exposed to lead. Old sink fixtures can sometimes be made with lead too. Lead paint has been on inspectors’ radars since the lead poisoning ordinance of 2005. While lead is very serious, the risk is getting smaller each day. And by 2030, it should be almost completely eradicated.

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