Lead Pipes in Potential Rental

[Michael Ballard]

Hello All

I am looking at purchasing a rental in Milwaukee but the inspection report noted that the main water line coming in the home is a lead pipe.

How concerned should I be about this?

Thanks

Michael

[Marcus Auerbach]

@Michael Ballard - before I say anything else: lead poisoning is a serious issue and can lead to permanent brain damage, especially in children.

Milwaukee is an old city and houses built before 1951 have probably a water service pipe made from lead connecting it to the street's water main, which by the way is not made from lead. So it is a very common issue effecting about 70,000 properties.

What happens over time is that the lead piples from a PbO2 (lead dioxyde, similar to rust on iron) layer on the inside which creates a barrier between the water flowing in the pipe and the actual pipe. 

The city also adds orthophospahte, a common food additive, to coat the pipes from the inside. The problem with lead is there are no "safe" levels, so any lead is bad.

Time exposure also plays a role. The city recommends to also let you water run for a couple minutes if you have not used it in a long time, so you basically draw fresh water from the water main line under the street.

The cost to replace a water service line is about $3-5k for the homeowner. And the city offers a program to basically add it to the property taxes for the next 10 years.

The issue in Flint BTW was not just the lead pipes as some posts suggested, but the fact that they switched to cheaper river water, which is industrially polluted and corrosive. Amongst all sorts of chemicals it also was corrosive enough to dissolve the lead pipes natural passive layer of PbO2 inside the pipes, so lead could leach into the water.