West Virginia American Water conducting operations to identify lead lines

Charleston, W.Va. – West Virginia American Water is on the lookout for lead as efforts are underway by the utility to “pit” lead to identify and replace lead in some galvanized water lines in the Charleston and Huntington areas.

The project is part of West Virginia American Water’s operation to comply with upcoming EPA regulations, in which crews go around the area to find lines and see if they are made of certain materials.

“We want to go about five feet away from the meter and expose what that water line is,” senior project engineer Levi Filsinger told MetroNews.

With the regulations on the way, West Virginia American Water is attempting to move forward and determine which lines, if any, need to be changed to match the guidelines. If lead lines are found, the utility will furnish replacement.

“Because of EPA regulation, until 2037, if it contains lead or needs replacement because it was with lead flux and it’s galvanized, which is GRR, in that case, American Water will actually pay to replace the water line,” Filsinger said.

“If we’re in the area, and we’ve put up our fliers a week in advance, and you don’t want us to dig in the yard, come out and talk to your crew. We’ll send a team of two, and they can identify the main source of water inside, but they have to be able to get to the point where it enters the house,” he said.

According to Filsinger, American Water is trying its best to do as much work as possible within the confines of the public right-of-way. If there is a dispute over a team’s ability to do the job, they will work to find another option.

“If anyone has an objection to us being there or being on the boundary between public property and private property, by all means talk to our staff. We won’t be digging, but ultimately we have to identify those service lines,” Filsinger said.

Currently, digging work is focused on areas that are believed to contain old lines that predate the transition to other materials such as plastic. Despite this, it seems that not much concern is being expressed yet.

“We’re focusing on older areas where we think there’s potential for an uptick, but to be completely honest, we’ve been doing this for three weeks, and we haven’t seen any uptick,” Filsinger said.

Cleanup of the potholes by West Virginia American Water is planned to continue through 2026, with the goal of making necessary replacements in 2027.