DES MOINES, Iowa — Des Moines homeowners, double check your mailbox. You may be one of thousands in the city getting a letter telling to check the materials of your water pipes.
Des Moines Water Works sent the letter out Friday, leaving people worried about the quality of their water and who would be in charge of paying for the repairs.
DMWW said it is important to note there is not a lead in drinking water problem in the metro, the letter is simply to find those lines so it can be replaced.
"There's not lead in the drinking water," said Ted Corrigan, CEO of Des Moines Water Works. "We want to make that clear. We've been replacing service line lead service lines for a long time. This is just a new rule that says, hey, you got to find them all and replace them in 10 years. And so, we're going to need their help if we're going to find them."
Of those who received a letter, DMWW said a vast majority of people will not have a lead service line, but DMWW does not know where some of those lines are. It doesn't have records for every service line because some are privately owned.
Last Friday, Durand McGowen said he found two letters from Des Moines Water Works in his mailbox.
"I'm like, well, what could this be, because I know I paid my bill. It went through, you know, look, and it says they confirmed... I have lead pipes," McGowen said.
McGowen is one of 55,000 homeowners who received a letter, encouraging them to perform a test on their pipes to see if they are made of lead.
"It says we've confirmed we know, and so I go to the QR code, and the first thing it says is, go check your pipes. It's asking me, telling me how to do a magnet test, and I'm like, magnet? It says you confirm I have lead, so why would I need to do a magnet test?" McGowen said.
Des Moines Water Works is offering free testing on homes built before 1940 with confirmed lead or galvanized lead. McGowen said he and his neighbors are looking into how much the repairs would set them back.
"You're telling us, it's for sure our responsibility, and we for sure have lead pipes. so everybody's debating on the cost, and we're hearing anywhere from 5000 to 12,000 dollars, so we replace this pipe," McGowen said.
Des Moines Water Works wrote in a Facebook post saying homeowners can replace their service lines anytime by hiring a licensed plumber or contractor, and the U.S. EPA has said they want all lead/galvanized pipes replaced by 2037.
A cost McGowen will have to tack on to his list.
"That's another cost to get repaired. and you know, I'm like, meanwhile, I'm looking for grants and anything that could possibly help," McGowen said.
Des Moines Water Works said it's working to secure federal funding for lead service line replacements while prioritizing income-eligible neighborhoods.
"There isn't a requirement that the homeowner replace their service line if they don't want to," Corrigan said. "The point is that lead service lines are a liability. Something could go wrong with it at some point in the future. So we're going to try hard to work with customers to get those lead service lines replaced."
According to DMWW, it estimates about 20,000 pipes are lead service lines, meaning it would cost up to $200 million to replace all the pipes. Corrigan estimates federal funding to cover $50 million of the replacements. He adds there is still time to find as much funding as possible.
Local 5 will be speaking with Des Moines Water Works on Thursday and will update this story accordingly.