Hundreds of thousands of water pipes need to be checked for lead, many of which are on private property. So, what if a property owner doesn’t or can’t perform those checks?

More Baltimore City officials are responding with words of reassurance while others want answers after 11 News Investigates’ exclusive report on the hidden danger of hundreds of thousands of lead water pipes.

There are roughly 275,000 water pipes to check across Baltimore City and Baltimore County and not enough money to go around.

This fall, the Maryland Department of the Environment gave $80 million to water utilities across the state to find and replace lead water pipes. But MDE received requests for more than $133 million.

In his first public comments on the 11 News Investigates report, Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby called the issue a “major concern.”

“Obviously, the health of our residents, as it relates to infrastructure, is critically important,” Mosby told 11 News Investigates. “So, (I) definitely have a concern and (it’s) something that the council’s planning on taking up.”

Some 230,000 water pipes that need to be inspected are on private property. The Baltimore City Department of Public Works will be asking private property owners to check their pipes, go to the DPW’s online map and complete a self-reporting survey.

The DPW is asking those property owners, who are designated as blue dots on DPW’s online map, to check their own pipes using a scratch test. If scratching the pipe reveals a shiny silver metal underneath, the pipe is made of lead.

What if residents don’t want to check their pipes for lead?

But since 11 News Investigates’ initial reporting, several viewers reached out saying they either don’t want to test their own water pipes or that their pipes are underground.

While Mosby said he has faith in DPW, he also said they need to come up with an alternative for residents.

“They should develop a plan that the City Council is comfortable about, that the citizens are comfortable about, and try to develop a way of moving forward,” Mosby told 11 News Investigates.

Baltimore City Comptroller Bill Henry said residents don’t have to check their pipes if it makes them feel uncomfortable, but he pointed out the painful alternative.

“If you don’t want to do the test yourself, you will just pay for that down the line in, you know, the next time that water rates go up,” Henry told 11 News Investigates.

Henry said that city and county residents, of course, shouldn’t have to check their pipes for lead in 2023, but he said public officials, in the past, avoided responsibility.

“Cans got kicked down the road and now we’re at the end of the road where we have to deal with them,” Henry told 11 News Investigates.

Identifying lead pipes part of nationwide effort

The city and county’s partnership in identifying every lead pipe and replacing them is called the Baltimore Service Line Partnership. Combined, Baltimore City and Baltimore County requested more than $93 million for this work from MDE, which has federal funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law. Ultimately, they both received a total of about $50 million, though they’re eligible to apply for additional funding over the next three years.

“I know that following some reporting earlier this week, there are likely to be a lot of questions about lead and copper pipes,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said.

The mayor emphasized that the city’s water quality remains good, that there are not currently any confirmed lead water pipes in the city or county, and explained that public outreach directly to residents would begin soon.

“This nationwide effort is about closing a knowledge and data gap that has persisted for decades in nearly all of our communities to ensure the safety of residents,” Scott said.

While lead water pipes are not inherently dangerous, Stacey Ensor, president of Ensor Plumbing, told 11 News Investigates the pipes can be dangerous if they become corroded and lead seeps into the water. Ensor said water pipes can last 20 to 40 years before corrosion becomes an issue.

“There’s a lot of homes out there. You see a lot of homes, Baltimore City, Ruxton, much older homes still have a lot of the older pipe systems,” Ensor said.

Lead can cause serious health problems, especially in children and pregnant women. The Environmental Protection Agency states no amount of lead is safe in drinking water.

So, what’s the plan for checking the almost 230,000 water pipes on private property when residents aren’t willing to complete the survey or can’t access their pipes?

“We’re doing everything we can and learning best practices from other agencies, other utilities throughout the country that are experiencing similar issues, and we’ll constantly be working with them, with MDE to find out other alternatives for how we can participate and collect that information,” Richard Luna, interim director of Baltimore City DPW, told 11 News Investigates.

Luna told 11 News Investigates DPW’s current timeline includes:

• Getting the word out to the public about checking pipes.
• Determining how many people actually check their pipes.
• Making a plan about how to check the pipes for those residents that don’t or won’t do it. The plan remains unclear.

Last week, DPW added new information to its website, including an explanation of what the lead pipe program is, links to the map and a survey showing where the unknown pipes are located, and answers to frequently asked questions.