If a tag showed up on your door or a letter came with your water bill asking what your water service line is made of, you are not being singled out and you are not in trouble. Every water system in New Jersey is under the same state deadline, and your address is on the part of the list nobody has confirmed yet.
Why it arrived now, and why it will arrive again
New Jersey passed a law in 2021 that put every community water system in the state on a clock: inventory the service lines, notify the people on a lead or unknown line, and replace those lines by 2031. NJDEP turned that into two dates that repeat every year. Service line inventories are due to the state by July 10, and water systems must send notices to affected customers by August 10.
That is the entire reason these tags and letters go out across New Jersey in the same few weeks each summer. Systems from Bergen to Warren are working the same calendar. It also means this is not one-and-done: every address still marked unknown gets contacted again next year, and the year after, until somebody actually looks at the pipe.
The problem for your water system is simple. It has good records for the mains in the street and almost none for the pipe running from the curb into your basement. That half is usually the property owner's, so nobody at the water company has ever seen it. Asking you is the fastest way to close the gap, and the photo they want is worth more than the form, because a picture of the pipe at your meter answers the question outright.
How big the unknown pile is
Statewide, water systems have reported about 115,000 service lines already known to be lead or galvanized steel, and roughly 688,000 more whose material has never been confirmed, out of about 2.4 million lines reported in total. Nearly three in ten service lines in New Jersey are still a question mark. When you see towns all over the state mailing notices in the same month, that number is the reason. You can look up what your own water system has reported on NJDEP's mapping tool.
Who owns which half, before anything else
Worth settling first, because it colors every other question. A service line has two halves: the water system’s side, from the main in the street out to roughly the curb, and your side, from there into the house. The half running across your property is normally your property and your bill when it fails, and that surprises people the first time.
Where exactly the line changes hands is set by your municipality or water utility rather than by any statewide rule, so it genuinely varies town to town. The meter is not a reliable marker either: it shows where billing starts, not where ownership starts. If you want it settled for your address, ask your water system where their responsibility ends before you assume anything.
Lead replacement is the exception that proves it. The law makes the water system see the entire lead line removed, including your half, precisely because leaving half of it in the ground defeats the purpose. That is a duty to get the work done, not a change of ownership, and it does not apply to an ordinary water line failure. For that, see water service replacement.
What your letter is actually telling you
| What the notice says | What it means | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| Lead | Confirmed lead somewhere in the service line | It has to come out. Under the replacement law your water system has to see the whole line replaced rather than just its own half, but that is an obligation to get it done, not a statement that they own or pay for your side. Who pays is a separate question and there is funding aimed at the customer half |
| Galvanized | Galvanized steel, which under N.J.S.A. 58:12A-41 is legally treated as a lead service line | Same as lead. This surprises people, and it is the single most missed part of the notice |
| Unknown | Nobody has confirmed what your half is made of. Most notices are these | You get asked again next year, and the year after, until somebody looks. Answering takes about five minutes |
| Non-lead | Confirmed copper, plastic or other non-lead material | Nothing, though the state still has to have it recorded |
How to answer it in five minutes
You do not need a plumber, and you do not need to wait for an appointment. NJDEP tells residents with an unknown line that they can verify the material themselves. Go to your water meter, usually in the basement or crawlspace on the wall closest to the street, and look at the pipe on the street side of the meter. If your meter sits in an outside pit, look at the pipe going into the pit.
- Scratch it with a coin or a key, a few inches off the meter. Lead is soft, dull gray, and scratches to a shiny silver streak. Copper scratches to a bright penny color. Galvanized steel barely scratches and stays dull.
- Try a magnet. A refrigerator magnet grabs galvanized steel firmly. It will not stick to lead, copper, or plastic.
- Look at the shape. Old lead services often have a bulged section or a fat rounded bend near the meter, and no threads. Galvanized has threaded joints.
- Photograph it. Get the meter and about a foot of incoming pipe in one frame, in good light, close enough to see the surface. If you scratched it, get the scratch in the shot.
Silver scratch and no magnet means you are probably looking at lead. Dull gray that will not scratch silver and grabs a magnet means galvanized. Bright penny color means copper, and white, black, or blue plastic means plastic. If the pipe is painted, wrapped, or hidden behind finished wall, say that on the form. An honest "could not see it" is a real answer and it beats a guess.
What one of these letters actually says
Ours is a good example, because Hamburg is where our yard is. The Borough of Hamburg sent its water customers a letter on June 19, 2023, and it is worth reading closely because most NJ towns are saying the same things in different words.
It names the law. The letter cites P.L. 2021 Ch. 183 and describes it as requiring "all lead and galvanized steel water lines to be accounted for in all public water systems in the State of New Jersey, with the intention of being removed and replaced." Galvanized is named right alongside lead, which is the part people skim past.
It tells you what phase you are in. Hamburg described itself as in Phase I, "which consists of identifying what type of water service lines Hamburg Borough water customers have entering their homes or businesses." Phase I is the inventory. Nobody is replacing anything yet at that stage, and the letter is not an accusation.
It goes out of its way to calm you down, and the number matters. The letter says plainly that this "does not mean your home or business has unacceptable levels of lead contamination," and then gives the figure: the actual lead concentration in Hamburg's drinking water over the last three-year compliance period was 0.002 mg/L, against the 0.015 mg/L action level NJDEP requires. That is a long way below the line. If your town's letter includes its own number, that number is the answer to the question you are actually worried about.
It asks for a photo. Hamburg's survey asks customers to photograph the service pipe and upload it, because a picture settles what a checkbox cannot. Take the photo before you fill anything in. Our five-minute identification walkthrough above is what to look at.
It gives you a human. Hamburg's went to the Water Superintendent by name, with an email and a direct phone number. Whoever is named on your letter is the right person to ask, and they would far rather answer a question than process a wrong answer.
This is happening in every town, not just yours
If you want to see that for yourself, here are real examples from four different counties, all public pages published by the towns themselves:
- Borough of Hamburg, Sussex County, the letter quoted above.
- Morris Township, Morris County.
- Township of Nutley, Essex County.
- Borough of Essex Fells, Essex County.
- Borough of Ship Bottom, Ocean County.
- Borough of Lavallette, Ocean County.
Two statewide places to look if your own town has not made it easy: NJDEP's page for residents who received a notice, and Jersey WaterCheck's lead resources. If your water comes from a private company rather than the town, start with the name on your bill: New Jersey American Water runs its own replacement program, for instance.
Galvanized counts too
People are surprised the form asks about galvanized steel. Two reasons. Galvanized pipe that sat downstream of a lead pipe can hold lead in the scale on its inside wall, so it keeps releasing lead after the lead itself is gone. And on its own merit, after fifty or seventy years in the ground galvanized rusts closed from the inside. If your water pressure has been quietly getting worse for years, that is often what it is. We cover both on our sewer and water line page.
Who pays, and the part most people never read
A service line has two halves, the water system's side from the main to the curb and your side from the curb into the house, and historically you paid for yours. NJDEP is upfront that property owners may be responsible for their portion. But the state's own funding guidance goes further, and this is the sentence worth knowing: "Both the public and private sides of the lead service lines are eligible for replacement funding," and "Principal forgiveness funds are earmarked specifically for the customer side replacement."
In other words, there is state and federal money moving through the New Jersey Water Bank pointed at the half of the pipe that is normally yours to pay for. On top of that, NJDEP says water systems generally cannot replace their side and leave the customer side for later, except in an emergency or as part of a main replacement project, so when your line comes up the whole run should be handled at once.
So the boring advice is the profitable one: respond to the notice now, then ask your water system how costs are being assessed for your address and what funding it has, before you pay anyone. Some towns are working through funded replacements in the order people responded, our own borough in Hamburg among them. If there is money for your replacement, you should not be paying out of pocket for it.
What replacement day looks like
A typical single-family service line is a one to two day job. Markouts get called in and we wait for the marks. We dig from the curb to the house, set the new line on proper bedding at code depth, coordinate the connection and the inspection with the water system, then backfill in compacted lifts so the trench does not telegraph through your lawn a year later. Driveways, walkways, and patios get bored under instead of cut wherever the layout allows. The job is finished when the surface is back, not when the pipe is in.
Where we fit, and where we do not
JWSR is a private excavation contractor. We are not your water system, not your town, and not NJDEP. We cannot process your notice or hold your place in a funding line, and nobody from our company will ever knock on your door claiming to be from your town or the water company. If somebody does, that is worth a phone call to your water system.
What we do is the pipe. Water service lines are core work for us across Sussex, Warren, Morris, Hunterdon, Somerset, Passaic, and Bergen County. If your line comes back lead or galvanized and you want a straight answer about the work and about whether funding should be covering it, call us at 862-268-2510, or read the full rundown on our lead and galvanized water line replacement page.
A different letter about your water, and a different rule
Worth separating these, because they arrive looking similar. The survey above is about what your service line is MADE OF. If instead your letter came from NJDEP's Environmental Claims Administration about a contaminated private well, that is a different program with a different requirement: it asks for three estimates to connect the house to public water. We walk through that one on our NJ Spill Fund well claims page.
Common questions
Is galvanized pipe considered a lead service line in New Jersey? Yes. Under N.J.S.A. 58:12A-41 a galvanized service line is treated as a lead service line, so it carries the same replacement obligation. Galvanized pipe absorbs lead from any lead upstream of it, which is the reasoning behind the rule.
Who pays for the homeowner's half? It depends on who owns your water system, and this is the part almost nobody knows. If you are served by an investor-owned water company, the cost of lead service line replacement is spread across all of that company's customers statewide through the rate base, in a manner set by the NJ Board of Public Utilities. If you are served by a government-owned system, meaning your town or a municipal authority, the cost may be spread across all customers OR it may be assessed to your property. Ask your water system which one you are before you pay anybody.
Can I hire my own contractor instead of the water system's? Yes. NJDEP is explicit that property owners can replace their portion at will. Two conditions in practice: coordinate with your water system, and your contractor has to contact them anyway to get the water shut off to do the work.
What is a partial replacement and why does everyone warn about it? That is when only one half of the line gets replaced and the lead half stays. It can temporarily raise lead levels in your water rather than lower them. If it happens, the water system has to notify you, give you flushing instructions, and since October 15, 2024 provide a filter with six months of replacement cartridges. This is the reason to get both halves done at the same time rather than rushing your side on your own.
My house was built after 1987, so I am fine, right? No, and NJDEP says so directly. New Jersey banned lead in 1987, but the state's guidance is that you cannot assume post-1987 pipe is non-lead. The material has to actually be evaluated.
What is the actual deadline? Every lead service line in New Jersey has to be removed within ten years of the 2021 law, which means by July 2031, and every service line in the state has to be identified by then regardless of material.
What if I just ignore the letter? Your address stays on the unknown list and you get asked again, at least once a year. Water systems are told to keep making a good faith effort and to document refusals. Meanwhile you are not in any funding queue, which is the part that actually costs you.
Still not sure how this applies to your property? That is what a free on-site estimate is for. Call 862-268-2510 or tell us what is going on, and we will give you a straight answer, including when the answer is that you do not need us.
Sources
- NJDEP, For Residents Receiving Notice of a Lead or Unknown Service Line, what the notice means and what to do with it.
- NJDEP, Frequently Asked Questions on Lead Service Line Replacement Requirements, the July 10 inventory date, the 2031 deadline, who pays for the customer side, the post-1987 answer, replacing your own portion, and the partial-replacement filter requirement.
- P.L. 2021, c.183 (N.J.S.A. 58:12A-40 et seq.), the law that set the inventory, the notification and the ten-year replacement clock.
- NJDEP, Lead Service Line Replacement fact sheet.
This is general information, not advice about your specific address. Your water system administers this for your property and is the one to confirm how costs are being assessed for you.