Lead service lines — the pipes connecting homes to the public water main — remain one of the most significant sources of lead exposure in US drinking water. This map shows self-reported lead service line counts for all 44,000+ community water systems in the EPA ECHO database, colored by the number of pipes each system has reported under the EPA Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR). Use it alongside our interactive tap water quality map to get a fuller picture of drinking water safety in your area.

How to Use This Map

Reading the Colors

Each colored polygon is a community water system’s service area. Light yellow = 1-99 reported lead pipes; orange = 100-999; red = 1,000-9,999; dark magenta = 10,000 or more. Gray systems report zero. Click any shape to see the system name, pipe count, population served, compliance status, and a direct link to its EPA ECHO record.

Using the Filters

Has Lead Lines (default) shows systems with any reported lead pipes. 100+ Lead Pipes and 1,000+ Lead Pipes show progressively higher-count systems. Serves Schools isolates systems that supply schools or daycare facilities and have reported lead lines. All Systems loads the full 44,000+ dataset including those reporting zero.

Searching Your Address

Type a city or address in the search box and press Enter to zoom to your location. Click any water system shape to read its popup details, then follow the EPA ECHO link for the system’s full violation and compliance history.

National Lead Service Line Statistics

As of March 2024, US water systems have self-reported approximately 2 million lead service lines across more than 3,300 water systems, serving roughly 93 million Americans. These figures are a mid-inventory snapshot — many state inventories remain incomplete, and the EPA’s own estimate puts the true national total (including homeowner-owned pipes) at 9 million or more.

Lead Service Lines by State: 2024 Rankings

Illinois alone accounts for more than one in five reported lead service lines nationally. The top six states — Illinois, Ohio, New York, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin — together hold nearly 75% of all reported lead pipes. Four states report zero, though this likely reflects a mix of genuinely newer infrastructure and incomplete inventory submissions.

The 10 Water Systems with the Most Reported Lead Pipes

These ten systems collectively account for more than 600,000 reported lead service lines — roughly a third of the national total. All are large city systems in the Midwest and Northeast built primarily in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when lead was the standard material for service connections.

What Are Lead Service Lines?

A service line is the pipe that runs from the public water main to a home or building. Until 1986, when Congress banned lead in new plumbing materials, lead was the standard choice for service lines because it was cheap, flexible, and easy to bend around obstacles. Homes built before 1940 are at especially high risk, but any home connected to a pre-1986 water main could have a lead service line on either the utility or homeowner side of the property boundary.

Service lines have two segments: the utility-owned section (from the water main to the property line) and the homeowner-owned section (from the property line into the building). Both can be lead, and both can leach lead into drinking water. LCRR inventories primarily cover utility-owned lines — the homeowner-side picture at any specific property may be worse. Much of America’s water distribution infrastructure dates to the same era as its oldest dams; our US dams and water infrastructure map shows how extensively the country relies on systems built before modern safety standards.

Health Risks of Lead in Drinking Water

Lead is a neurotoxin with no safe level of exposure. The populations most at risk are children under six and pregnant women. When water sits in a lead service line for several hours — overnight, for example — lead dissolves into the water at concentrations that can far exceed the EPA’s action level of 15 parts per billion. The longer water rests in the pipe, and the warmer it is, the more lead it picks up.

Children exposed to lead before age six can suffer permanent neurological damage: lower IQ scores, attention and learning disorders, and behavioral problems that persist into adulthood. Pregnant women face elevated risks of miscarriage, preterm birth, and developmental problems in their newborns. There is no medical treatment that reverses neurological damage from early childhood lead exposure. The populations most exposed — low-income renters in older urban neighborhoods — are also least able to test, filter, or demand pipe replacement. For a parallel view of persistent water quality threats, our PFAS contamination map shows where forever chemicals have entered public water supplies across the US.

Understanding the Reported Data

All figures come from water system self-reports submitted to the EPA under the LCRR, which required utilities to finalize their service line inventories by October 2024. The March 2024 snapshot shown here is a mid-process count. Key limitations:

• Inventories were still incomplete. Many systems had not yet submitted final counts. States with very low numbers — California (11), Nevada (0), Oregon (0) — almost certainly undercount reality.
• Homeowner-side pipes may not be counted. If only the utility-owned portion of the service line is inventoried, the count misses any lead on the property-owner side of the meter.
• Zero does not mean safe. A system reporting zero lead service lines may still use galvanized steel pipes that collected lead deposits from upstream lead lines and continue to release it. Lead solder in building plumbing is also not captured here.

For overall EPA compliance status — covering all health-based violations, not just lead — our tap water quality map color-codes every community water system in the country.

How to Check Your Home’s Lead Risk

Click any water system on this map and follow the EPA ECHO link in the popup to see its full compliance and violation record. Additional steps:

• Ask your water utility whether your specific address has a lead service line — utilities must now provide this by law under the LCRR
• Request a free tap water lead test; many utilities and state programs offer them at no cost
• Install an NSF/ANSI Standard 53-certified lead filter on your kitchen faucet (pitcher, faucet-mount, or under-sink reverse osmosis systems all qualify)
• Flush your tap for at least two minutes after any extended period of non-use before using water for drinking or cooking
• Check the EWG Tap Water Database for lead monitoring results specific to your zip code

For a wider view of water system infrastructure in your area, our US wastewater plants map shows treatment plants and outfall locations across the country.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which state has the most lead service lines?

Illinois, with 423,920 reported lead service lines as of March 2024 — more than any other state and roughly 21% of the national total. Chicago alone accounts for 150,767 of those lines.

Which city has the most lead pipes?

Chicago tops the list with 150,767 reported lead service lines, followed by the Cleveland Public Water System (144,193) and New York City (120,931). All three cities serve millions of residents through aging water distribution systems built when lead was standard pipe material.

Does my water contain lead if my utility has reported lead pipes?

Not necessarily, but the risk is elevated. Utilities with significant lead pipe counts are required to add corrosion inhibitors (usually orthophosphate) to minimize leaching, and they face enhanced monitoring requirements. These measures reduce — but do not eliminate — risk. The safest approach is filtering your water and requesting a tap test from your utility.

When must lead service lines be replaced?

Under the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Improvements finalized in October 2024, all lead service lines must be replaced within 10 years — by 2034. Systems with elevated lead levels in monitoring results face accelerated timelines of three to five years.

Do water filters remove lead?

Yes. Filters certified to NSF/ANSI Standard 53 for lead removal are effective at the tap. Certified pitcher filters, faucet-mount filters, and under-sink reverse osmosis systems all qualify. Boiling water does not remove lead and should never be used as a lead-reduction strategy.

Why do Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Oregon show zero lead pipes?

These states may have genuinely newer infrastructure built after lead was banned in new plumbing in 1986, may have completed replacements under earlier state programs, or may have submitted incomplete inventories. California’s reported total of 11 lines across 2,772 water systems is widely regarded as a significant undercount.

Data Sources

Lead service line counts are sourced from the EPA ECHO Community Water Systems dataset, specifically the ArcGIS FeatureServer maintained by the EPA Office of Water, last updated March 28, 2024. Population figures are utility-reported service population estimates submitted under the Safe Drinking Water Act. State totals and rankings are calculated from reported counts only and do not adjust for inventory completeness. The EPA updates this dataset periodically as utility inventories are finalized.

Lead Service Lines Maps by State

Select your state to see a filtered map showing local water systems ranked by lead pipe count, with state-specific context and inventory notes.