This is just out of interest...

Some 15 years ago, I replaced my own water main; dug a trench to the
boundary of our property and laid a blue pipe, etc.
The water company called pretty promptly and connected it up.

Today and all week, the water company are renewing all main water pipes
in our street. There's a trench in our street. I was very surprised
to see the end of my plastic pipe,
........connected to their lead pipe!!!!!

What d'you make of that!

If the trench remains when they've gone, I'll take a photo.

Tony

"tonyjeffs" wrote in message
ups.com...
This is just out of interest...

Some 15 years ago, I replaced my own water main; dug a trench to the
boundary of our property and laid a blue pipe, etc.
The water company called pretty promptly and connected it up.

Today and all week, the water company are renewing all main water pipes
in our street. There's a trench in our street. I was very surprised
to see the end of my plastic pipe,
.......connected to their lead pipe!!!!!

What d'you make of that!

If the trench remains when they've gone, I'll take a photo.

Tony

Do you mean that the work has been done and that they are keeping the lead
pipe?
If so what have they renewed?

If not why are you surprised that the original mains pipe was lead? weren't
they all?

Tony

tonyjeffs wrote:
This is just out of interest...

Some 15 years ago, I replaced my own water main; dug a trench to the
boundary of our property and laid a blue pipe, etc.
The water company called pretty promptly and connected it up.

Today and all week, the water company are renewing all main water pipes
in our street. There's a trench in our street. I was very surprised
to see the end of my plastic pipe,
.......connected to their lead pipe!!!!!

What d'you make of that!

If the trench remains when they've gone, I'll take a photo.

Tony

They connected your new plastic pipe to their existing service pipe,
which was lead. They were then under no obligation to replace their bit
of lead pipe.

Things have changed. I think that nowadays they're obliged to remove
their bit of lead service pipe if you ask them AND if you've replaced
all the lead service pipe on your property. Ask them while the trench
is open. They'll probably ignore you, then come back 6 months hence,
when the instruction has found it's way through their system and dig
your street up again.

Maybe that's it - they couldn't replace the last bit of lead service
pipe until the main pipe was modernised, but I think they should've
told me at the time, maybe in the paperwork.
I was just surprised, having lived the last 10 years under the
impression that our water supply system was lead free - I thought that
was the whole point. Y' think you're protecting your kids by getting
rid of ALL the lead. I bet most people would be surprised at that.
.....
They filled the hole in pretty quick. I didn't see them replace the
last bit of lead, so I'll jus' presume they did to keep myself happy.

Cheers
Tony

In article .com,
tonyjeffs wrote:
I was just surprised, having lived the last 10 years under the
impression that our water supply system was lead free - I thought that
was the whole point. Y' think you're protecting your kids by getting
rid of ALL the lead. I bet most people would be surprised at that.

It's an interesting point. If you are in a hard water area the inside of
lead quickly gets coated and nil lead appears in the water.

In a soft water area this doesn't happen. In theory you can get the lead
replaced for free, but first you have to pay for a water test to show the
presence of lead above a certain value. And a friend living in the NE of
Scotland where it's all granite and therefore as soft a water as you'll
find - ok for use direct in car batteries - did this test and it was
*well* below the level.

So I dunno if there's some intermediate type of water that really does
dissolve the lead in significant quantities, but I doubt it.

--
*Born free...Taxed to death.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"tonyjeffs" wrote in message
oups.com...
Maybe that's it - they couldn't replace the last bit of lead service
pipe until the main pipe was modernised, but I think they should've
told me at the time, maybe in the paperwork.
I was just surprised, having lived the last 10 years under the
impression that our water supply system was lead free - I thought that
was the whole point. Y' think you're protecting your kids by getting
rid of ALL the lead. I bet most people would be surprised at that.

I'm not. The rising main to our house is lead. We replaced internal lead
plumbing (tautologous, I know) only because it was old and perfoated. The
mains pipe is far thicker.

It's coated internally with insoluble salts, it represents no harm to
anyone.

Mary

On Sat, 22 Apr 2006 14:00:24 +0100, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:


"tonyjeffs" wrote in message
roups.com...
Maybe that's it - they couldn't replace the last bit of lead service
pipe until the main pipe was modernised, but I think they should've
told me at the time, maybe in the paperwork.
I was just surprised, having lived the last 10 years under the
impression that our water supply system was lead free - I thought that
was the whole point. Y' think you're protecting your kids by getting
rid of ALL the lead. I bet most people would be surprised at that.

I'm not. The rising main to our house is lead. We replaced internal lead
plumbing (tautologous, I know) only because it was old and perfoated. The
mains pipe is far thicker.

But if you replaced it with copper plumbing isn't that an oxymoron?


It's coated internally with insoluble salts, it represents no harm to
anyone.

Mary

Perhaps you're right, I bet it did, yes.



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