Lead service line? Who owns it in Yonkers and White Plains, and what to do next

If you own a house in Yonkers, a letter about your water meter is on its way or already on the table, and it raises a question most owners have never had to answer: what is the pipe that brings water into the house made of? Here is why it is being asked now, which houses are most likely to have a lead service line, who owns that line in Yonkers and White Plains, and what to do if yours is lead.

Why Yonkers owners are hearing about their service line now

Two city programs meet at one appointment. Every Yonkers water account is getting a new meter under the city’s AMI water meter upgrade, which the city calls mandatory. The replacement is at no cost, and the city’s contracted installer, VEPO Metering, sends each account a notice with scheduling instructions. The city is also inventorying every owner’s water service line, and says it will test each owner’s line at the scheduled meter replacement. You will get a letter in the mail when it is your turn.

The technician needs to get inside, because most meters are indoors, in a basement, cellar, crawl space or utility room. That is usually where the service line comes in.

White Plains keeps its own lead service line inventory. Questions about it go to the city’s Water Bureau at (914) 422-1220.

Which houses are likely to have a lead service line

Yonkers puts it plainly: lead and galvanized water service lines are found mostly in homes built before the mid-1940s. Lead pipe was banned in the 1980s, and homes built after 1986 should be lead-free. The city also flags galvanized pipe that was once connected to a lead pipe, which it says could be a source of lead at the property too.

So the age of the house is the first clue: built before the mid-1940s is reason enough to check, and after 1986 a lead line is unlikely by the city’s own account. Yonkers links its 2026 Water Service Line Inventory from the same page.

Who owns the service line: all the way to the main

This is the part people get wrong. In both cities, the owner’s line does not stop at the property line or the sidewalk.

• Yonkers: the city says “Yonkers property owners own and are responsible for their water service line from their house to its connection to the City’s water main.” Its Water Bureau adds that many Yonkers homeowners are responsible for the water and sewer service lines that run between their homes and the city’s mains.
• White Plains: section 3.05(a) of the City Water Rules, quoted in the city’s water quality report, says “the homeowner owns the entire service line from the water main to the water meter.”

The main itself belongs to the water supplier. The service line belongs to the owner in Yonkers and White Plains all the way to where it joins the main, so a lead or galvanized service line under the sidewalk or the street can still be the owner’s to deal with, and so can a leak in it. A break in the main is the supplier’s job; our guide to a water main break covers that.

How to check your own line today

The EPA’s guide Protect Your Tap: A Quick Check for Lead, which the City of Yonkers links to, says all you need is a penny or a key and a magnet.

• Find the pipe. Start at the water meter. The incoming line comes through an outside wall or the floor and connects to the meter, with a valve on it. That valve is also your main water shut-off valve, and worth knowing for other reasons.
• Scratch it gently with the coin or key, close to where it comes through the wall or floor. Orange or pale orange is copper.
• If it is gray, scratch it and try the magnet. Hard to scratch and the magnet sticks: probably galvanized steel. Soft and the magnet does not stick: you may have a lead service line.

A scratch test only tells you about the piece of pipe you can see. The EPA is clear that testing the water is the only way to confirm whether lead is present.

Getting your water tested

• Yonkers: the City of Yonkers Bureau of Water laboratory, 914-377-6764, tests residents’ water on request. The city also lists the Westchester County Department of Labs & Research, 914-231-1768, for lead testing.
• White Plains: ask the Water Bureau, (914) 422-1220, about your line and the city’s inventory.
• Anywhere: Yonkers points to a list of certified laboratories at wadsworth.org/regulatory/elap.

Yonkers notes that one water sample may not capture every source of lead in a house. It also says its monitoring shows no significant lead in the city’s supply, while some owners’ service lines could still be a source of lead at the property.

What Yonkers passes on from the EPA

We are plumbers, not doctors, so on health we point you to the city and the EPA. The Yonkers page lists the EPA’s recommended steps for anyone concerned about lead, including:

• Use cold water for drinking, cooking and making baby formula, because lead dissolves more easily into hot water. As the page puts it, “Boiling water does not remove lead from water.”
• Run the cold water before drinking. The page says 2 to 3 minutes is generally enough after it has sat in the service line overnight.
• If you use a filter, use one certified to remove lead, and do not run hot water through it.
• Clean the aerator, the screen at the end of the faucet, regularly.

Read the full list on the city’s page, and take questions about your own results to your water supplier or a certified lab.

What replacing a lead service line involves

Replacing a lead service line means replacing the pipe between the house and the main, so the work can reach the sidewalk or the street, not just the yard. A few steps come before anyone digs:

• Mark-outs. In Yonkers, the Water Bureau marks out its water mains for contractors so the mains are not damaged during excavation.
• Call 811. Con Edison asks for a call to 811 at least two days before you break ground.
• Permits. In Yonkers, plumbing permits are filed online through City Squared, with the Westchester County plumbing hold-harmless form on file. Other municipalities run their own.

Everything else, from how the line is reached to what the street side involves, depends on the property and the water supplier, so ask yours before work is planned. Replacing the line from the house is part of our repiping work, with the price agreed before any work starts.

Dobbs Ferry and the rest of our area

In Dobbs Ferry, Veolia works on the water mains; ask your water supplier about your service line record. Elsewhere, who owns which part of the line is not settled the same way in every town, so check with your water supplier before assuming. Our service area page lists the towns we cover.

When to call

• The scratch test, a lab result or the city’s inventory points to a lead service line or galvanized pipe, and you want it replaced: that is repiping.
• A wet patch in the yard, or a meter that keeps moving with every faucet closed, may be a leak on your service line: that is leak detection.
• Discolored water has its own guide: brown water from the tap.

KBD Plumbing & Heating works across lower Westchester — Dobbs Ferry, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington, Yonkers, White Plains and the rest. Licensed and insured, price agreed before work starts, and the phone is answered any hour including holidays: (914) 233-3000.

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