The Lead and Copper Rule

To comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Lead and Copper Rule Revision, Johnston County Public Utilities completed an inventory of customer water service line materials. With 95% confidence, we can conclude that the County has fewer than 1% of service lines containing lead. 

Johnston County is committed to providing safe and reliable water, as protecting public health is our number one mission. One way we provide clean water is to ensure compliance with water quality regulations.  The water that leaves our treatment plant is clean and safe to drink. Read our most recent annual water quality report.

In 2021, EPA revised the Lead and Copper Rule that governs water systems across the US.  Under the revisions, all water systems were required to complete a water service line materials inventory.  To comply, Johnston County Public Utilities completed an inventory to determine if our system has any lead or galvanized steel water service lines requiring replacement. Galvanized steel water service lines that or, or have ever been, downstream of a lead service line are categorized as "galvanized requiring replacement." The County’s inventory process was based on a statistical modeling process that included a sampling of field verifications. View the Statistical Method Report for the completed inventory.

Customers should not be worried about the safety of their drinking water. Most of our system was constructed after the 1987 state-wide ban on lead pipes. Since that time, Johnston County’s standard practice has been to use only plastic service lines for the public portion of the service line. While the customer side of the service lines (the portion that the customer owns between the meter and home) was not installed by Johnston County Public Utilities, we believe that most of these service lines are not lead. It is also important to note that most galvanized steel water service lines will not require replacement, as they have not been located downstream of lead service lines. However, the inventory results determined that with 95% confidence, the County has fewer than 1% of service lines of lead or galvanized requiring replacement materials. At this time, no service lines were found to require replacement.

Johnston County Water Service Line Inventory and Public Map

The water service line inventory developed by Johnston County assists customers and ensure compliance with the LCRR. Click here to view the web-based inventory hosted through LeadCAST by Trinnex. The inventory and public map identifies the service line material inventory status of both the public and private portions of the water service line, based on the statistical modeling process that included a sampling of field verifications. With 95% confidence, we can conclude that the County has fewer than 1% of service lines containing lead. 

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