Attention HN Homeowners: The MJ article links to a short page about lead pipes in houses. Sadly MJ sticks with the scary story but devotes very little attention to replacing the lead service to your house. The good news is that as far as house troubles go replacing a lead service pipe is not that bad and your local water authority can probably help out a lot.

Call your water authority and ask about lead abatement programs. While you are on the phone with them ask if they can send someone to your house and test the water for lead (some do some dont). Most municipalities have programs to help homeowners replace the lead service. The most prevalent is a program where the municipality pays for the lead service replacement and you slowly pay off the debt with monthly payments added to your water bill. Some municipalities have grant money so that they can replace the lead service pipe for houses with children.

Given the clipart picture of galvanized pipes it is no surprise that they did not do a stellar job covering lead abatement programs.