Yes! Every Community Water System is required to develop, implement and maintain a comprehensive Water Service Line Material Inventory. If a CWS can confidently determine that there are no lead service lines within their system, the CWS is not required to prepare a Lead Service Line Replacement Plan.

Yes, all Community Water Systems or public water systems which serves at least 15 service connections year-round or services 25 residents year-round, must be in compliance with the new state and federal regulations.

When using state or federal funding to complete lead service line replacement, municipalities are responsible for funding the entire cost of the replacement. However, when using local funds for replacement, a municipality can require the owner of the private portion of the lead service to fund that part of the work.

For Illinois communities, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is strongly encouraging municipalities to offer funding options to owners of the private portion of the lead service line.

If an owner of building with a lead service line intends to replace their portion of the lead service line, they are required to provide noticed to the municipality at least 45 days prior to commencing work. The municipality is required to replace the remainder of the lead service line within 30 days (or up to 120 days due to weather conditions).

Having unknown material types for the Draft Inventory is acceptable for this year’s inventory submittal. However, when submitting the Complete Inventory in 2024, water service lines with an unknown material type will be considered a lead service line (unless the water service line was designated as “Unknown – But Not Lead”). This is primarily important for CWS that strongly believe they do not have any lead service lines. Having known or suspected lead service lines will require a CWS to develop a Lead Service Line Replacement Plan, which must first be submitted April 15, 2024.