Citizens Energy Group customers to get lead service line info letters
Oct 29, 2024
INDIANAPOLIS - Citizens Energy Group is making an effort to replace all pre-1950s service lines for their customers across central Indiana.
This is due to concerns about lead materials in the drinking water. Over 75,000 customers will be receiving letters over the next month about it.
These letters are only being sent to residents that could have lead in their service lines connecting to their homes.
Citizens wants to reassure homeowners that this doesn’t apply to the public water mains, as they regularly test and treat them for lead.
“It is just that final journey where water may go through an individual person's or home’s service line, where there is potential for exposure to lead,” said spokesperson for Citizens Energy Group Ben Easley.
They’ve been focusing on replacing them because of the health effects from exposure, like increased risk of heart disease or high blood pressure
“We started a couple of years ago; we're now about 2,000 service lines in as far as replacement,” said Easley.
“We really want to be strategic with how we organize those, that's how we can be most efficient.”
As they continue making replacements, Citizens said they want to group neighborhoods together and do them all at one time if possible.
“Each individual home, as they see the replacement, will likely only see construction for several hours or a half a day, so it's not overly invasive,” he said.
Again, if Citizens believes your residence doesn’t have lead service lines, you won’t get a letter.
If you’re curious, you can double-check online.
“All of our customers are represented on this online inventory, and folks can type in their address and see our best guess at whether their service line is lead or galvanized, or unknown or not lead,” said Easley.
These letters also let homeowners know how to reduce exposure, request a tap sampling kit, and get it replaced all for free.
“If you are one of our customers and you're currently served by a lead service line, we're coming to replacement at no additional cost to you,” he said.
Residents should expect their notice by the end of November.
Citizens said that letters will be going out annually until every service line no longer contains lead.
To learn more, click here.