It’s time for Youngsville Borough to get the lead out.

Borough Council heard an update from Public Works Foreman Mark Theuret about a 2022 Environmental Protection Agency revision to the lead and copper rule for water service lines.

It wasn’t a positive update.

“We need to inventory every service line in Youngsville Borough by Oct. 16, 2024,” Theuret said.

That includes three points of confirmation.

The service lines extend from the mains to individual properties. “From the curb box to the meter is theirs,” Council Member Rick Brewster said.

“I can’t dig up every service line in three places,” Theuret said.

“This is going to impact our residents, this is going to affect the whole town,” he said. As an example, “everybody on North Main right now, except a few that already have copper… will be required to take that galvanized steel out, because, we know there was lead there before.”

There was good news. Getting inside to take a look at the service line where it enters the home or building counts as one.

Still, digging and taking a look at every service line in the borough is not practical, he said. And, “a lot of homeowners aren’t home during our working hours.”

“I’m working on some kind of plan,” Theuret said. “I’m trying to figure out the most realistic, systematic way.”

“After the Oct. 16, 2024 deadline, I will have to create a lead service line replacement plan and notify them every year that they are served by a lead line or an unknown line,” he said.

There is a maximum percentage of “unknown” lines that can be reported.

Updating the survey and working to replace lead and galvanized steel will be an ongoing process. “There will be a certain percentage of every year,” Theuret said.

He said he would be taking a look at water lines every time there is any excavation work done in the borough.

Council members were concerned about the need to dig up newly-paved streets, meeting the timeline, and the costs involved.

Theuret said the changes came out after the current budget was approved.

“We need to talk to our representatives. We need to be advocates for our borough,” Troy Clawson said. Let them know “how impossible this is going to be for a small municipality.”