4 tips to check the safety of your home's tap water

1. Assess your home’s age. If it was built before 1986, your residence has a good chance of having lead in its plumbing.

Older homes have even higher risks,especially those built before 1930, experts say. On faucets where water is used for drinking and cooking, consider installing a water-filtration system that removes lead.

2. Call your water company. Ask whether the utility-owned portion of the service line to your house is made of lead and whether the company ever partially replaced a lead service line at your address.

If customer-service representatives say the water system doesn’t own any portion of the line, they’re probably wrong.

Beyond Flint: Excessive lead levels found in almost 2,000 water systems across all 50 states

Ask for a supervisor. The utility often owns the part of the service line that extends from the water main in the street part way to your home.

3. Ask a plumber. A plumber can help assess whether your home has lead pipes, solder or fixtures.

4. Know the limitations of testing. If you test your home’s water and it doesn’t show any lead contamination, it doesn’t mean the water is consistently safe if it is passing through lead pipes, said water-testing expert Marc Edwards of Virginia Tech.

Dangerous pieces of lead solder can break off at any time and corrosion of lead can change over time.

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