Lead pipe replacement

[Spector]

i bought quite a bit of lead water line that had been replaced back in the 80's and as I recall it had thick mineral deposits in it that was already decreasing the ID of the line. I'm thinking that even if your could reline lead water service lines that it would greatly restrict the flow of water to a home or business. I've seen it used to reline leaking sanitary sewer lines, but they were much larger in diameter. i wish now i had segregated the ingots i cast into reclaimed lead water line and separately plumbers lead joints from smashed cast iron pipe from an old orphanage and an old seminary that were being demolished to develop subdivisions. I was just gathering plenty of lead to cast muzzle loading balls from.

[Bigslug]

I'm wondering about the economics of the process.

The WSJ ran an article about this a week or two back. Said that most of the lead in question is the feeder lines that branch off the municipal water mains into the individual buildings. You'd have to cut off the ends, obviously, but every job with removal as the intent would be an individual effort of navigating around and under whatever has been laid on or under the ground ever since the neighborhood was constructed - - pavement, sprinkler lines, fiber optic cabling, etc...

Given that we'd pay no more than a couple bucks a pound once it's melted down and cleaned up, I can't see any work crew putting a priority on getting the stuff out of the ground for money's sake if there's an option to either punch through a liner or run an adjacent line. It's simply going to cost more to dig it up than you'll get selling it off.

There's probably enough anti-lead hysteria among the poorly informed that billions may get spent on digging it up anyway, but if reason prevails, I'd think it'll probably stay underground until it's time for the entire dwelling to get demolished - which will likely take centuries.

[RogerDat]

I do agree that some municipalities will simply cut it off and lay a new line. That is by far the least expensive way to go from a labor standpoint. A crew and the boring/excavating equipment costs a lot per hour.

Most of the lines getting replaced are the lines going directly to the house. Main lines have in many cases been replaced years ago. As was pointed out lead has been recognized as a poor choice for water lines compared to modern options. Lead was the plastic of its day but has not been the preferred choice for decades.

Kudos on the 1750 pound score by going directly to the crew! The highest form of recycling is after all re-use. Now all that member needs is a canon or a whole lot of antimony and tin.

[dondiego]

I do agree that some municipalities will simply cut it off and lay a new line. That is by far the least expensive way to go from a labor standpoint. A crew and the boring/excavating equipment costs a lot per hour.

Most of the lines getting replaced are the lines going directly to the house. Main lines have in many cases been replaced years ago. As was pointed out lead has been recognized as a poor choice for water lines compared to modern options. Lead was the plastic of its day but has not been the preferred choice for decades.

Kudos on the 1750 pound score by going directly to the crew! The highest form of recycling is after all re-use. Now all that member needs is a canon or a whole lot of antimony and tin.

My hometown was replacing the lead pipes running underground down the sides of the streets supplying the houses in the 90's and I had a friend on one of the crews. I scored a load of 1 inch ID lead pipe and the insides of the pipe were coated with a good layer of calcium which prevented the lead from contaminating the water supply. I have a good supply of that soft lead pipe still and it is nice for many uses. I have a cannon and need to make some balls!

[fiberoptik]

Last year my city water people had to replace my water line —lead pipe from 1912. They bored a new hole and ran copper in. Old lead left buried. No score.