A new report from the Rockefeller Institute of Government, Drawing the Line: Lead Service Line Inventories in New York State, reveals significant gaps and inconsistencies in the initial inventories submitted to the state’s Department of Health (DOH) by drinking water systems. These inventories were mandated by both federal regulation and state statute and were due on October 16, 2024.
The report, which analyzes inventory data on the DOH website as of July 2025, found that more than 240 of the 2,938 drinking water systems required to provide an inventory were not yet present on the website. Within existing inventories, systems have identified 935,000 service lines statewide as having an unknown material composition.
The federal Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI) and New York’s Lead Pipe Right to Know Act (LPRKA) required drinking water systems to submit their initial service line inventories to the state Department of Health in October of last year. The data are crucial for identifying which lines need to be replaced to meet the federal goal of eliminating lead from drinking water, a key source of exposure for children, and for understanding which communities are disproportionately impacted by the public health crisis.
“While the goal of fully replacing all lead service lines in New York by 2037 is clear, the path forward is obscured by a patchwork of incomplete data,” said Rockefeller Institute President Bob Megna. “Our analysis reveals the substantial technical and logistical hurdles faced by both water systems and the State in gathering comprehensive and actionable information.”
Using data available as of July 2025, the report’s findings include:
- Of the nearly 3.75 million service lines reported by community water systems, more than 935,000 have an unknown material status.
- Among the already identified service lines, more than 285,000 will require replacement. A 2023 study from the Environmental Protection Agency estimated the total number of lead service lines in New York to be nearly 495,000.
The report suggests that the data gaps are likely due to a number of factors, including long-standing issues with record-keeping at the water system level, a lack of familiarity with new reporting templates, limited staffing capacity, and a need for greater technical assistance and support from federal and state governments.
The report highlights that while some large municipal systems have identified a significant percentage of service lines as made of lead, many smaller systems have a high percentage of unknown lines.