# Lead Service Line Replacement in Indianapolis

> Lead service line replacement in Indianapolis: how Citizens' program splits the cost, the bonded-plumber route, other utilities and lead left inside the house.

URL: https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/lead-service-line-replacement/

Lead or galvanized service lines replaced from the house to the property line through a Citizens-bonded plumber, coordinated with the utility's own work in the street.

Last Updated: October 30, 2026

Pre-1950

Citizens says lead in service lines and plumbing was common in Indianapolis-area homes and buildings built before then

45 days

After an owner-initiated private-side replacement passes, Citizens replaces the right-of-way portion within this window

No partials

Citizens requires a lead line that is modified to be replaced in full, from the main to the home

SDR9

Polyethylene with tracing wire, the material Citizens requires for a full service replacement

[Circle City Repipe](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/) replaces lead and galvanized water service lines in Indianapolis and nearby communities, working on the private side of the line under the water utility’s rules. In Citizens Energy Group territory that work goes through a plumber registered and bonded with Citizens, who files the service line permit. Lead service line replacement here is shaped as much by the utility’s program as by the pipe: Citizens may already be planning to replace the line at no direct cost, or it may pay for the street-side portion while the owner pays for the rest. The work is carried out by licensed and insured contractors.

A service line is the buried pipe from the water main to the house. The general case, for lines that are not lead, is on the [water line replacement](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/water-line-replacement/) page. This page covers what changes when the line is lead, and the [Citizens Energy lead service line program guide](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/guide/citizens-energy-lead-service-line-program/) goes deeper into the letters, the map and the agreement Citizens asks owners to sign.

## What happens on the first visit

The first visit starts where the line enters the house, usually at the front basement wall or in a crawlspace. Lead is dull gray, soft, and shows bright silver when it is scratched lightly; a magnet will not stick to it. It often comes through the foundation with a rounded, bulbous joint. Galvanized steel is magnetic and threaded, and copper shows its color when scratched. The [guide to identifying pipe material](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/guide/how-to-identify-pipe-material/) walks through the same checks.

That look only covers the pipe in view. A line can be copper inside the house and lead under the yard, or lead with a galvanized section spliced in. Citizens publishes a service line map where an owner can look up the material it has on record for their own address, and the visit compares that record with what is at the wall. It also notes the meter location, the main shutoff and the interior supply pipe, because a pre-1950 house with a lead service line may also have lead or galvanized pipe inside.

## Why lead lines are being replaced

Lead does not wear out the way galvanized steel does. The problem is that it can dissolve into the water standing in the line. Citizens treats its water with orthophosphate, which it describes as an additive to prevent lead and copper leaching from plumbing, and that keeps a protective layer on the inside of old pipe. Treatment lowers the risk. It does not take the lead out of the ground.

Federal rules now push utilities toward removing the pipe itself. The U.S. EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, finalized in 2024, set a framework for water systems to identify and replace lead service lines within ten years, and utilities such as Citizens have inventoried their systems and mailed letters to owners. The [lead service line replacement rule](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/blog/lead-service-line-replacement-rule/) post covers what the rule asks of utilities. Citizens estimates that between 55,000 and 75,000 customer-owned service lines in its system contain lead.

Disturbing a lead line is its own risk. Cutting into it, or digging around it, can knock loose scale and particles. That is one reason Citizens requires a lead line that is being modified to be replaced in full, from the main to the home, rather than patched in part.

## How a Citizens lead line gets replaced

Citizens’ Lead Service Line Replacement Program, approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, covers customer-owned lead service lines both in the public right-of-way and on private property. There are two paths an owner will meet.

**In a Citizens project area,** Citizens replaces lead and galvanized components from the main to the home at no direct cost, provided the owner signs an approved Right of Entry agreement. Citizens’ own contractor does the work, street by street, and the meter is reinstalled outside. Nothing needs to be hired; the owner’s job is to return the agreement and give access.

**Outside a project area,** an owner can start the replacement. The line must be lead or galvanized iron on the private side and lead in the right-of-way, and it must have been active within the past six months. Citizens pays for the right-of-way portion. The owner pays for the private side, from the house to the property line, and for moving the meter to an outside pit. Citizens offers two ways to do that part: a quote from Citizens’ contractor, or a plumber registered and bonded with Citizens who files a service line modification permit. Once the private side passes, Citizens replaces the right-of-way portion within 45 days. The bonded-plumber route is the one Circle City Repipe works through.

Citizens also replaces lead lines when they fail and need emergency repair, and when its own capital projects in the street reach them. The [program guide](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/guide/citizens-energy-lead-service-line-program/) covers how to tell which path applies to an address.

## What the replacement involves

The new line follows Citizens’ standards: SDR9 polyethylene with tracing wire, sized at least 3/4 inch for a home under 2,000 square feet without irrigation and 1 inch above that or with irrigation. The meter comes out of the basement, if it is still there, and goes into a pit outside. In the lead program Citizens places it 1 to 3 feet from the right-of-way line. The [meter pit relocation guide](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/guide/service-line-replacement-meter-pit/) explains that part of the job.

On the private side, the work is a trench or a bore from the pit to the foundation, a new penetration through the foundation wall, and a tie-in to a new main shutoff inside. The old lead pipe is cut off and removed where it is exposed or capped where it is not. Citizens says new lines are flushed, sampled and tested. In a historic district administered by the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission, such as [Irvington](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/service-areas/irvington/) or the [Old Northside](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/service-areas/old-northside/), whether exterior work such as a new pit needs a certificate of appropriateness is confirmed per project.

## Indiana American Water, Speedway and other utilities

Not every Indianapolis-area address is on Citizens water. Indiana American Water, which serves areas including Greenwood and Noblesville, replaces lead service lines, and galvanized lines that follow lead piping, at no direct cost to the customer while it is upgrading water infrastructure in the area. Its replacement covers any lead from the main to the shut-off valve inside the property, and it installs a valve where there is none. Owners who hire their own contractor outside a planned project pay for it themselves and are not reimbursed, so the utility asks owners to contact it first. Its guide also says a post-replacement test kit and a six-month pitcher filter are provided. The [Greenwood](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/service-areas/greenwood/) page covers that area.

In Speedway, the town says service lines from the main to homes are privately owned, and Speedway Water Works has mailed status letters from its inventory. The town’s update said it was waiting on state guidance and funding before setting out a replacement program, so any program and owner cost there is confirmed per address. The [Speedway](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/service-areas/speedway/) page covers the rest of what changes in the town. Lawrence and Carmel keep their own service line inventories, and their replacement terms are confirmed per address.

## Lead inside the house

A service line program stops at the house. Citizens says lead in plumbing, not just service lines, was common before 1950, and that some homes built before 1986 may have lead solder in the joints of copper pipe. Indiana American Water’s guide puts lead plumbing and fixtures beyond the inside valve on the owner. None of the programs pay for interior pipe, and there is no federal tax credit for water piping.

So the question after a lead line comes out is what is left inside. Galvanized pipe downstream of a lead line can hold lead-bearing scale, which is one reason utilities class some galvanized lines as needing replacement. A [whole-house repipe](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/whole-house-repiping/) or [galvanized pipe replacement](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/galvanized-pipe-replacement/) replaces that pipe, and when a service line is being replaced at the same time, the new main shutoff and the first run of interior pipe can be planned as one tie-in. The [are galvanized pipes safe guide](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/guide/are-galvanized-pipes-safe/) covers galvanized pipe on its own.

## Cost and what changes it

Citizens does not publish a price for the private side, and quotes depend on the lot, so there is no typical figure here. The things that set it are the length from the property line to the house, whether the route crosses a driveway, walk or trees, whether the line is trenched or bored, how deep it runs, where the meter pit goes, and what sits just inside the foundation wall. Funding for the program reaches homeowners only through the utility: the Indiana Finance Authority’s state revolving fund lends to water systems for lead line replacement and does not pay homeowners directly.

The first question is always whether the address is in a Citizens project area, because that can take the private-side cost off the table entirely. The second is what else the house needs. A walk-through answers both and turns the rest into a written price.

Scope

## What's included

- Identifying the service line material where it enters the house, and checking the utility's recorded material for the address
- Confirming whether the address sits in a Citizens project area before any private work is priced
- The Citizens service line modification permit, filed by a plumber bonded with Citizens
- New SDR9 polyethylene service line with tracing wire from the right-of-way to the house
- Meter pit setting outside, as Citizens requires, and a new main shutoff inside
- Sealing the new foundation penetration
- Coordination so Citizens can replace the right-of-way portion after the private side passes
- Notes on lead or galvanized pipe found inside the house, for a separate interior scope

Compare

## Ways a lead service line gets replaced in Indianapolis

|  | Citizens project area | Owner-initiated, Citizens territory | Indiana American Water areas |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Who starts it | Citizens, street by street | The property owner | The utility, during its infrastructure work |
| Owner's cost | No direct cost once the owner signs a Right of Entry agreement | The private side and the meter move to an outside pit; Citizens pays the right-of-way portion | No direct cost during a utility project; an owner who hires a contractor outside one pays and is not reimbursed |
| Who does the private side | Citizens' contractor | Citizens' contractor on a quote, or a plumber registered and bonded with Citizens | The utility's contractor during a project |
| Interior lead plumbing | Not covered | Not covered | Not covered beyond the inside shut-off valve |

Read

## Related resources

Learn 01

How does the Citizens Energy lead service line replacement program work?

What Citizens' letter means, how to look up your own line, what happens when the program reaches your street, what it costs if you go first, and what it leaves inside the house.

Guide →

Learn 02

Citizens meter pit relocation: when the meter moves outside and who pays

Why a service line replacement in Citizens territory brings the basement water meter outside, what the pit and the new line involve, what sets the cost, and what an outside meter changes for the owner.

Guide →

Learn 03

How to identify lead pipes and the other pipe in your house

A step-by-step check you can do at the water meter with a coin and a magnet, the way Citizens Energy Group and the EPA describe it, then how to read the rest of the pipe in the house and what each material changes.

Guide →

Learn 04

Are galvanized pipes safe?

Galvanized steel is not lead pipe, but it can carry a lead problem, and it wears out in ways that matter for flow, leaks and water quality. Here is what the risk actually is, how Indianapolis utilities treat galvanized lines, and how to decide what to do.

Guide →

Learn 05

What is repiping, and how does it work?

The whole picture in one place: what the water supply system is, what Indianapolis houses were piped with and why it fails, how to tell what you have, the Indiana rules on permits and licensing, and how a repipe is scoped, installed and tested.

Guide →

Process

## How a job runs

1. Look Find out what the pipes are made of and where they are failing: pressure and flow at the fixtures, the visible runs, the meter setting and the main valve.
2. Recommend A repair, a partial repipe or a whole-house repipe, with what each one replaces, which walls open and the price, in writing.
3. Do the work Permit pulled where the job needs one, new lines run in stages so the house keeps water most of the day, rough-in inspected before any wall closes.
4. Test and close up Pressure test and flush, fixtures and water heater reconnected, access openings patched as agreed.

Photos

## What this work looks like

Small excavation beside a sidewalk exposing an old gray service pipe, fenced with orange safety mesh

Questions

## Lead service line replacement questions

- Q01 Should I wait for Citizens to reach my street or replace the lead line now? It depends on how soon Citizens' project work reaches the address, which only Citizens can say, and on what else is happening in the house. Waiting can mean no direct cost. Going now means paying for the private side, while Citizens still pays for the right-of-way portion. A sale, a renovation or a leak on the line can tip the decision.
- Q02 Does replacing the lead service line remove all the lead from my water? It removes the largest lead source on a property with a lead line, but not necessarily all of it. Citizens says homes built before 1950 may have lead interior plumbing and that some homes built before 1986 may have lead solder in copper joints. Those stay until the interior pipe is replaced, which is why a test after the work is still useful.
- Q03 Is a galvanized service line treated the same as a lead one? Sometimes. Citizens' program replaces lead and galvanized iron components from the main to the home, and its owner-initiated route accepts a private side that is lead or galvanized, but only where the right-of-way portion is lead. A galvanized line with no lead in it is ordinary water line replacement, paid by the owner.
- Q04 Can I replace just the lead part of my service line myself? Not in Citizens territory. Any modification or replacement of a service line needs a Citizens permit filed by a plumber with an active Citizens bond, and Citizens does not allow a lead line that is being modified to be only partly replaced. Cutting into a lead line can also loosen lead into the water for a time.

Index

## Related services

- Service [Water line replacement](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/water-line-replacement/)The buried service line from the street, curb valve or meter pit to the house, replaced to the water utility's standard and tied in to a working main shutoff.
- Service [Whole-house repiping](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/whole-house-repiping/)Every hot and cold supply line from the main shutoff to the fixtures, replaced in PEX or copper, inspected under a plumbing permit and pressure tested before the walls close.
- Service [Galvanized pipe replacement](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/galvanized-pipe-replacement/)Threaded galvanized steel supply lines, scaled and rusting from the inside, replaced in PEX or copper from the main shutoff to the fixtures.

## Get an estimate for lead service line replacement