TROY, N.Y. (NEWS10) –  Water in Troy continues to test positive for an excess of lead. Officials urged residents to help the city take an inventory of their water service lines.

President of City Council Carmella Mantello clarified the issue is with the service lines that feed individual properties. 

“Once again, Troy water is good but this is lead in folks private pipes,” said Mantello.

On Wednesday the city mailed out an update on its Lead Service Line Replacement Program. It breaks down the latest information on water service lines and specifies how residents can identify what their pipes are made of. 

Officials say they need residents to take the service line survey because it will help the city with future funding opportunities to replace lead pipes.

“For us to qualify for us to qualify for federal and state funds. We need folks to participate in this testing,” said Wheland.

Superintendent of Public Utilities Chris Wheland says it will take years 10-15 years to test and replace all lead pipes but things are headed in the right direction.

“It doesn’t seem to be as bad as we originally thought. We’re finding it sporadic throughout the entire city,” said Wheland.

Out of Troy’s 12,500 service lines, 2,500 have been verified as non-lead while 8,400 lines are still unknown. 

On Monday, drinking water quality monitors found elevated levels of lead in some 60 homes and buildings. Wheland says the public should expect to continue to receive drinking water notices.

“So we anticipate that we are going to be sending that exceedance letter out for the foreseeable future, twice a year. We sample between January through June and July through September,” said Wheland.

Following the latest findings the city is renewing its call for the public’s help identifying which pipelines are impacted. Residents can fill out a form online, which has step-by-step instructions at TroyNY.gov/lead, call a Department of Public Utilities representative at 518-237-0343, or email a photo of your service line to Maps@TroyNY.gov.  

Troy residents can type their addresses into an interactive map to see if their drinking water is safe or if it’s been contaminated with lead. 

Homeowner David Beditz lives on a block in Troy where all water service lines are suspected, or have been verified, to be lead. 

“They did track my house and discovered a lead service pipe. We did water testing. They took a sample of the water and they came and took photographs of the lead pipes so they’re right on top of it,” said Beditz. 

He’s lived in the home since 1962 and it was built in 1909. The process to identify the lead pipes in his home went fairly quickly, Beditz said.

“I can’t say I’m surprised, the house is old. I more or less expected lead piping. Inside it’s mostly copper and PVC but the service line coming into the house is definitely lead,” said Beditz. 

Once the survey is filled out and water is sampled, residents will be added to a list. Wheland says they expect to coordinate with contractors to replace pipelines in clustered areas – like the block Beditz lives on – at the same time.

“We have ensured folks that we do plan to pay 100% of the costs,” said Mantello.