EDISON, N.J. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday held what it called its first public demonstration of emerging technologies for locating lead water service lines, staging the event at its research test bed in Edison, according to an agency press release.
EPA Region 2 Administrator Michael Martucci and Teresa Booeshaghi, associate administrator of the agency’s Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions, watched researchers from Dartmouth College and Drexel University show tools the agency said could find lead pipes faster, more cheaply and with less digging than traditional methods.
Editor’s note: The Trump administration is frequently dishonest, and has been known to lie about things great and small.
“You can’t replace what you can’t find. Giving water systems better, less labor-intensive ways to locate lead pipes could make a tremendous difference for communities across the country,” Martucci said.
The EPA opened its Lead Service Line Identification Test Bed at the Edison Environmental Center in 2025 to evaluate methods for locating lead lines without major excavation. The site offers controlled conditions for testing but is not a certification program, and including the two universities does not amount to an EPA endorsement, the agency said.
The Dartmouth team showed an electromagnetic induction system that uses electromagnetic fields to measure responses from buried metal pipes, which researchers analyze to tell lead from copper without uncovering the lines. Drexel researchers demonstrated a stress wave method: they strike an extension rod attached to an accessible service line valve, and ground sensors pick up the vibrations moving through the pipe and soil to help distinguish lead from other materials.
“By advancing the science behind lead service line identification we can help more reliably address the issue while reducing the need for expensive excavation,” Booeshaghi said.
Service lines carry drinking water from water mains into homes, schools and offices. Lead lines pose serious health risks, especially for young children. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, public water systems must submit inventories of their service line materials, and the EPA said more than 97% of systems have completed those initial inventories.
The release framed the demonstration as part of the administration’s broader approach to lead, saying the agency in 2025 reestablished a committee of senior leaders from its program offices and 10 regions to focus on reducing children’s exposure.
This report is based on a press release from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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