Miami-Dade's "Know Your Pipes" Lead Service Line Survey: What South Florida Homeowners Need to Do in 2026

If you've gotten a postcard or email from Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department (WASD) in the last few months asking you to identify the pipe that connects your home to the water main, you're not alone — and you're not being singled out. WASD is contacting tens of thousands of South Florida property owners under the EPA's Lead and Copper Rule Revisions and Improvements (LCRR/LCRI). Here's what's actually being asked, why it matters more than the postcard makes it sound, and how to handle it as a Miami-Dade or Broward homeowner.

What "Know Your Pipes" actually is

Know Your Pipes is the customer-facing name Miami-Dade WASD has put on its compliance program for the EPA's revised Lead and Copper Rule. The federal rule, finalized in 2024, requires every public water system in the country to build a complete inventory of every service line on its system — both the utility-owned portion and the customer-owned portion — and to identify the material of each line. WASD submitted its initial inventory to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in October 2024 and is now working through the lines that came back marked "unknown material."

There is also a legitimate reassurance buried in WASD's program: the county has prohibited lead as a water-service piping material since 1976, and historical lead sampling at the tap has stayed below the 10-parts-per-billion trigger level the county uses. There are no known lead pipes in the public distribution system. The work being done now is about closing the gap on the pipes WASD does not own — the segment from the meter to your house — and confirming that none of those are lead either.

Why the EPA cares about this in South Florida

Even with no known lead in the public mains, the federal rule does three things that change how every utility in the country has to operate. First, it lowered the lead action level from 15 parts per billion (the old 1991 standard) to 10 parts per billion. Second, it lowered the trigger level — the threshold that requires a utility to take corrective action — to 10 ppb as well. Third, it requires utilities to replace 100% of identified lead service lines within 10 years of the November 1, 2027 compliance date. There is no longer an option to replace only a percentage per year. If a line is lead, it goes.

For South Florida, the practical impact is less about lead pipe replacement (which WASD says it does not have at scale) and more about the inventory itself. Until every "unknown" line is verified, the county can't tell the EPA — or its customers — that there are zero lead lines. That's why the postcards keep going out.

How to check your own service line in five minutes

The WASD survey at miamidade.gov/knowyourpipes walks you through a four-tool home test. Here is what we tell our customers when they call us asking whether to bother with it.

1. Find the pipe where it enters your home. In single-family homes this is usually inside a garage, utility room, exterior wall, or under a kitchen sink. Look for the pipe that comes up out of the floor or through the wall and goes to your main shutoff.
2. Try a refrigerator magnet on the bare metal. If it sticks firmly, the pipe is galvanized steel. If it slides off, it's a non-magnetic metal (copper, brass, or — very rarely — lead).
3. Scratch the pipe lightly with a coin or a key. Copper looks like a shiny new penny. Lead looks dull silver-gray and scratches very easily — soft enough that the coin leaves a clear mark with almost no pressure.
4. Look at the color. Plastic (PEX, CPVC, or PVC) is obviously not metal at all and is exempt from the lead rule.

Once you know the material, return the survey at miamidade.gov/knowyourpipes (or the link in your postcard). Photos help. If you genuinely can't find or reach the pipe, the survey tells you to mark it "unable to determine" — that's an acceptable answer, and WASD will handle it during a future inspection.

What this means for HOAs, condos, and property managers

On condominium and HOA properties, the inventory question gets more complicated. The utility-owned portion typically ends at the master meter or backflow assembly serving the building. From there, the building's plumbing — risers, stacks, branch lines, sub-meters — is association property and falls under the SIRS plumbing reserve component for buildings three stories and higher (we covered that in our 2026 SIRS post). For townhome and garden-style HOAs, the boundary is usually at each unit's individual meter, but the declaration governs and we have seen exceptions.

Property managers in Miami-Dade and Broward should expect inventory letters to be addressed to "the owner of record" at each meter. If your association's mailing address is on file as the owner, the letter comes to you. We recommend logging each one, completing the survey on behalf of the building, and keeping the response in the association's compliance file alongside your milestone-inspection and SIRS records.

When to call a plumber instead of doing it yourself

• The pipe is buried, behind drywall, or otherwise inaccessible without cutting something open
• The line tests as galvanized and you want a replacement bid before scheduling the work
• You have any reason to suspect the line is lead — a soft scratch, dull silver-gray color, or a build year before 1976 with no known repipe history
• You want a written report formatted for WASD or for a future buyer's due diligence
• You're managing a multi-unit property and need a single licensed walkthrough across multiple meters

What happens after you submit the survey

WASD adds your response to the system inventory. If your line is non-lead and non-galvanized, you're done — the file is closed for that property. If the line is galvanized requiring replacement or lead, the utility is required under the federal rule to develop a replacement plan. The 10-year clock starts on November 1, 2027, but utilities can begin sooner, and several Florida systems already have. There is also growing federal funding — the EPA redirected $4.1 billion to states for lead service line removal in 2025 — though Florida's allocation was reduced after a data correction.

Either way, completing the survey is the simplest single action a Miami-Dade homeowner can take this year to keep their property clean in a future title search and to meet the spirit of a federal rule that is going to keep tightening through the end of the decade.