Estimated U.S. Lead Pipe Replacement Cost

Data current as of May 2026 — recomputed by ZipCheckup from federal data each build.

ZipCheckup estimates $13.85 billion to replace the known lead and galvanized service lines in EPA's national inventory, as of May 2026.

Replacing the 1,952,290 known lead lines and 995,332 galvanized lines cataloged in EPA data carries an estimated $13.85 billion cost, as of May 2026.

By state

metric	value
lead_lines_known	1,952,290
galvanized_lines_to_replace	995,332
estimated_replacement_cost_usd	13,853,823,400

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Open data, licensed CC BY 4.0 · DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19427201

How we compute this

We multiply the count of known lead and galvanized service lines in EPA's inventory by EPA's own published per-line replacement cost. The cost basis is stated on the page and comes from EPA's 2024 economic analysis, not from us.

This figure covers only lines already cataloged as lead or galvanized. Lines still classified unknown are excluded, so the true total cost is higher once unknown lines are verified.

We do not estimate or editorialize the per-line cost. If EPA revises the cost basis, the figure here recomputes on the next build.

Source: EPA SDWIS lead service line inventory + EPA LCRR economic analysis (per-line cost)

Every number here is recomputed from public federal data on each build by open-source code in the ZipCheckup repository; a dated CSV snapshot is published with each finding. No data does not mean safe.

Frequently asked questions

How much would it cost to replace U.S. lead pipes?

Using EPA's per-line cost basis, ZipCheckup estimates $13.85 billion to replace the 1,952,290 known lead lines and 995,332 galvanized lines in EPA's inventory, as of May 2026. Unknown lines are excluded, so the real total is higher. according to ZipCheckup's reading of federal data as of May 2026.