6 years ago, I needed to replace the main water shut off valve to my house. This required the city to turn off the water at the street. Incompetent city employee drives key through water pipe. Plumbers fix pipe, I realize that pipe is lead.
Yearly, the city (90% of which was built before 1950) sends out a water quality report, which reports undetectable amounts of lead. That is interesting since probably 90% of the city has lead pipe.
Several questions :
How is lead pipe safe from leaching lead into water?
Do cities usually treat the water to prevent lead from leaching into the water?
What is the form of harmful lead (e.g. is it in aqueous solution, lead oxide, or forming ligands with some other molecule)?