Lead Service Line Customer Briefing

Purpose

Produce the customer-facing communication packet a plumbing shop needs when one of its existing customers — or a homeowner in its service area — receives notice from the water utility that their service line contains, or is suspected of containing, lead. Under the EPA Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI), water systems must replace all lead and Galvanized Requiring Replacement (GRR) service lines on a defined schedule with a compliance date of November 1, 2027 holding firm as of June 2026. The actual replacement work — the customer-side coordination, the indoor plumbing reconnection, the post-replacement flushing, and the interim drinking-water guidance — falls largely to plumbing contractors operating in coordination with the utility, not to the utility's own crews. The customer is in the middle of the two organizations, frequently confused about who is responsible for what, and almost always afraid that something has been wrong with their water for a long time without their knowledge.

This skill produces the briefing packet in six artifacts: a one-page door-hanger or mailed letter the shop hands a homeowner when their address appears on the utility's LSL inventory; an FAQ the front desk and dispatchers use when the inbound calls start; an on-site customer briefing the technician delivers at the start of the replacement visit (before any plumbing work); a homeowner interim-guidance card covering flushing, filter selection, and cooking-and-drinking precautions until the replacement is complete; the access-permission language the shop uses when the indoor cutoff or meter pit requires permission to enter (subject to EPA final guidance on access-tip language); and an internal tracking block for measuring the briefing's landing — confirmed-receipt rate, opt-out rate, and the resulting completed-replacement count.

The governing discipline across every artifact is public-health honesty without panic. The shop does not minimize lead exposure to keep a customer calm, does not speak on the water utility's behalf about replacement timing or scope, does not promise the homeowner that the existing in-home plumbing is "clean" without verification, and does not bundle a sales upsell (a whole-home filtration quote, a re-pipe estimate) onto a public-health communication. The shop also does not over-claim authority: the water utility — not the plumbing shop — is the entity with the legal compliance obligation under the LCRI. The shop's role is the trusted, locally-licensed coordinator between the utility's compliance program and the homeowner's actual house.

The shop's upside here is real. Customers who receive a calm, accurate, locally-signed briefing from the shop the day the utility's letter lands — or the day before — call that shop first for every plumbing question for the next decade. LSL-replacement work itself is increasingly federally and state-subsidized through utility programs (BIL/IIJA service-line replacement funding, state-revolving-fund loan programs); the shop's direct revenue from the replacement is bounded, but the trust transfer to the rest of the home's plumbing is substantial.

When to Use

• The shop's local water utility has published, or is about to publish, an LSL inventory under the LCRR/LCRI and one or more known shop customers appear on the inventory
• A homeowner calls the shop with a utility letter in hand asking "what does this mean and what do I do?"
• The shop has been retained by the utility (directly or through a contracted program) to perform the customer-side portion of an LSL replacement
• The shop is doing a pre-project pass against its CRM to identify which past customers are likely to be on the forthcoming inventory based on home age (typically pre-1986, more aggressively pre-1955) and known service-line material
• A homeowner contacts the shop independently after seeing local news coverage of the utility's LSL program and asks whether their home is affected

Do not use this skill for:

• Routine in-home lead-fixture replacement that is not tied to a utility-side LSL program — use the standard Estimate Writer and Product Recall Customer Outreach flows instead
• Communications the water utility itself is sending out — the utility has its own compliance-notice obligations and language under the LCRR/LCRI that the plumbing shop is not authorized to author or modify
• Households with active acute lead-exposure concerns (a child with an elevated blood lead level, for example) — route immediately to the local health department, do not run a planned briefing workflow on top of a medical situation
• Properties outside the shop's licensed service area or jurisdictions where the shop is not authorized to perform the customer-side LSL replacement work
• Speculative outreach to non-customer homeowners as a marketing lead-gen play — public-health communication used as a lead magnet erodes trust and invites consumer-protection exposure

Required Input

1. The utility's notice itself (work from the document, not from memory)

   • Water utility name, the inventory publication date, and the URL where the inventory or notification is hosted
   • The exact classification used for the affected address — "Lead," "Galvanized Requiring Replacement (GRR)," "Unknown," or the utility's local equivalent — each classification has a different communication shape
   • The utility's stated replacement schedule for this address (specific year, "within 10 years per LCRI compliance date," or "to be scheduled")
   • The utility's contact line for customer questions and the URL of any utility-side FAQ
   • Whether the utility is offering a free or subsidized replacement, and the funding source named (BIL/IIJA, state SRF, ratepayer-funded program, etc.)
   • Whether the utility's notice includes interim guidance (flushing, filter, cooking-water) and the exact wording — the shop must not contradict the utility's wording even if a different formulation would be technically defensible

2. The home's profile

   • Year of construction (a proxy for service-line-material risk: pre-1986 elevated; pre-1955 high)
   • Known service-line material on the customer side (lead, galvanized, copper with lead-soldered joints pre-1986, plastic, unknown)
   • Whether the shop has done prior work on the home and what the indoor plumbing looks like (copper with brass fittings, PEX retrofit, original galvanized, mixed)
   • Whether the home has known vulnerable occupants (children under 6, pregnant household members) — the interim-guidance posture changes accordingly
   • Whether the home is on a maintenance plan or has a documented relationship with the shop

3. The shop's role on this replacement

   • Whether the shop is performing the customer-side replacement under direct contract with the utility, under contract with the homeowner, or in a coordination-only role
   • Whether the shop has been credentialed by the utility for the program (some utilities maintain a roster of approved contractors)
   • The shop's standard interim-guidance posture — which NSF/ANSI 53-certified filter the shop recommends, the flushing protocol the shop teaches, the cold-water-only cooking-and-drinking rule
   • Whether the shop carries appropriate insurance riders for lead-handling work (most GL policies require a specific endorsement)

4. Shop context

   • Shop name, owner or ops manager to sign the briefing from
   • Local public health department contact line for the elevated-blood-lead-level routing in the FAQ
   • The shop's lead-handling on-site protocol document reference

5. Compliance guardrails

   • Do not speak on the water utility's behalf about classification, schedule, funding, or remedy
   • Do not represent the EPA's still-pending Small Entity Compliance Guide content as final — the guide has not been published as of June 2026
   • Do not promise the homeowner that completing the service-line replacement eliminates all in-home lead exposure if known in-home lead sources (pre-1986 brass fixtures, lead-soldered copper joints, galvanized indoor lines) have not been separately addressed
   • Do not bundle a sales upsell (whole-home filtration, re-pipe estimate, fixture-replacement promotion) into the first-touch briefing
   • Refer all blood-lead-level and acute-health questions to the local health department, not to the shop

Instructions

You are the Lead Service Line Customer Briefing drafter for a plumbing shop. Produce six artifacts in the order below. Do not skip sections — the value is the unified packet, not any single document.

Provisional-draft markers: Every artifact below contains at least one explicitly-marked line of the form [subject to EPA final guidance — current draft references the April 2026 Access Tips and Service Line Inventory Tips documents]. Leave these markers in place when the skill produces output. They are removed only when v0.9 is lifted to v1.0 (see frontmatter notes_for_next_eval).

1. Door-Hanger / Mailed Letter — Affected Address First-Touch

A one-page document the shop hands the homeowner (or mails ahead of the utility's letter if coordinated) the day the address appears on the inventory. Structure:

• Header: shop name, owner signature line, date, the utility's name and inventory publication date
• Opening line: neighborly, calm, naming the utility by name as the source of the inventory classification
• The classification in plain language: "Your service line — the pipe that brings water from the street into your home — has been [classified as lead / classified as galvanized requiring replacement / classified as unknown pending verification] by [utility name]"
• One sentence on what that classification means in terms of risk, taken verbatim from the utility's notice where possible
• The replacement responsibility split, in plain language: the water utility is responsible for [their portion per the utility's program — typically the street-side portion or, under many LCRI programs, the full replacement]; the customer-side coordination, indoor reconnection, and post-replacement flushing is handled by a licensed plumber — that is what the shop does
• Funding posture: "The utility's program is funded by [funding source named in the utility's notice]. Based on the notice, your out-of-pocket cost for the replacement is [verbatim from the utility's notice — do not infer]"
• Interim guidance posture: a single sentence pointing to the homeowner-card (artifact #4) and naming a callback window — the shop calls within 48 hours to walk through the briefing
• Closing: shop direct line, the utility's direct line, and one URL per organization. No sales offer.

Tonal register: neighborly, locally-signed, and unmistakably calm. No exclamation points. No "Urgent" or "Action Required" headers — the utility's own letter will already carry that framing, and the shop's role is to be the steady second voice.

2. Front-Desk and Dispatcher FAQ — Inbound Call Script

A 10–12 question Q&A the front desk and dispatchers run when the inbound calls hit. The questions to cover, in order:

• "What does the utility's letter mean — is my water dangerous to drink right now?" (Answer references the utility's own interim-guidance wording, not the shop's; if the utility's letter says flush and filter, the shop's answer says flush and filter)
• "What is the shop's role versus the utility's role?" (The utility owns the compliance obligation; the shop performs the customer-side replacement under coordination)
• "Will this cost me money out of pocket?" (Refer to the utility's funding posture verbatim; do not improvise)
• "When will this be done?" (Refer to the utility's schedule; do not promise a date the shop has not been given)
• "Can I keep using my water in the meantime?" (Reference artifact #4; cold-water-only for cooking and drinking, hot water for bathing and laundry is generally fine, but defer to the utility's specific guidance)
• "What about my children? I have a [age] year old at home." (Route concerns about active exposure to the local health department; provide the contact)
• "I rent. Do I or my landlord get the letter?" (Both, typically; landlord is responsible for coordination on most utility programs but tenant has standing to request the replacement)
• "Can I just replace it myself or hire any plumber?" (Some utility programs require credentialed contractors; check the utility's roster before promising work)
• "What about the pipes inside my house — are they also lead?" (The LSL replacement covers the service line; in-home plumbing is a separate question; the shop can inspect and provide a separate estimate if requested, but it is not part of the utility's program)
• "How long does the replacement take? Will my water be off?" (Typical residential replacement is a half-day to a full day with water off for 4–8 hours during the cutover; defer to the shop's local-jurisdiction experience)
• "What do I do with the utility's letter — do I have to reply?" (Yes, typically — the utility's letter has a response action; the shop helps the customer complete it but does not complete it on the customer's behalf)
• "Is there anything I need to do to prepare for the replacement visit?" (Clear access to the meter, the curb stop, and the indoor cutoff; relocate items in the basement or crawlspace as applicable; the technician will confirm at the on-site briefing — artifact #3)

3. On-Site Customer Briefing — Technician-Delivered, Pre-Work

The 5–7 minute scripted briefing the technician delivers to the homeowner at the door before any tools come out of the truck. Structure:

• Greeting and credential identification — name, company, utility-program credential if applicable
• One-sentence statement of why the technician is there today, naming the utility and the address's classification
• A walk-through of the work the technician will perform on the customer side, in plain language — the cutover sequence, the time the water will be off, the post-work flushing protocol
• The access-permission step: the technician requests written permission to enter the basement, crawlspace, or wherever the indoor cutoff is located. [subject to EPA final guidance — current draft references the April 2026 Access Tips document; access-permission framing may shift when the final guidance is published]
• A statement of what the technician will NOT do today: no work on the utility-owned portion of the service line (utility crew responsibility), no in-home lead-fixture replacement unless separately quoted, no diagnostic of the home's broader plumbing without a separate request
• The interim-guidance handoff — the technician hands the homeowner the artifact #4 card before any work begins, walks them through it for 60 seconds, and answers questions
• The post-completion sequence — what happens at the end of the cutover, the flushing the technician performs, the flushing the homeowner continues for 7–14 days after, the filter-use posture, when to call the shop for any concern

4. Homeowner Interim-Guidance Card — Drinking, Cooking, Filter, Flushing

A double-sided card the homeowner keeps on the refrigerator from the day they receive the utility's letter through 90 days after the replacement is completed. Structure:

Front side — Until the replacement is complete:

• Drinking and cooking water: Use cold tap only. Hot water dissolves more lead from any in-line lead source than cold water. Run the cold tap for 30–60 seconds after any period of non-use longer than 6 hours before drawing water for drinking, cooking, or baby formula
• Filter: Use an NSF/ANSI 53 lead-certified filter for any drinking or cooking water. Pitcher, faucet-mount, and under-sink certified options all work. Confirm the certification on the package — not every filter is lead-certified
• Baby formula and pregnant household members: Use bottled water or filtered water for formula preparation; consult the local health department for any specific guidance
• Bathing, laundry, lawn: Generally fine to use as normal; lead exposure through skin contact is minimal for typical bathing exposure
• Pets: Same posture as humans — cold filtered water for drinking; tap water for everything else

Back side — After the replacement is complete:

• Flushing protocol: Run cold water at full flow for 5 minutes at every fixture in the home, working from the lowest fixture to the highest; repeat daily for 7 days. Remove and clean every faucet aerator at the 7-day mark; lead particulates dislodged during the replacement settle in the aerator screens
• Continue NSF/ANSI 53 filter use for 90 days post-replacement as a precaution; the in-home plumbing may still contain trace lead from solder or brass fixtures
• Call the shop or the utility if you notice any discoloration, sediment, or unusual taste in the water during the 90-day period; this is generally normal but should be inspected
• If you are considering in-home plumbing upgrades to address lead-soldered joints or pre-1986 brass fixtures, that is a separate scope from the LSL replacement and can be discussed in a separate estimate

[subject to EPA final guidance — the flushing-duration and filter-duration windows above reflect the most-conservative practitioner consensus as of June 2026; final EPA guidance may shorten or extend these windows]

5. Access-Permission Language — Customer-Side Plumbing Access

A short, plain-language form the homeowner signs at the door before the technician enters the home for any portion of the replacement. Cover:

• Address, date, homeowner name and signature line
• The scope of access being requested: the meter location, the curb stop area, the indoor cutoff, the route the new service line will follow on the customer side
• The duration the access is being requested for (typically the day of the cutover)
• The technician's identification and shop name
• A statement that the homeowner is granting access for the purpose of the LSL replacement under the utility's program, not for any unrelated diagnostic or sales activity
• The homeowner's right to revoke access at any time during the work
• [subject to EPA final guidance — current draft language reflects the April 2026 Access Tips document for water systems; the final EPA guidance is expected to address customer-side access-permission framing more directly and this section will be reconciled with that guidance at v1.0]

The form is intentionally short — one page, plain language, no legal boilerplate beyond what the utility's program specifically requires. Long forms erode trust and slow the day.

6. Internal Tracking + Follow-Up Cadence

The tracker the shop maintains across the replacement project and the post-replacement follow-up window. Structure:

• One row per affected address: homeowner name, address, utility classification, utility-letter date, shop first-touch date, channel (door-hanger / mail / phone callback), customer response (confirmed receipt / requested callback / declined contact / unreachable)
• Replacement-scheduling status: utility-side work scheduled / customer-side work scheduled / cutover completed
• 7-day post-replacement flush check-in: the shop calls or texts the homeowner to confirm the flushing protocol is being followed and to ask whether aerators have been cleaned at the 7-day mark
• 30-day post-replacement check-in: any discoloration, sediment, or taste concern reported
• 90-day post-replacement close: filter-use posture transition; any indoor-plumbing-upgrade conversation noted (booked through normal estimate flow, not through the LSL program)
• Metrics to watch:
  • First-touch coverage: % of utility-listed addresses contacted by the shop within 7 days of the utility's notice
  • Confirmed-receipt rate: % of addresses where the shop has confirmed the homeowner has the briefing
  • Replacement completion at 30 / 90 / 180 days: a project-management metric tied to the utility's program schedule, not the shop's marketing pipeline
  • Indoor-plumbing-upgrade conversion (tracked separately, booked through normal estimate flow)
  • Incident rate: any reported acute health concern, water-quality complaint, or property-damage event during or after the replacement — escalate to owner and the utility's program lead immediately

Example Output

Scenario: Cardinal Plumbing Co. (8 techs, Richmond, VA area) is on the Henrico County Public Utilities approved-contractor roster for the county's LSL replacement program. On May 28, 2026, Henrico published Phase 2 of its inventory, naming 412 service connections in the Lakeside, Bon Air, and Glen Allen sub-areas as Lead or GRR. Of those 412, Cardinal has prior service history with 23 — 6 on the Preferred maintenance plan, 17 standard residential. The utility's notice provides interim flushing-and-filter guidance, names BIL/IIJA federal funding as covering the program, and schedules Phase 2 replacement starts for July 2026. Cardinal's owner Dan Harrelson wants to run a structured first-touch pass against the 23 known addresses before the utility's letters land.

1. Door-Hanger — Residential, Maintenance-Plan Customer

From Cardinal Plumbing Co. — Dan Harrelson, Owner Date: June 3, 2026

Hi [First Name],

Henrico County Public Utilities published Phase 2 of their lead service line inventory on May 28, and your address came up on the list as a [classification — Lead / GRR / Unknown]. You'll be hearing from them directly in the coming days if you haven't already.

I wanted to get you a note from us first because we're on their approved-contractor roster for the customer-side portion of the work, and you and I have a relationship through your Preferred plan, so I'd rather you hear it from a familiar voice.

Here's the short version. The service line is the pipe that brings water from the street into your home. Henrico's program will be replacing it under federal funding — based on their notice, there's no out-of-pocket cost to you for the replacement itself [verify against your specific notice]. Phase 2 work is scheduled to begin in July.

I'm going to call you within the next 48 hours to walk through it. There's a short interim-guidance card I'll get to you in the meantime — cold-water-only for cooking and drinking, an NSF 53 lead-certified filter on your drinking faucet, and a flushing routine. None of this is panic — it's the prudent posture between now and the cutover.

Henrico's direct line for program questions: [utility line]. Cardinal direct line: 804-555-0100.

— Dan Harrelson, Cardinal Plumbing Co.

2. Selected FAQ — Front Desk

"What does this letter mean — is my water dangerous to drink right now?"

The letter is Henrico letting you know your service line — the pipe between the street and your house — is on their replacement list under the federal program. The interim guidance on their letter is the right posture: cold-water-only for cooking and drinking, and a lead-certified filter on your drinking faucet. We can help you get a filter set up today if you don't have one.

"Will this cost me money out of pocket?"

Based on Henrico's Phase 2 notice, the replacement is covered by the federal funding the program is working under. There's no homeowner cost for the service line itself. If you decide to do any in-home plumbing work alongside the replacement — replacing pre-1986 fixtures, for example — that's a separate conversation, and we'd put together a normal estimate for it.

"What about my children? I have a 3-year-old."

The right call there is to talk with Henrico Public Health — their line is [health-department line]. They can advise on testing. From our side, the immediate practical move is cold-water-only for any drinking or formula water, with an NSF 53 lead-certified filter on the drinking tap, and bottled water for formula until the replacement is done. We'll walk through it with you when we're out.

[FAQ continues — full 12-question script in the complete packet, including the access-permission walk-through with the v0.9 subject-to-EPA-final-guidance marker.]

3–6 Truncated for example

[Full packet includes: artifact #3 on-site briefing script, artifact #4 double-sided homeowner card, artifact #5 access-permission form, artifact #6 tracker — all carrying the v0.9 provisional markers where applicable.]

Notes for the Shop

• This skill is v0.9 provisional draft. EPA's Small Entity Compliance Guide for the LCRI has not been published as of June 2026 — the 14th consecutive monitor cycle confirming. The June 2023 LCRR inventory guide and the April 2026 draft Access Tips and Service Line Inventory Tips documents are the current authoritative references. When EPA publishes the final guide, the artifacts in this skill will be reconciled with the final language and the v0.9 markers removed.
• Do not run this skill on outreach to non-customer homeowners as a marketing lead-gen play. Public-health communication used as a lead magnet erodes trust and invites consumer-protection exposure.
• The water utility — not the shop — is the legal compliance entity under the LCRI. The shop's role is the trusted locally-licensed coordinator. Do not represent the shop as carrying the utility's compliance obligation; do not represent the utility as having delegated its obligation to the shop.
• The 7-day and 30-day post-replacement follow-ups are the highest-leverage actions in the packet, and they are the actions shops most often skip. Do not skip them.
• Pair this skill with the Job Status Update Drafter for the 7-day and 30-day check-in messages, with the Safety & Compliance Tracker for logging which technicians have current lead-handling endorsements on their certifications, and with the Pricebook Q&A for any homeowner-initiated in-home plumbing-upgrade conversation that arises during or after the replacement.
• This skill is not a substitute for the utility's own legally-required notification. The utility's notice goes out under the utility's name. This skill's first-touch artifact (#1) is the second voice — the locally-known shop framing the utility's notice — never the first or only.
• For households with known vulnerable occupants (children under 6, pregnant household members), do not improvise the health-side guidance. Route to the local public health department contact in the FAQ and the homeowner card, and let the public-health professionals manage the medical-side conversation.

Bilingual Spanish Variant

config.yml flag bilingual: true with Spanish in the language list triggers Spanish translations of artifacts #1, #2, #4, and #5. Artifacts #3 (on-site briefing) and #6 (internal tracker) remain English-default; the on-site briefing is delivered in the customer's preferred language by the technician on the dispatch, and the internal tracker is shop-internal. Joining the bilingual thread brings the repo total to eleven Spanish-anchored skills as of 06-01. _shared/bilingual-tone-guide.md formalization is now eleven cycles overdue.

Subject-to-EPA-Final-Guidance Markers — Lift Conditions

The following lines in this skill carry the [subject to EPA final guidance] marker and will be reconciled at v1.0:

1. Artifact #3 access-permission step — current draft language reflects the April 2026 EPA Access Tips draft document; will be reconciled with final EPA guidance on customer-side access framing
2. Artifact #4 flushing-duration and filter-duration windows — current 7-day flushing / 90-day filter windows reflect practitioner consensus as of June 2026; will be reconciled if EPA's final guidance specifies different windows
3. Artifact #5 access-permission form language — current draft reflects the April 2026 Access Tips document; will be reconciled with the final EPA guidance

v1.0 lift conditions: (1) EPA publishes the LCRI Small Entity Compliance Guide, OR (2) the Access Tips and Service Line Inventory Tips draft documents are finalized. At v1.0, the provisional markers are removed, the cited document numbers update from the April 2026 draft references to the final document numbers, and the access-permission language is reconciled. The April 2026 draft comment period closed April 30, 2026; finalization is plausible at any future monitor cycle.