Do older houses with lead plumbing have more lead in their tap water? You collect water samples from five houses less than 10 years old with PVC pipes. Then you collect from five houses more than 50 years old that still use lead plumbing.
Each house comes from a different neighborhood. You let the tap run for 30 seconds before collecting each sample. All ten bottles go to an independent lab for lead testing.
Older houses with lead pipes show much higher lead levels. Newer houses with PVC plumbing test well below the older homes.
Hypothesis
The hypothesis is that older houses use lead pipe plumbing and therefore a higher level of lead content will be detected in the piped water, as compared to newer homes which use PVC pipes.
When harmful metals like lead get into tap water, the source often traces back to the pipes themselves. In this experiment, you collect water samples from five houses less than 10 years old with PVC plumbing and five houses more than 50 years old with lead pipes. After letting each tap run for 30 seconds, all ten bottles go to an independent lab for lead testing. The results are stark: older houses with lead plumbing show much higher lead levels than newer homes with PVC pipes.
Lead contamination happens when lead from old plumbing dissolves into drinking water over time. The metal slowly leaches from pipe walls into the water flowing through them. In this experiment, older houses with lead pipes show much higher lead levels than newer houses with PVC plumbing, demonstrating how pipe material directly controls lead exposure.
Method & Materials
You will visit 5 new houses (less than 10 years old) and 5 old houses (more than 50 years old) to collect water samples. You will survey the plumbing in each house to determine if lead, copper or PVC pipes are used. You will let the tap water run for 30 seconds before taking the water sample.
You will need 10 small bottles to collect water samples, and a laboratory to test for lead in the samples.
Eureka Crate — engineering & invention kits for ages 12+ — monthly projects that build real-world skills. (Affiliate link)
The results show that many houses which are more than 50 years of age have lead pipes and where they do, a higher dosage of lead is found in the water. Many houses which are less than 10 years old have PVC pipes and where they do, they have very low levels of lead.
Why do this project?
This science project is interesting because it helps us understand the effects of lead in our drinking water. It also helps us understand the importance of replacing old lead pipes with newer, safer pipes.
Also Consider
Consider testing for copper in tap water, or using testing kits such as Prolab to reduce the cost.
Full project details
Additional information and source material for this project are available below.
