McKim & Creed Supports Lead and Copper Rule Compliance Across North Carolina and Virginia

As water utilities work to meet evolving federal Lead and Copper Rule requirements, identifying the materials used in thousands of water service lines has become an important undertaking. Across North Carolina and Virginia, McKim & Creed’s subsurface utility engineering (SUE) teams are helping municipalities and utility agencies collect the field-verified information needed to strengthen their service line inventories and meet regulatory requirements.

In North Carolina alone, McKim & Creed has been selected to support seven municipal and utility initiatives, representing investigations of more than 22,000 residential water service lines and more than $6.2 million in awarded work. Projects have included work for the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority in Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach; CDM Smith in Fayetteville and Durham; the City of Durham; Harnett County and the Town of Erwin; the City of Raleigh; and, most recently, the City of Lenoir. McKim & Creed’s SUE teams are also supporting Lead and Copper Rule-related field investigations for utilities in Virginia, further expanding the team’s experience across the Mid-Atlantic.

Turning Unknowns into Field-Verified Data

A key challenge facing utilities is determining the material of service lines for which reliable records do not exist. McKim & Creed’s SUE teams provide the field investigation needed to help close those information gaps.

Using vacuum excavation and other appropriate field investigation methods, crews safely expose service lines so their materials can be visually identified and documented. This information provides utilities and their consultants with verified field data that can be incorporated into service line inventories and used to reduce the number of connections classified as unknown.

In Lenoir, for example, McKim & Creed was recently selected to perform field inspections of approximately 1,500 water service locations. The work will support the City’s ongoing effort to verify service line materials and further develop its inventory as federal Lead and Copper Rule requirements evolve.

Mobilizing at Scale

The volume of service lines requiring investigation, coupled with regulatory deadlines, has required McKim & Creed to mobilize significant field resources quickly on several assignments.

For projects with particularly accelerated schedules, the team developed a coordinated multi-crew approach that deployed as many as four field crews and four vacuum excavation trucks simultaneously. Hand-dig crews supplemented those operations, while traffic control was coordinated where needed to allow investigations to proceed safely within streets and rights of way.

Managing multiple crews across hundreds or thousands of individual locations required close coordination among project managers, field personnel, equipment resources and traffic control operations. This approach allowed teams to work concurrently across project areas and maintain progress toward aggressive client schedules without compromising safety or data quality.

On the North Carolina assignments alone, McKim & Creed’s SUE teams have logged approximately 17,500 field hours to date, with additional work beginning in Raleigh and Lenoir.

A Scalable Resource for Utilities

McKim & Creed’s work across North Carolina and Virginia has developed into a growing body of Lead and Copper Rule field investigation experience. Each utility presents different conditions, schedules and data needs, but the underlying challenge is consistent: utilities need reliable information about infrastructure that is largely underground and often poorly documented.

By combining SUE expertise, vacuum excavation capabilities, experienced field personnel and the ability to rapidly deploy multiple crews, McKim & Creed is helping utilities efficiently turn unknown service line records into actionable information. The result is more complete infrastructure data that supports regulatory compliance today while giving utilities a better understanding of their water systems for future planning and investment.