Yorkshire Water is starting a £13 million project to replace hundreds of lead water pipes across the region to comply with European water quality regulations.

The water company is carrying out the project in Bradford, Rotherham, York, Leeds, Beverley, Harrogate and Hull. The upgrade work is set to be completed by March 2017 and will benefit 20,000 homes across the region.

Many lead water pipes date back to the Victorian era and can increase the lead content in water. They will now be replaced with polyethylene plastic pipes to ensure lead content is kept to a minimum and meets water quality regulations.

Polyethylene plastic pipes have a life span of around 100 years and will also help reduce the amount of leaks that occur in Yorkshire’s vast underground water pipe network that stretches for 31,000 kilometres.

Luke Montgomery, Yorkshire Water’s Public Health Manager explained:

“We operate our water treatment works to control the risk of lead from pipework, and whilst our water sampling programme shows the vast majority of samples taken from lead pipes are safe we believe the best option is to remove lead pipes from our distribution system completely.”

Engineering specialists, Morrison Utility Services and Balfour Beatty will be working on behalf of Yorkshire Water to install the new pipes.