Melle,
That is exactly what that is.
Weeping Willow.
They do sell something you can use to discourage tree roots from attacking water lines. Usually its the older clay water lines you have to worry about.
Trees are opportunists, so they don't crack your lines and then crawl in, there has to be a crack already, which is more common in older water pipes that aren't PVC.
So you don't have to panic, and the next time you are at HD or Lowes, see if they sell the stuff to use to discourage tree roots from growing near the lines.
A professional tree person I once talked to, said it really worked, so just buy some.
Then you won't have to worry about your lines.

Thank you! I think weeping willows are pretty trees but it's not what I would have planted in the smallish front yard.

I am worried about the water lines because occasionally we receive notices from our water company that other homes in the neighborhood's water lines are failing and that if we don't want to incur a major expense we should sign up for their insurance.

I'll look for the product, is it some type of chemical?

You can use cuttings of that tree to encourage other cuttings to root. It puts out a hormone in water that makes cuttings of anything root, so if you want basil cuttings to root, stick a willow cutting in the water with it....

Make lemonade from lemons.......

desertdance -- interesting that you mention this; I often have pothos cuttings rooted in water for precisely this purpose. I *just* rooted a Thai basil :-) And I also am using "pothos water" to water some rosemary cuttings in-ground, in hopes they will also strike!

remember if you have a lawn you water it will move there also. Willows look for water and this is an expecially lean year. We had one planted on the edge of our property far from the house. It was slowly moving toward the well and house. It is gone. Penny

We only have a small backyard lawn. In the front yard, the area I water is pretty far from the willow; the part of our yard that is close to the neighbor I don't give supplemental water (I think everything must be getting by on what the neighbor uses to water their lawn).

Evenso, I'm going to look into the product that will deter the roots that might come toward my home.

Update: heavy winter rains + windy days = willow blew over a few weeks ago, completely uprooted, no longer a concern (I hope) because it was dismantled and is now gone!

VERY happy ending, indeed. ;-)

-Babka

Our grandson bought a house with a huge willow dominating his back yard. Many suggested he remove it POST HASTE, which he did. The first winter he found the reason the willow grew so large was because his yard had very poor drainage. After adding many drain lines and many yards of top soil he has a yard he can grow in.

That's unfortunate, his willow was doing something beneficial. Our front yard & neighbors drain totally fine, the yards slope toward the street. That tree was only trouble, the canopy took up 1/2 their front yard and it was maybe 5 years old.