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Madison O'Brien
WAND 17 Read the full article. SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) -The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded a total of $116 million to modernize water infrastructure in Illinois. The money will impact cities across the state, even in Springfield. Todd LaFountain, water division manager for City Water Light and Power (CWLP), said nearly $1 million was granted to the organization for lead service line replacement. "We anticipate replacing 150 service lines under the current program," LaFountain said. "We started 35 to 40 of those replacements, and we hope to wrap that up by July of 2021." According to LaFountain, lead pipes have been in Springfield for decades, and those pipes can eventually lead to contaminated drinking water. WNYC News
Karen Yi See the original article. Newark's schools are getting a $7.5 million federal grant to upgrade water infrastructure and eliminate lead from its drinking supply. Lead leaches into the water from old pipes and fixtures still present in many of the buildings that, on average, are 95 years old. Newark Schools Superintendent Roger Leon said the money from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "will undoubtedly move us from mitigating to eliminating." High levels of lead were first reported in the schools in 2016 and since then the district has spent millions of dollars rolling out testing programs and installing filters at water fountains and kitchen sinks. "We have installed lead reduction filters...on every drinking fountain and every potable water, the areas where they prepare food, so anyone drinking the water can be assured its safe," said Steven Morlino, director of facilities management for Newark schools. ABC 57
Roxie Elliott See the original article. BENTON HARBOR, Mich.—The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday announced that it will award Benton Harbor with a $5.6 million grant to remove lead service lines. "Even the tragedy in Flint, only three hours from here, was not enough to get the federal government to act fast to ensure something like this would not happen again," said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. "That’s why I’m happy to announce the awarding of nearly $40 million in grants across the country through the WIIN Act." The grant will also be used to support a study to optimize the city’s lead corrosion control treatment. Grant funds will be used specifically to help replace as many residential lead service lines as possible. Service lines will be replaced with copper piping from the water main to the home’s service connection. Officials said at the announcement that the grant will provide clean, lead-free drinking water to city residents. "Old pipes will be replaced from the water main to the homes of service connection and include both private and public portions of the lead service line," said Wheeler. "Existing lead pipe posed a risk to residents and without this funding the homeowner would have to pay for the private portion of the service connection." Only 10 cities were chosen as recipients of the grant - in addition to Benton Harbor, Grand Rapids will also have lead pipes replaced. Contributions to this story also made by: Shannon Nolan WoodTv.com
See the original article. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A significant grant is coming to Grand Rapids to help make the city’s water safer. The Environmental Protection Agency is giving the city a $5.1 million grant to help replace lead service lines in 17 Grand Rapids neighborhoods considered to be disadvantaged. These areas have a concentration of lead pipes and have been known to mostly have old lead pipes between the main line and their homes. The grant’s goal is to help reduce how many homes have water flowing through those potentially dangerous pipes. “I strongly encourage residents and businesses to take advantage of the opportunity to have service lines replaced when approached to do so. Encourage residents to have plumbing inspected to you know if you have any other exposure,” said Bonnifer Ballard, executive director of the American Water Works Association-Michigan. Benton Harbor is also getting a $5.6 million grant. The nearly $40 million grant program is going to 10 cities. Water Online
Pete Antoniewicz A white paper recently released by the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA) provides insights on how water utilities can better use data to manage uncertainty around remaining lead-service-line (LSL) customer connections. The document, Principles of Data Science for Lead Service Line Inventories and Replacement Programs, represents the organization’s commitment to making information accessible to assist state program administrators in protecting public health. It was developed for ASDWA by BlueConduit, a water-infrastructure analytics consulting company. Read the full article. 'We made it happen': Green Bay Water Utility replaces city's final lead pipe after years-long effort10/6/2020
Haley BeMiller, Green Bay Press-Gazette
See the full article. GREEN BAY - The Green Bay Water Utility on Tuesday removed its last lead pipe in the city, closing a chapter in a years-long effort to improve water quality for residents. Officials announced the milestone at a news conference Tuesday before removing an east-side lead service line and replacing it with a copper pipe. That marked the 1,782nd utility-owned line replaced since January 2016, when the utility ramped up lead removal amid the Flint, Michigan, water crisis. "Our (lead) levels are way down," said Nancy Quirk, the utility's general manager. Green Bay last installed lead pipes in 1944 and began replacing them in 1990, when the city had 4,400. In 2011, the water utility found levels in some homes were above limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and identified 1,782 utility-owned and 247 privately owned service lines that needed replacing. See the full article. M.E. CAGNASSOLA
Tap Into Newark See the full article. NEWARK, NJ — The Newark lead service line replacement program is now in its final stage, the city announced Monday, just two months after it declared its lead levels below the federal safety standard of 15.4 parts per billion (ppb). Mayor Ras Baraka, whose line at his South Ward home has already been replaced, went through the waiting and testing period following installation. He said he and his family drink from the tap with confidence. “My wife was beating me over the head until it happened, I have a small child in my house,” he joked. “We did ours early before this program came out, ours came back 2 or 3 ppb, and so we stopped using the filter ourselves.” In early July, officials reported that the use phosphoric acid orthophosphate in its Pequannock water system — where the previous corrosion inhibitor failed in 2017 and caused lead to leach from Newark’s aging service lines into the drinking water — succeeded in bringing lead levels to 14.1 ppb for the January-June 2020 testing period. Samples are collected and tested every six months, according to Newark Water and Sewer Director Kareem Adeem. After a troubled start to addressing its water crisis in 2017, Newark can now boast an accomplishment that officials said no other city with lead water issues can: In 1.5 years, the municipality has replaced 15,000 lead service lines through its five wards. Eric Keifer
Patch See the full article NEWARK, NJ — More than a year has passed since Newark got a $120 million bond from Essex County to help it tackle its lead water contamination woes. But now – after replacing nearly 15,000 of 18,000 aging, privately owned service pipes – the investment has clearly begun to pay off, officials say. On Monday, Newark officials announced that the city's Lead Service Line Replacement program has reached its final stage. It's a big milestone for Newark, which went into crisis mode after the discovery of elevated levels of lead in the water supply at thousands of local homes. Newark briefly turned to bottled water and filters as stopgap solutions while it put several long-term fixes into play. One of those fixes – replacing thousands of lead-lined pipes at local homes – got a major boost in August 2019 when Essex County helped the city to borrow $120 million in funding to speed up the process. The money helped Newark to follow through on a promise to help cash-strapped homeowners by completely paying for a project that can normally cost thousands of dollars. Now, more than 83 percent of those lines have been replaced with copper pipes – at no cost to taxpayers or residents, officials said. YourHub
Jose Salas Read the full article. When you’re responsible for delivering a clean, safe and reliable drinking water supply to a quarter of Colorado’s population, understanding the different languages, ethnicities, race, religions and socioeconomic backgrounds that make up your community is a must. Especially when it comes to launching the largest public health initiative in Denver Water’s history, the Lead Reduction Program, which will remove an estimated 64,000 to 84,000 lead service lines in the utility’s service area over 15 years at no direct cost to the customer. How has Denver Water made sure that it’s effectively working with and communicating in every community regardless of status, background or language? According to Meg Trubee, communications, outreach and education manager for Denver Water’s Lead Reduction Program, diversity and inclusion were top priorities from the beginning. “We developed a team of experts to focus on reaching as many people in the program as possible,” she explained. “It all started with a lot of data and research.” Read the full article. Monica Eng
WBEZ See the full article. After decades of forcing Chicagoans to install lead water lines in their homes, the city is finally launching a program to remove them. Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday announced Chicago’s inaugural plan to address its huge inventory of toxic lead lines – a problem that was exacerbated by some mayors, ignored by others and is now being cautiously approached by the latest. “This is an important first step in a long overdue process,” Lightfoot said at a press conference with officials from the city’s Water and Public Health Departments. With 400,000 lead service lines lurking beneath Chicago homes, the city faces the worst documented lead line problem in the nation. About 80 percent of all Chicago homes are still connected to water mains through these lines, which can release lead into drinking water. Voluntary tests in Chicago detected lead in more than two thirds of all homes tested. And about one third of all tested homes had more lead in their water than is allowed in bottled water. National health authorities stress that no level of lead exposure is safe, as it can contribute to heart attacks, hypertension and kidney problems in adults and impulsivity and learning difficulties in children. |
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