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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. 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. NBC 5 Chicago
See the full article. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced new assistance programs to help qualifying homeowners replace lead water lines across Chicago. The Equity Lead Service Line Replacement Program will provide full replacement for low-income residents that own and live in their home, have a household income below 80-percent of the median income and have consistent lead concentrations above 15 ppb in their water, according to a press release from the Mayor's office. “The water in Chicago is safe, and is in full compliance with all federal, state and industry standards,” Lightfoot reassured during Thursday’s press conference. “What we are talking about today, however, is making sure that we go even further to ensure the safety and health of our residents in the future.” The city will cover costs in full if a qualified homeowner opts-in to the program and will be paid for by up to $15 million in community development block grant funds in 2021. “Lead service lines are a legacy issue that we need to start chipping away at now and that happens by moving in the right direction in a responsible way,’ Lightfoot said. “I want to be clear that doing the extensive network of legacy lead service lines is a steep and costly mountain that we will need to climb.” Under the program, qualified homeowners will receive a replacement of the service line from the water main up to the home and homes and two flats will receive a water meter if there is not already one installed, according to the press release. Also on Thursday, the city announced an additional program called the Homeowner-Initiated Lead Service Line Replacement Program that will waive permit fees for homeowners to hire an outside contractor to conduct the lead pipe replacement. See the full article. Emma Cotton
Vermont Digger See the full article. BENNINGTON — Thanks to a one-time, $11 million funding opportunity, Bennington plans to replace about 1,575 lead pipes that carry drinking water into homes, at no cost to residents. Largely in response to the water crisis in Flint, Mich., federal legislators devised the Water Infrastructure Fund Transfer Act, which allows states to transfer money from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which is used primarily for infrastructure projects that improve the health of streams and lakes, to the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. “As far as we know, this is a one-time opportunity to transfer that money,” said Megan Young, drinking water capacity program supervisor at the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation. “It’s never happened before, and my understanding is there aren’t plans for that moving forward.” The project became official when the state finalized an intended use plan for the two water funds on July 16. Construction will begin in the fall; the work is expected to take several years. Responsibility for the replacements could have otherwise fallen to residents — the pipes are on private property — at a cost between $5,000 and $15,000 per installation. See the full article. Mike Koury
C&G Newspapers See the full article. FERNDALE — The Ferndale City Council unanimously approved a request from its Department of Public Works to submit an application to the state for a $10 million loan to conduct lead service line replacements. At its June 22 meeting, the council held a public hearing to discuss a possible loan from the state of Michigan’s Drinking Water Revolving Fund, which comes from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, known as EGLE. As DPW Deputy Director Dan Antosik put it during the meeting, the state adopted in 2018 the most “stringent” Lead and Copper Rule in the country. Requirements from the LCR include additional water sample testing for lead and copper, the identification of water service line material across the community by 2025, and the replacement of all lead and galvanized service lines at an average rate of 5% per year over the next 20 years. Antosik said Ferndale has been in compliance with all state reporting when it comes to lead levels not exceeding EGLE’s action level of 15 parts per billion. See the full article. The Oakland Press
See the full article By Mark Cavitt The Oakland County Water Resource Commissioner's (WRC) Office is planning to replace over 8,000 lead water lines in the City of Pontiac over the next 20 years. Under the 2018 lead and copper rule signed into law by former Gov. Rick Snyder, public water providers statewide, including the WRC who overtook management of Pontiac's water system in 2015, are required to replace all lead water service lines within their service area by 2041. Around 40 percent of the city's water service lines are known to, or likely, contain lead, according to Jim Nash, Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner. The WRC has applied for $8.97 million in grant funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help replace 1,160 lead service lines from 2021 through 2024 at a cost of $9.97 million. This four-year project will impact 3,500 to 4,000 Pontiac residents. The entire project, expected to take 20 years, will cost between $45 million and $60 million and include the replacement of over 8,000 lead water service lines across the city, which includes residential and small businesses. See the full article. Fox31 News
See the full article. By Shaul Turner DENVER (KDVR) — If you live in an area with older water pipes, you may be getting a notice saying they’ll soon be replaced.Denver Water’s Lead Reduction Plan was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency in December. The project could cost up to $500 million. Homes built before 1951 are more likely to have lead service lines. Denver Water estimates there are as many as 84,000 properties that may be affected. Denver Water crews install or replace an average of 106,000 feet of pipe each year. The program’s goal is to replace 140,000 feet of pipe a year by 2024. A top concern is lead caused by decades of corrosion. Water provided by the city is lead-free but once it gets into the pipe that brings it into the homeowner’s plumbing system, it can be exposed to lead if that pipe is old and needs to be replaced. See the full article. East Village Magazine
See the full article By Jan Worth-Nelson The City of Flint announced Tuesday that water pipeline replacement, paused the last two months by the coronavirus lockdowns, will resume this week. When work stopped in March, 9,554 lead or galvanized pipes had been replaced, part of the city’s infrastructure recovery from the water crisis triggered in 2014 when the lack of corrosion control in the pipes from Flint River water unleashed lead from old pipes into the bodies of Flint residents. What happened to the city, under state takeover at the time, was labeled a national disgrace in what some called the worst human-made environmental disaster of our lifetimes. A total of 25,409 pipes have been excavated in the water pipeline work, with 15,526 discovered to be copper lines not needing replacement. The work, funded by $100 million from the federal Water Infrastructure Improvement for the Nation (WIIN) fund, originally was scheduled to be completed by 2019, but “fell behind schedule during the previous administration,” of former Mayor Karen Weaver, and because of the COVID-shutdowns, according to the city’s press release. Weaver was defeated in 2019 by Sheldon Neeley. See the full article. |
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