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Morning Journal
See the full article The city of Elyria will receive $922,062 of principal loan forgiveness from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for lead service line (LSL) replacements in over 225 Elyria homes, according to a news release, with the project set to begin this month. About 6.1 million homes across the country receive drinking water through lead service lines (pipes). The Ohio EPA Drinking Water Assistance Fund (DWAF) program directly addresses concerns about lead in drinking water through grant-like principal loan forgiveness. Projects must exhibit a readiness to proceed, have information about LSL locations, and demonstrate authority to address lead lines on private property. “A lot of time and effort went into developing this project and getting these dollars, and includes work from myself, Mayor Whitfield and Director Brubaker, the Water Distribution Department, Law Director Amanda Deery, and Finance Director Ted Pileski,” said Director Samuel F. Jacob in a news release. Maureen Cunningham and Olya Egorov
American City and Country See the full article. “We move Heaven and earth,” says Montana Birt. A transplant from Georgia, Birt is a pastor in a local church in Thorp, Wisc., the smallest of cities with a population of just more than 1,600. His more earthly endeavor, however, involves digging up and replacing lead pipes that threaten to poison his neighbors’ water in Thorp and in Eau Claire, Wisc., about 40 miles west. We met Birt in the course of examining lead service line replacement programs in municipalities across the country. Big cities like Newark, N.J., or Denver often grab the headlines for their programs, but we set out to learn what smaller municipalities with lead pipes are doing to replace them. The problem of lead in drinking water has a clear and viable solution: replace the lead pipes that connect water mains to individual homes and buildings. Unfortunately, the clear solution is muddied by the fact that some of that service line (from the curb to the house) is private, belonging to the individual homeowner or landlord. While removing the full service line is the best way to eliminate the threat of lead in drinking water, most municipalities replace only the publicside of lead pipes, leaving the other half of the problem in the ground. Partial replacement not only fails to address the whole problem, but in the short term, can disturb pipes and thus put homeowners at an even greater health risk. Alternatively, municipalities that require full lead service line replacement, but leave the onus on homeowners to pay the cost of private-side removal, put an unfair burden on low-income and middle-income communities who simply cannot afford it. This can also result in inequitable replacement across a municipality, in particular along racial and economic lines, according to an investigation of Washington, D.C.’s lead service line replacement. Akron.com
See the full article. The City of Akron is continuing the Lead Service Line Replacement Program this year to reduce the number of homes still connected to lead services. According to city officials, for 2021 and 2022, Akron was awarded $1 million in funding for each year from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through a Water Supply Revolving Loan Account loan. These funds do not need to be paid back, said officials. “I’m excited to once again offer the lead service line replacement program to Akron residents,” said Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan. “… These funds will help us continue that mission to provide safe, reliable drinking water to our customers.” City officials said records show there are approximately 4,000 lead services remaining in the city’s water distribution system, which make up 4.7 percent of all services. This number has been substantially reduced since the 1950s, when there were upwards of 50,000 lead services in the city. See the full article.
The Daily Northwestern As part of a nationwide project to move away from lead piping, aldermen discussed ways to increase affordability for homeowners looking to replace their lead water service pipes. After the 2014 Flint Water Crisis, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued the Lead and Copper Rule, which will prohibit partial lead service lines after 2024. In coordination with the new regulation, the city is planning to replace all lead portions of the city’s water service line, even with a strained city budget. This year, the city plans to undergo eight separate water main improvement projects which will cost the city a projected $4.5 million. However, the city will only pay for the public portions of the water service lines. Portions on private properties need to be paid at the homeowner’s expense. Currently, Evanston’s Lead Service Replacement Loan Program gives homeowners up to $4,800 in interest free loans to replace lead piping, but the city’s website says the average cost for replacement is about $7,000. WCLO
See the original article. The Janesville Water Utility receives a DNR grant to cover the cost of replacing all of the remaining private lead water service laterals in the City. Janesville Utility Director David Botts says the cost to replace a private lead water service lateral is up to $6000 and the grant will be invaluable to homeowners. Botts says the City is in the process of sending letters to the approximately 260 homes in the City that still have lead water service laterals. WIProud
See the full article. EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says there are more than 200 thousand lead pipes across the state of Wisconsin. The city of Eau Claire has a program that’s helping roughly 900 private water service lines get their lead pipes replaced. The city of Eau Claire has been working with the DNR since 2017 to get funding to remove lead pipes from private property. They have received 800 thousand dollars since then. Now they’re applying for more to help keep this program rolling. Property owners who may have lead pipes fill out an application with the city. If they qualify, the city reimburses the cost of replacement up to 2 thousand dollars. Lane Berg is the Utilities Manager for the city. He hopes people will use this resource. See the full article. CBS Local
Britt Moreno See the full article. DENVER (CBS4) — You might have already seen the construction: 11 neighborhoods in Denver will have crews digging and working on their water pipes in 2021. Crews are replacing thousands of feet of lead pipes as part of a public health initiative to make the drinking water safe. “It has taken years of research, but we have been successful through the pandemic,” says Denver water communication specialist Jose Salas. He tells CBS4’s Britt Moreno that research teams track neighborhoods with a “heavy volume of children.” He says Denver Water targets neighborhoods with schools or daycares nearby — and that’s where they start working on replacing people’s pipes that connect to the main pipe underneath roadways. See the full article. Wired
Sidney Fussell See the full article. MORE THAN SIX years after residents of Flint, Michigan, suffered widespread lead poisoning from their drinking water, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to improve water quality and bolster the city’s economy. But residents still report a type of community PTSD, waiting in long grocery store lines to stock up on bottled water and filters. Media reports Wednesday said former governor Rick Snyder has been charged with neglect of duty for his role in the crisis. Snyder maintains his innocence, but he told Congress in 2016, "Local, state and federal officials—we all failed the families of Flint.” One tool that emerged from the crisis is a form of artificial intelligence that could prevent similar problems in other cities where lead poisoning is a serious concern. BlueConduit, an analytics startup that says it uses predictive modeling to find lead pipes, offered promising results in Flint, but the city’s complex politics ended its use prematurely. Now, four years later and 100 miles away, officials in Toledo, Ohio, facing concerns about lead pipes, want to use the technology. They hope to avoid the problems that surfaced in Flint by expanding community outreach and involvement. The Ohio Department of Health estimates that as many 19,000 children in the state have elevated levels of lead; children in Toledo tested positive for lead poisoning at nearly double the statewide rate, according to a 2016 report from the Toledo Lead Poisoning Prevention Coalition. See the full article. TB News Watch
See the full article. THUNDER BAY – The City of Thunder Bay will offer over $1.3 million in interest-free loans to homeowners, in hopes of speeding the removal of lead water pipes from an estimated 8,700 local homes. City council voted unanimously Monday to approve a program offering loans of up to $3,000 each to help homeowners cover the costs of replacing lead service connections on private property. "We hope people with lead services do take advantage of this," said Coun. Mark Bentz. "It's a golden opportunity to improve your home at no interest cost, which is a good deal." Replacing lead service connections often costs between $2,000 and $4,000, the city has said, though in some cases can be significantly more expensive. The new initiative comes as the city faces a $350-million class-action lawsuit filed by residents over a previous effort to address the lead contamination problem by adding sodium hydroxide to its water supply. See the full article. Argus Press
Sally York See the full article. OWOSSO — The city has adopted a new rule mandating the replacement of lead and galvanized metal water service pipes extending to local properties over the next 20 years, at no charge to residents. In addition, city officials have passed new ordinance language to reflect the high-tech water meters recently installed at properties throughout Owosso. Owosso City Council members approved both moves during a virtual meeting Monday. City Manager Nathan Henne said the service pipe program, mandated by the state through revised lead and copper rules, “reflects the new reality” that the city will no longer split the cost of service line replacement with residents, but cover the whole cost. “Now we will pay half again as much, on the city side, to address this,” Henne said. Revised lead and copper rules under the Michigan Department of Energy, municipalities throughout the state are required to replace private and public property water service lines that are made of lead or galvanized metal, which have been shown to contaminate drinking water. See the full article. |
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May 2021
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