City outlines Lead Safe Columbus program, says replacements free during planned construction

City of Columbus water officials on Tuesday described the Lead Safe Columbus program and how it will affect Hilltop and Franklinton residents, saying the utility expects to replace roughly 50,000 to 60,000 lead and galvanized water service lines across the city and will not charge homeowners for replacements performed during planned city construction.

The program is intended to remove lead and galvanized lines from the system ahead of a federal regulation requiring removal of all service lines by 2037. "We don't see detectable levels of lead in the drinking water," said Emily Eskridge, regulatory compliance manager for the Division of Water for the City of Columbus, adding, "We're replacing them because it's time to remove the risk from the system and it's time for us to move forward as part of a federal and a citywide program to take all the lead pipes out." Eskridge said the city also treats water with corrosion control and partners with Columbus Public Health to verify cases of elevated childhood blood lead levels.

Why it matters: removing lead and galvanized service lines addresses long-term infrastructure deterioration and reduces future failure risk, city staff said. Officials described a two-part ownership structure for service lines: the public side (from the main to the curb stop) is owned by the utility, while the private side (from the curb stop into the home) is the homeowner's responsibility. Because both…