Lake County to replace single identified lead service line after state inventory

Lake County Public Works Director Austin McFarland told the Public Works and Transportation Committee on Oct. 8 that a year-old inventory of the county’s water service lines identified one lead service line and that staff recommends replacing it at county expense to meet state and federal monitoring requirements.

McFarland, the director for Lake County Public Works, said the presence of the lead service line triggered an expanded sampling regimen under Illinois and federal rules: instead of the agency’s usual 10 samples every three years, the utility must now collect 20 samples every six months. “At this rate, our costs traditionally has been about $400 a year. At this rate, it will exceed $5,000 a year with the additional monitoring,” McFarland said. He estimated replacement of the single lead service line would cost “approximately $10,000 to $15,000,” and noted the amount could be lower if county crews perform the work.

Why it matters: the expanded monitoring increases operational costs and may reduce the sampling pool if residents opt out. McFarland said operators must collect first-draw morning samples from residents; repeated trips to retrieve samples have frustrated some property owners who asked to be removed from the sampling list. Replacing the line would remove the site from the elevated monitoring pool and be folded into the county’s planned replacement program to be submitted to the state.

Committee members pressed staff on scope and cost. Vice Chair Maine asked whether other lead service lines remain to be found; McFarland said the county completed its inventory and “we do not have another outstanding site.” The committee discussed using county crews to lower contractor costs and the tradeoff that using staff time displaces other work. “I don’t like to use that phrase because our staff gets paid, and then our staff is not doing other work that they could be doing,” Vice Chair Maine said. McFarland acknowledged that staff labor has an opportunity cost and noted the department provided contractor estimates as well.

Committee members also clarified property-rights constraints: the county cannot replace a line on private property without the owner’s consent. McFarland said county staff would require homeowner approval before entering private property for replacement work.

Outcome: Committee members indicated consensus to move forward with the recommendation, pending required homeowner permission. The action was recorded as committee direction rather than a formal recorded vote.