Marshfield Utilities touts low outage times, notes PFOS treatment and lead-service work

Nicholas Kung, general manager of Marshfield Utilities, presented the utility’s annual "value of the utility" report to the City of Marshfield Common Council on May 20, outlining reliability, capital projects and customer programs.

Kung told the council the utility recorded 228 outages in 2024 and an average outage duration of 16 minutes per customer, which he contrasted with a U.S. average of 149 minutes. He said, "We're committed to maintaining this high level of reliability by investing in our system, such as underground conversions, proactively tree trimming, and equipment hardening to help keep the lights on for our customers."

Nut graf: The presentation emphasized reliability metrics, customer assistance programs funded through a state-required public-benefits charge, capital investments and ongoing work on water quality and lead-service replacements.

Kung told the council each monthly electric bill contains a public-benefits charge required by the state to support programs such as Focus on Energy and the Energy Assistance Program; he said customers collectively accessed more than $240,000 in Focus on Energy incentives and roughly $158,000 from the energy assistance program. He said the utility provided nearly $5 million in local vendor spending in 2024 and that the utility reached about 1,200 students through educational outreach.

On water and treatment, Kung said Marshfield supplies "just under 2,000,000 gallons of water" per day and produced nearly three-quarters of a billion gallons in total last year. He reported 24 main breaks in 2024, down from an average of about 36, and said the utility is reinvesting between $500,000 and $1 million annually in water-main infrastructure.

Kung described ongoing lead-service-line replacement work, saying the utility has just under 600 public-side replacements and 92 private-side replacements completed or on the list; he told the council the commission has directed staff to pursue replacement within three years where feasible and that he would seek approvals tied to federal funds to support private-side work in coming weeks.

Kung also noted the presence of PFOS in the city’s water supply, saying that treatment systems were required to address it and that those systems add cost. He highlighted ongoing projects for LED streetlight conversions (47% complete), a new outage map on the utility website and other customer tools.

Alderman Spiros praised the utility’s low turnover and quick restoration times during a brief council exchange.

Ending: The presentation was informational. Kung said he expects to return to the council in coming weeks with items related to federal funding for private-side lead-service replacements.