Syracuse officials outline 2,700-home lead service-line replacement plan, debate one-year third‑party testing contract

Syracuse City water officials on Monday described a phased plan to inventory and replace lead service lines and proposed a one‑year contract with an outside sampling firm to meet state and EPA testing deadlines.

The city’s water commissioner told council members the city “has about 14,000 known lead service lines” and that, because many service lines are unclassified, the total could be “up to 30,000.” The commissioner said replacing all privately owned service lines citywide could cost “about $300,000,000” in a worst‑case scenario. To begin, the city is targeting 2,700 homes for replacement using a mix of a Department of Health grant and a proposed $25 million bond.

Why it matters: Lead service‑line inventories and testing trigger state and federal sampling requirements and can lead to large capital programs. Council members raised concerns about speed, community trust and contracting: several questioned why the administration planned to waive a competitive request‑for‑proposals (RFP) and hire a single vendor for sampling rather than run a competitive process now.

City presentation and…