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Westerly outlines 10-year lead-service replacement plan and sewer capacity modeling
Summary
Town staff told the council it has identified roughly 1,346 system-owned suspect lead services and about 15,000 service lines overall; Department of Health testing triggered expanded monitoring and a 10-year (to 2035) replacement target. Jacobs is under contract to model sewer capacity and staff projected the plant could accommodate roughly 1,600 additional units after upgrades.
Town staff provided a utilities update focused on two related infrastructure challenges: lead service lines and sewer treatment plant capacity.
On lead: the utilities director’s memo explained that town responsibility runs from the water main to the curb stop while the private property owner is responsible for the service from curb stop to the house. The town’s inventory estimates approximately 15,000 services overall; of those the town identified about 1,346 system-owned suspect lead or galvanized services and a larger set of customer-owned services that may include lead. The Department of Health’s sampling program identified exceedances at some test sites, which triggered more frequent monitoring — the town must expand testing to 60 sites twice per year when exceedances occur — and formal notification procedures are underway for affected customers.
Staff said the state has provided a 10-year timeline (to about 2035) to replace all lead services; the town will pursue federal and state funding programs, and where possible will coordinate replacements with repaving and other public-works projects to reduce disruption. Town staff noted some downtown locations and older neighborhoods will require contractor work and likely coordination with the gas company when major street work occurs.
On sewer: Jacobs engineering is under contract to complete a system-wide sewer plan and hydraulic modeling. Town staff said preliminary designs and planned upgrades to the treatment plant are expected to increase capacity sufficiently to accommodate roughly 1,600 additional housing units in the long term, though the exact figure will be confirmed in Jacobs’ final plan. The council was told developers will be required to fund site-specific hydraulic/capacity testing as part of approvals where needed, and ordinance updates may follow once modeling is complete.
Councilors requested written documentation of capacity calculations and clear sequencing to ensure road resurfacing and lead-service replacements are coordinated with other capital projects. Manager and utility staff said they would provide the engineers’ capacity letter and follow up on funding applications for lead-service replacement grants.
