Committee accepts about $21.37 million in grants to expand lead service line replacements

The Climate and Infrastructure Committee on May 14 accepted three project orders from the Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority totaling approximately $21.37 million to reimburse the Water Enterprise Fund and advance the city’s lead service line replacement work.

Chris Larson, senior professional engineer in the Water Treatment and Distribution Services division, told the committee the grants fund both planned replacements and an allowance for leaking galvanized portions of service lines; the department is using prioritization metrics required by state statute that include child-serving facilities, lower-income areas and the federal Social Vulnerability Index.

Larson said the federal and state funding streams that enabled the program in recent years (including IIJA money and later state allocations) both currently expire in 2027. “We are having conversations at the state level,” he said, adding that the city has two years to spend funds received in a project order and could therefore extend on-the-ground work into 2028 if necessary.

Council members pressed staff on outreach and program scale. Larson described the statutory outreach requirements for interior work (four attempts using at least two methods such as letters, door knocks or calls) and said crews will follow up in future project years for households that do not opt in this year. He noted leak-detection tools — acoustic and other technologies — can identify leaks on the private side of service lines and said water bills would not increase to cover leaks that occur outside the meter.

On overall scale, Larson said Minneapolis has about 38,000 lead service lines remaining and estimated replacement costs in the city in the “$350 to $400 million” range. He said the 2037 deadline to remove all lead service lines would require roughly 3,800 replacements per year if the burn rate were constant; the department is currently planning about 1,900 replacements this year (including estimated leakers and proactive lines) and may ramp up if funding allows.

Larson summarized project-area phasing and contractor logistics: the current program uses color-coded packages (blue, brown, green, orange, purple, red, yellow), with a large contractor handling much of the North Side Green Zone work (roughly 1,255 surfaces expected this year). He said replacement work typically progresses block by block and a contractor will generally be on a given block for about a week.

Chair Soren Stevenson called for a voice vote to accept the project orders; the ayes carried.

The committee’s acceptance authorizes staff to appropriate the grant funds to reimburse the Water Enterprise Fund for project costs; staff said they will follow up with additional details on future-year funding and project-area maps as they become available.