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City official says at least 1,500 lead service lines remain; funding and wastewater tradeoffs complicate remediation
Summary
In public Q&A, a city community development official said the city likely needs to replace about 1,500 lead service lines, described the EPA-linked 'Get the Lead Out' inspections and warned that corrosion‑control options (phosphate) would conflict with wastewater phosphate removal requirements and disposal constraints.
A city community development staff member said the municipality likely has “probably at least 1,500 lead lines if not more” and outlined the practical and financial challenges of replacing service lines.
The official described three remediation options discussed nationally: add phosphate corrosion control to coat lead pipes, soften water, or remove lead service lines entirely. They warned that adding phosphate to drinking water complicates wastewater treatment because sewers and treatment plants must remove phosphates before discharge. “If we add this phosphate that would coat the lead lines, then that is a reverse drift of what the wastewater wants to do because that’s adding more. We don’t want phosphates in our sewer,” the presenter said.
Why it matters: replacing or remediating lead service lines is costly and directly affects public health and rates. The presenter said federal and state funding sources exist (they referenced state revolving loans), but that funds are not free and often carry interest. The city has been working with an EPA‑linked program (named in the talk as GLOW, an outreach/inspection effort) that has been identifying lead lines in the community and conducting field checks; the presenter said every line checked by that program so far has been lead.
Testing and timing: the utility conducts 20–30 lead and copper samples annually at randomly selected homes; the presenter said only one sample historically retested above the limit and later came back fine. The official added that downtown streetwork presents an opportunity to replace all service lines there because virtually every downtown service is a lead line. No firm replacement schedule or funding authorization was announced during the meeting.
The presenter noted the distributional tradeoffs: replacing lead lines would likely increase rates or require outside funding, and some corrosion‑control strategies could raise wastewater treatment costs and disposal difficulties. The city is continuing inspections and planning but did not set a timetable for large‑scale replacement.
